Sold – One of the Civil War’s Most Consequential Letters: Sherman Chooses Sides
He foresees (even demands) a war of total destruction, a prediction he helped come true .
As the newer states of the Old South grew and prospered in the years after statehood, a demand arose in them for increased learning and professionalization, and this naturally led to establishment of schools, institutes and colleges, particularly in the military, legal and medical fields. Louisiana was one of those states....
As the newer states of the Old South grew and prospered in the years after statehood, a demand arose in them for increased learning and professionalization, and this naturally led to establishment of schools, institutes and colleges, particularly in the military, legal and medical fields. Louisiana was one of those states. The Medical College of Louisiana was founded in 1834, and the Tulane University Law School was opened in 1847. In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly passed legislation creating the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana. The principle promoter of the project, Gen. George Mason Graham was named president of its board of trustees, and he gave land on his own cotton plantation for the school to be built. Though Federal trust funds would pay for the school, it was set up as a state institution of higher education. From the start it was designed to provide military education.
To increase the success of their professional niche and their specialized knowledge, every military institution like the new one just chartered in Louisiana attempted to secure at least one graduate of West Point or Virginia Military Institute (the pace-setting southern school) to add prestige and legitimate the martial side of the education equation. Francis Smith, head of VMI, recommended Graham six VMI graduates to teach in Louisiana, and Graham hired one of them. Graham’s attention then turned to finding a superintendant to be the institute’s first. The position was advertised, and Gen. Don Carlos Buell cut out the ad and sent it to Sherman with a suggestion that he apply. Sherman’s application, with great future irony, gave as references future Confederate Generals G.T. Beauregard and Braxton Bragg. Graham’s half-brother was Col. R.B. Mason, American commander in California after the Mexican cession, and the man who filed the official report that gold had been discovered in that new territory. Sherman had served under Mason in California, and Mason strongly recommended Sherman to his brother Graham. So Graham selected Sherman, an 1840 West Point graduate and presently a major, and on August 2, 1859, Sherman was elected by the board of trustees as superintendant and professor of engineering.
In November 1859, the institution’s main building was completed, and on January 1, 1860, the school opened with 5 professors and 19 cadets. In March 1860, its name was changed to Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, and the proud state’s general assembly allowed for as many as 150 cadets, with scholarships for boarding expenses. The total number of cadets eventually reached 73. The institute’s first term went well, with Sherman liking his position and working with Graham all the while. Sherman spent the 1860 summer vacation at home to Ohio.
Upon returning for the second term in the fall of 1860, Sherman was surprised to find the people of Louisiana in a disturbed state of mind over the political situation. He himself thought secession a bad idea promulgated by hotheads, but he was not against slavery. He kept aloof from politics and hoped the storm would blow over. However, in November Abraham Lincoln was elected President; Sherman later wrote, “The election of Mr. Lincoln fell upon us like a clap of thunder.” But by December 15, he wrote his wife that he had little doubt that “Louisiana will quit the Union” in January, and that he would not stay in his job if that proved true. Just a few days later he wrote her more urgently, reaffirming that he would not remain in Louisiana and castigating the Buchanan Administration for failing to reinforce Major Anderson in Charleston harbor. Sherman had mentioned his concerns and general sentiments to a few Louisianans, including Governor Thomas O. Moore. But by Christmas Sherman had come to believe that a definitive written communication to his institution of his specific intentions was necessary. At this time there were many military men from the north serving in the south and vice versa, and some of them stayed with their adopted rather than native regions (like Virginia’s George Thomas who went north and Philadelphia’s John Pemberton who stayed south), so decisions like this were anything but forgone conclusions.
This is Sherman’s original letter to Graham. Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pages, Seminary, “Christmas 1860,” with the autograph envelope still present. After discussion of arms and ammunition, Sherman defines his position: “As long as Louisiana is in the Union, and I occupy this post, I will serve her faithfully against internal and external enemies. But if Louisiana separates from the General Govt., that instant I stop – I will do no act, breath no words, think no thoughts hostile to the Government of the United States. Weak as it is, it is the only semblance of strength & justice on this Continent, as compared with which the State Governments are weak and trifling. If Louisiana joins in this unhallowed movement to dismember our old Government, how long will it be till her parishes and people insult and deride her?” Sherman then elaborates: “My dear general, we are in the midst of sad times. It is not Slavery – it is a tendency to anarchy everywhere. I have seen it all over America, and our only hope is in Uncle Sam. Weak as that Government is, it is the only approach to one.” He criticizes President Buchanan and predicts (then demands) a coming conflagration, writing, “I do think Buchanan made a fatal mistake. He should have reinforced Anderson, my old captain, at my old post, Fort Moultrie and with steam frigates made Fort Sumter impregnable. This, instead of exciting the Carolinians, would have forced them to pause in their mad career. Fort Sumter with 3,000 men and the command of the seas would have enabled the Government to execute the revenue laws, and to have held South Carolina in check till reason could resume its sway. Whereas now I fear they have a comtempt for Uncle Sam and will sacrifice Anderson. Let them hurt a hair of his head in the execution of his duty, and I say Charleston must be blotted from existence. Twill arouse a storm to which the slavery question will be as nothing, else I mistake the character of our people.” He notes he has “countermanded my orders for Mrs. Sherman to come south as I feel that my stay here is drawing to a close.” He then concludes, “Still I will not act [resign] till I conceive I must and should, and will do all that a man ought to allow time for a successor…” The letter is in a green linen portfolio with a green morocco spine label. It is the very letter that appears in the book “Sherman As College President” by Walter Fleming, and is shown as Sherman’s first letter to Graham on the subject of the impending war and own his intentions in the chapter entitled “The Coming of Secession.”
Graham responded on January 4, 1861, saying he had expected that Sherman would so choose, and expressing that this letter had added to a “flame of sad thoughts with which I am now constantly oppressed.” He was against secession but stated that it was inevitable, and that perfectly rational people who agreed with him just weeks ago were now demanding to leave the Union. On January 18 Sherman resigned, and soon after Governor Moore wrote him to express regret over losing his services, a regret other southerners would share in years soon to come.
In April 1861, large numbers of the students and faculty of Graham’s college began resigning in order to enlist in the Confederate military. Sherman went on to play a key role in crushing the Confederacy, and his men lit the torch that destroyed the Charleston he here demanded must be blotted out. And as for the embrionic Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, it changed its name to the Louisiana State University (LSU), and now consists of more than 250 buildings, has 5,000 staff and faculty, and educates 25,000 students every year.
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