Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
"MY DEAR FRIEND: I cannot sleep to-night till I record an expression of
the deep feelings of my heart to you and to the officers and soldiers
of the battalion for their kind behavior to my poor child. I realize
that you all feel for my family the attachment of kindred, and I assure
you of full reciprocity.
"Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and office, I could
not leave my post, and sent for the family to come to me in this fatal
climate and in that sickly period of the year, and behold the result.
The child that bore my name and in whose future I reposed with more
confidence than I did in my own plan of life now lies a mere corpse,
seeking a grave in a distant land, with a weeping mother, brother and
sisters clustered about him. For myself I ask no sympathy. On, on I
must go to meet a soldier's fate or live to see our country rise
superior to all factions, till its flag is adored and respected by
ourselves and by all the powers of the earth.
"But Willie was, or thought he was, a sergeant in the Thirteenth. I
have seen his eye brighten, his heart beat, as he beheld the battalion
under arms, and asked me if they were not real soldiers. Child as he
was, he had the enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor and love of
country which should animate all soldiers.
"God only knows why he should die thus young. He is dead, but will not
be forgotten till those who knew him in life have followed him to that
same mysterious end.
"Please convey to the battalion my heartfelt thanks and assure each and
all that if in after years they call on me or mine and mention that
they were of the Thirteenth Regulars when Willie was a sergeant they
will have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it
has; that we will share with them our last blanket, our last crust."
Willie Sherman's remains were afterward removed from Memphis and
interred at St. Louis, in Calvary Cemetery, by the side of another son,
Charles, who died in infancy, in 1864. In the same plot the body of
Mrs. Sherman was placed at her death, to be followed soon by the dust
of the great soldier himself.
Mrs. Sherman died in New York on November 28, 1888, after a long
illness. After her burial at St. Louis, General Sherman wrote a brief
note to the editor of _The New York Tribune_, saying:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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