General Sherman seems to have had a presentiment of his fate some weeks before it actually befell him. One day he said to General C. H. T. Collis, who mentioned Grant's birthday--April 27: "Oh, well, Collis, I'll be dead and buried before then." "I tried hard to cheer him," said General Collis, "and pretended to believe he was joking, but he became serious and added after awhile: 'I feel it coming sometimes when I get home from an entertainment or banquet, especially these winter nights. I feel death reaching out for me, as it were. I suppose I'll take cold some night and go to bed, never to get up again.' The words were prophetic." In accordance with General Sherman's often expressed desire, the body did not lie in state; and the public so respected the grief of the family as not to besiege the house to gaze upon the remains of the hero. General Howard sent over a guard from the army post on Governor's Island, and with General Slocum, by invitation of the family, took charge of the arrangements for the funeral obsequies. The body of the deceased General was placed in a coffin exactly like that in which Mrs. Sherman was buried. The General chose her's himself, and gave express orders that his own should be like it. It was of oak, lined with cream-colored satin, and had silver handles. On a silver plate was the following inscription: WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, GENERAL, U. S. A. Born February 8, 1820. Died February 14, 1891. This coffin was inclosed for the journey to St. Louis in an outer coffin of chestnut wood, brass bound, with a brass plate bearing the same inscription as the inner. The General's body was dressed in the full uniform of his rank. The following "Special Order No. 5" was issued from the headquarters of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Rutland, Vt. "Grand Army of the Republic posts on the route of the funeral train of General Sherman from New York to St. Louis will form at their respective railroad stations and salute remains as train passes." The President and his Cabinet were invited by General Howard to attend the funeral exercises in New York. Committees from both Houses of Congress were appointed to pay their tribute of respect. From the Senate came Messrs. Evarts, Hawley, Manderson, Pierce, Cockrell and Walthall. From the House Speaker Reed appointed Messrs. Cutcheon, Spinola, Cogswell, Cummings, Grosvenor, Kinsey, Tarsney, Henderson, of Illinois, and Outhwaite. A sorrowful meeting of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion was held on Monday, February 16, at which these resolutions were adopted: "In common with the entire country we lament the loss of a great military chieftain whose loyal spirit rightly placed the love of country higher than all earthly obligations, and who was individually a distinct and glorious element in the triumphant struggle of that country for its own survival and for the rights of man.