In the fall of 1849 his friend Warner was surveying Feather River and its source, Goose Lake. While engaged in that work he was murdered by Indians, and Sherman was much shocked and grieved at the loss. It was impossible at that time to punish his murderers, and it was not until the next Spring that his scattered bones were found and buried. Sherman now became anxious to return to the East, chiefly, it is surmised, on account of his old playmate at Lancaster. Accordingly, he induced General Smith to send him home with dispatches. In January, 1850, he went down to Monterey to bid his friends there good-bye, and then took passage on a steamer for Panama. There they crossed the Isthmus, partly on mule-back and partly in a canoe. Thence they made their way to New York by steamer. Senator Gwin, Ord and A. J. Smith were members of the party, and Sherman brought along two Spanish boys from Monterey to put into college at Georgetown, D. C. Sherman's party on reaching New York put up at Delmonico's Hotel, on Bowling Green. The next day Sherman went to General Scott's office and delivered General Smith's dispatches, and was "ordered" (not invited) to dine with him the next day. At the dinner General Scott entertained his guests with stories of the Mexican war. Sherman felt deeply the fact that the country had passed through a foreign war and that his comrades had participated in great battles, while he himself had not even heard a hostile shot. He thought that his last chance was gone and his career as a soldier at an end. But Scott startled him with the prophecy that the country would soon be plunged into a terrific civil war. After a few days in New York, General Scott sent him on to Washington. Mr. Ewing was then Secretary of the Interior, and Sherman, of course, became a member of his family. Sherman soon went to call on President Taylor at the White House. He had never seen him before, though he had served under him in Florida in 1840-41. He had a long and very pleasant chat with him, and was, he says, most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners. As soon as possible Sherman obtained six months' leave of absence. He visited his mother at Mansfield, Ohio, and then returned to Washington. There, on May 1st, 1850, he was married to his first and only love, Ellen Boyle Ewing. The ceremony occurred at the house of Mr. Ewing, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opposite the War Department building. A large and distinguished company attended, including President Taylor and all the members of his Cabinet, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, and many other prominent statesmen. The young couple made a wedding journey to Baltimore, New York, Niagara Falls and Ohio, returning to Washington on July 1st.