"I received, about nine o'clock Saturday night, your telegraph dispatch, which I have this moment answered, 'I cannot accept.' I have quite a large family, and when I resigned my place in Louisiana, on account of secession, I had no time to lose; and, therefore, after my hasty visit to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I came to St. Louis, have accepted a place in this company, have rented a house, and incurred other obligations, so that I am not at liberty to change. I thank you for the compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I wish the Administration all success in its almost impossible task of governing this distracted and anarchical people." This letter gave great offence at Washington, and some members of the Cabinet prophesied that Sherman would join the secessionists. Another attempt, however, was soon made to secure his services for the Government, this time personally by Frank Blair. Blair asked Sherman to come to his house one night, and there told him that the Government had determined to relieve General Harney, who then commanded the Military Department of Missouri, and that a change would soon be made. "It is in my power," said Blair, "to appoint a Brigadier-General to command the Department, and if you will take the place you shall have it." Sherman replied that he had already, while in Washington, offered his services to the Government, and that they had been declined; he had now made business engagements which he could not readily break; and that while the offer was complimentary and tempting, he must decline it. Blair argued the point with him for some time, but to no avail, and soon thereafter Nathaniel Lyon was appointed to the place. The attack upon Fort Sumter by the Charleston insurgents at last startled the North, although even then not many seemed to realize the magnitude of the struggle that had begun. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three months, thinking this force would be sufficient to suppress the rebellion. But Sherman regarded this movement with contempt. "You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt gun," he exclaimed, indignantly. And again, "You want to organize the whole military power of the North at once for a desperate struggle." A little later, at Washington, talking with Murat Halstead, the editor of _The Cincinnati Commercial_, he said: "You don't know anything about this people. Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, the very women of this city would cut the throats of our wounded with case knives." So while Sherman's loyalty was doubted by some, others began to regard him as an alarmist. The call of patriotism presently become louder and more urgent than the demands of business, and on May 8th Sherman wrote as follows to Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: