The first time I saw General Sherman was at Rome, Georgia, during the Civil war. I was in the field hospital there at that time and was in the dispensary one day when my attention was called to some military procession on the street. It turned out to be only General Sherman and his staff, the general riding alone in front, his orderly a few yards behind, and a few yards farther back the general staff officers. The procession, if it could be so called, impressed me; first the isolated position of the commanding officer. I thought of pictures I had seen of Napoleon, always alone, and while I could not see the general's face to advantage, for he looked neither to the right or left, I thought him a stern, unbending, self-centered, iron-hearted military despot, without sentiment or generous impulse. I saw him often thereafter, for I was with his command from "Atlanta to the Sea" and up through the Carolinas, and he was always alone on horse-back and in the order mentioned. I never saw him in company with anybody. I had occasion to change my impression regarding him somewhat at the battle of Bentonville. We had marched all night to reach the battlefield in time to take part in the engagement, and arrived on the ground early in the afternoon. As it happened, we stopped near the general's headquarters. The battle was in progress and as we could not go into the trenches until night, I had a good opportunity of observing him during the afternoon. He was walking back and forth along a space of ground a hundred feet or more in extent and when there was a lull in the firing he would slow up to a very moderate walk, but when it became heavy his pace would increase and when it became a roar, as it did several times in the afternoon, he would go at great strides back and forth, back and forth, until it would again quiet down, when he would slow up in harmony with the lull in the battle. From this I learned that he was at least impressionable. Officers would arrive from different parts of the field and report, and instantly receive orders and return at full speed as they came.