I had a salute of one hundred guns from each of the armies here fired in honor of Sheridan's last victory. Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory, stamps Sheridan _what I always thought him, one of the ablest of generals_. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." The extraordinary series of popular ovations which have attended Sheridan's recent tour through part of the North, have proved that he is profoundly admired, honored and loved by all good citizens; and unless we except Grant, probably Sheridan is the most popular--and deservedly the most popular--of all the commanders in the war. Such a popularity, and won not by words but by deeds, is an enviable possession. [Illustration: W. T. Sherman] CHAPTER XIV. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. The Result of Eastern Blood and Western Developments--Lincoln, Grant, Chase and Sherman Specimens of it--The Sherman Family Character--Hon. Thomas Ewing adopts Sherman--Character of the Boy--He Enters West Point--His Peculiar Traits Showing thus Early--How he Treated his "Pleb"--His Early Military Service-- His Appearance as First Lieutenant--Marries and Resigns--Banker at San Francisco--Superintendent of Louisiana Military Academy --His Noble Letter Resigning the Superintendency--He Foresees a Great War--Cameron and Lincoln Think not--Sherman at Bull Run --He Goes to Kentucky--Wants Two Hundred Thousand Troops--The False Report of his Insanity--Joins Grant; His Services at Shiloh --Services in the Vicksburg Campaigns--Endurance of Sherman and his Army--Sherman's estimate of Grant--How to live on the enemy--Prepares to move from Atlanta--The Great March--His Courtesy to the Colored People--His Foresight in War--Sherman on Office-Holding. Many men of a very lofty grade of power and excellence have arisen in our country, among a class who may be described as of Eastern blood but Western development. They have themselves been born at the East, or else their parents had either lived there or had been trained in the ways of the East. Then, growing up in the freer atmosphere, the more spontaneous life, the larger scale of being, of the West, they have as it were, themselves enlarged in mind, and have seemingly become better fitted to cope with vast executive problems. Thus, President Lincoln was of Eastern Quaker blood; General Grant, of Connecticut blood; Secretary Chase, of New Hampshire blood; General Sherman, of Connecticut blood; but they were all either of Western birth or else trained up in Western habits of thought, sentiment and action. The West is larger, stronger, freer, than the East, and it affords a better opportunity for great, spontaneous and powerful men.