Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. ShermanByers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
History
Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. Sherman
Byers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
Europe -- Description and travel
“DEAR BYERS: I have received yours of Feb. 8th, and avail myself
of about the last chance to write in reply. It will be some time
before we can possibly approach Zurich from the direction of
Vienna, and I suppose by that time I will be pretty well used
up; yet, if I can do anything to please you, will do my best.
Please say to the gentlemen of Zurich that when I reach Zurich,
the less display of even a volunteer or militia force, the
better; but I will leave it to your own good sense to do what is
best for them, and for me. Maybe it would be better to postpone
all preliminaries till you hear from me at Vienna. We embark
to-morrow for Malta and Alexandria, Egypt, and it will be some
time before we turn up again in the direction of Moscow and St.
Petersburg. Our aim is to cross the Caucasus to the Caspian, to
Astrachan by the Volga, to Nishni, and so on to Moscow; so, you
see, I have a good, long journey yet before me. Meantime, I hope
you will continue well. As ever, your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.”
Again there was a silence till spring. General Sherman did not carry
a newspaper reporter around with him, to report his journeys and his
doings. He was traveling as a private gentleman, seeing, and not being
seen. At least, this was what he wished. He had gone to the far East,
had come back to Constantinople and crossed the Caucasus Mountains. In
May he wrote again from St. Petersburg:
“ST. PETERSBURG, May 30, 1872.
“DEAR BYERS: My party is now reduced to myself and Colonel
Audenried, Fred Grant having gone to Copenhagen to see his
aunt, Mrs. Cramer, who is now on the point of going to America.
I don’t now know whether Grant will rejoin me at Vienna or go
direct to Paris, to see his sister Nellie, and await us there.
At all events, Audenried and I start at noon to-day for Warsaw,
then Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, etc., to Zurich, where we ought to
arrive between the 15th and 20th of June. I prefer much not to
be complicated with private engagements or displays of any kind,
for it takes all my time to see the country, and it is awfully
tiresome to be engaged day and night in receiving and returning
calls. I hope you will appreciate this, and have no preparations
made till we arrive, and then if I can do you any service by
seeing your friends, I will do my best. Truly your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.”
Early in August he and Colonel Audenried were with us in Zurich. No
public demonstration took place on his arrival. It was as he had
wished. We took him out to Bocken, our home on the lake, and had a few
delightful days with him there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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