Harper’s Weekly – December 25, 1858

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | December 25, 1858

[Tax-chick]

How discouraging for all of them. Very much like the unfortunate situation of the Grants at this period. The Lees were struggling with debt and separation, too.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Lee at least had a guaranteed income as a U.S. Army officer. Grant and Sherman seem not to have been cut out for civilian life. At least during the current phases of their adulthood.

[rdl6989]

I got this Sherman biography for Christmas.

[henkster]

Not only were Grant and Sherman not cut out for civilian life, at this time if you were to compile a list of general officers who would probably lead the Union Army (even with the assumption the southern officers would defect), Grant and Sherman would not make the list.

[M Kehoe]

Good afternoon.

I hope your holiday was Merry.

Back then naming your son after an Indian chief took cajones. Kinda like naming your boy, “Sue.”

5.56mm

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I don’t know who would be on that list. The three I thought might be frontrunners - Halleck, Fremont and McClellan - all resigned from the army before 1858 and didn’t return to the service until the war started. No wonder Lee was the first choice of the War Dept to be commander in chief.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thank you. My Christmas was sufficiently merry and sufficiently restful also. I trust yours was the same.

According to the biography I have been excerpting, Sherman's father "deeply admired the Shawnee warrior." Considering Sherman's later experience during the Seminole wars the name is ironic. Sherman was called Tecumseh, or Cump, by his family. William was a baptismal name that was apparently seldom used.

[henkster]

Lee was the obvious choice for both sides, and his conduct during the war showed that he wasn’t overrated. As for the rest, there were a number of officers of mid-grade rank left to the Union. But so many “top” generals were southern, like Lee, Beauregard and Bragg, that the Union had to go second tier for many of their generals. So you wound up with a parade of guys like Halleck, McDowell and Banks. McClellan made his name early in West Virginia, otherwise he was not highly rated going into the war.

For the Union, it really was a matter of Lincoln going through a bunch of guys who couldn’t hack it until he finally wound up with winners like Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

McClellan made his name early in West Virginia, otherwise he was not highly rated going into the war.

I thought Sherman had a higher reputation early on. I read in Grant's bio and memoirs that he tried to get a position on McClellan's staff, waiting for hours in Mac's HQ which was filled with quill-wielding staffers doing very important things. McClellan never showed up to interview Grant.