Diary of Orrin Brown, Savannah, Georgia
Tuesday–Jan. 24th
The weather is a little cooler today. I wrote a letter to Mr. Moore folks today we had dress parade again this PM but the smoke hurt my eyes so that I could not go out. I read 6 Chapt. in the Testament today.
In 1859, William Sherman became the first superintendent of the new Louisiana Military Seminary, which would one-day become Louisiana State University (LSU). Sherman thrived back in a military environment, but seemed to have been blind to the growing Southern surge of secessionism, the very reason for his “seminary” to exist. Sherman resigned after the State of Louisiana seceded from the Union in 1861, and returned home to Ohio.
In March, he found himself back in Washington, DC, in conference with newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln thanks to Sherman’s younger brother, John Sherman (1823-1900), who had been appointed to the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Ohio. While nothing came of this meeting, Lincoln remained positively disposed to Sherman throughout the coming conflict. (John Sherman went on to serve as US Secretary of the Treasury for President Rutherford B. Hayes and then US Secretary of State under President William McKinley.)
Meanwhile, Sherman retreated to St. Louis, as the state of Missouri (as the larger Union overall) prepared to tear itself apart North vs. South. By June, he was back in Washington in command of the 13th U.S. Infantry.
On another note, Orrin’s description today “the smoke hurt my eyes so that I could not go out” strikes me as odd. Maybe he was getting sick–sanitation was not the best in army camps of the time. Or this may be a preview of his later malady which would eventually send him to hospital.
Read More:
- John Sherman: American Statesmen Series by Theodore E. Burton (Kessinger Publishing reprints, 2010)
- Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O’Connell (Random House, 2014)
- The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns by Joseph T. Glatthaar (New York University Press, 1985)
- The Memoirs Of General William T. Sherman by W.T. Sherman (Library of America, 1990)
(As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Check your local library or bookshop, too.)
.
1 Comment