Beschreibung:

CIVIL WAR RECONSTRUCTION]. SHERMAN, William Tecumseh. Eight autograph letters signed ("W.T. Sherman"), TO MAJOR GENERAL E.O.C. ORD, Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo., (one with ink heading, Lancaster Ohio), 9 July 1865 to 16 March 1867, one n.d.. Together 23 pages, 8vo and 4to, all but one on printed stationery, one in pencil, wrapper in Ord's hand, several with Ord's endorsements. PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS AND MISSISSIPPI A fine series of very long, very candid letters to an old friend and subordinate, particularly dealing with issues related to the military government of the former Confederate states of Mississippi and Arkansas which Ord commanded as military governor, in the crucial years just after the end of the Civil War. A few selections from this extensive unpublished correspondence: 22 February 1867: "...General Grant has answered me emphatically that he cannot give me more troops. And balancing all the calls from...Montana and the Great Plains I would not think of drawing troops from them for Arkansas. Even if I knew that you were drifting to an actual outbreak, because I don't see how we are to avoid war with some 10,000 Sioux, and half as many Cheyennes & Arapahoes..." When an Act in Congress becomes law, he adds, Ord "can throw off on [Gen. W.S.] Hancock the Indian Territory." If he were in Ord's shoes, he advises, "you can't prevent all crime & disorder where prejudice is so rife." He concludes that he would need 10 or 12,000 cavalry to patrol "Colorado...and Utah, where there is every effort to kindle a war on the subject of polygamy, and New Mexico will not be content with less than half the regular army." In short, "I have made a fair division & won't change it..." 12 March 1867: "...In case you become military Governor of Mississippi & Arkansas Grant and the President unable to help you with money, men, orders or advice, the Press[?] pitching into you as a tyrant, satrap & monster, & Congress holding you officially & personally responsible for every row in which a darkey gets worsted, you will wish you were back at Detroit, California or some other Post..." Hancock is ready to open a campaign against the Indians, and Sherman will order him "not to stop at lines or boundaries if he has to strike them, but the Indians are like white folks. When we are for a fight they are gentle as lambs..." 16 March 1867: Instructing Ord that his new command "will be exceedingly vexatious...You will have all sorts of enemies round you and Congress ready to take off your head if you do more than a man can...I know Grant would not favor a change nor would they consent. Rather pitch in, do your best. Get Arkansas admitted [readmitted to the Union], & Mississippi -- and then we can leave them to work out the problems..." 22 November 1865: "...Grant is fully aware of the tendencies of Bureaucracy and will in his own quiet way work out the solution. I think Congress will leave to him to say how many men he needs to compose the regular Army and will do pretty much as he wants..." 18 February 1867: "...I am clear of opinion that you should not scatter your small force too much, but do all that is possible to influence the better class of Rebels... to maintain the best order the case will admit of and await the slower action of time. With the elements of disorder & discord all over our Continent our small army has its hands full. In Minnesota & Dakcotah [ sic ] the Indian scouts have long been used without any particular organization, thus a few are put at each post, armed & mounted..." 31 October 1867: "...I hope the worst is past what with Indians, Negroes &c &c & ex Rebels all seem doomed during one life time to constant war. Like the eel we must get used to it...." (8)