Wednesday, January 29, 1862.Washington, DC. | Lincoln meets
with Ellen Sherman, the wife of General William T. Sherman, and with her father
Thomas Ewing, a former United States Senator from Ohio. Some in the press
speculate that General Sherman is insane. Ellen Sherman acknowledges to Lincoln
that her husband is "in low spirits and in poor health," but she writes to
General Sherman that she asked the President "if he thought you insane when in
command at Fort Corcoran. I told him you were no more so now. That I had known
you since you were ten years old and you were the Same now that you had always
been." Ellen Sherman believes that some of her husband's superiors, including
Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas and former Secretary of War Simon Cameron, have
not been supportive of Sherman. She writes him, "I told him you had enemies
among your fellow Generals & that the newspaper correspondants were mere
tools. . . . I told him that Adj. Genl. Thomas and Mr Cameron were inimical to you
& that they had placed you in a false light to him." Ellen Sherman states
that she wanted to meet with Lincoln "to say a word against those who had
conspired against you &c & in vindication of your name." She notes that
Lincoln "seemed very anxious that we should believe that he felt kindly towards
you." She adds, "The President is very friendly to you." Ellen Ewing
Sherman to William T. Sherman, 29 January 1862, William T. Sherman Family
Papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame, IN. |