Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
SHERMAN, William (1820-1891) was a U.S. Civil War Union Army leader known for "Sherman's March," in which he and his troops laid waste to the South. War-date Autograph Letter Signed “W.T. Sherman Maj. Genl. Comdg.” 1pp. quarto, Head Quarters 5th Division, Memphis, Tennessee, August 13, 1862, addressed to General McPherson, it reads in part: “...Your letter of August 6 is received and I have dispatched a party of forty cavalry to Germantown to examine unto the condition of that Locomotive prior to sending out a working party to recover it & bringing it in. I have also designated one of my staff Major Sawyer, familiar with Rail Roads to enquire into the situation of affairs connected with the railroad here and to report in writing when I will communicate to you ...I find a good many hangers on who claim to be some way or other connected with these Roads. I will ascertain their names & authority & presume all who claim to be in service must be directly employed by you or by some superintendent appointed to you, with specific written authority...” Fine condition. General William Sherman was the military governor of Memphis when he wrote this letter to McPherson, who would be killed at the Battle of Atlanta in 1863, the second highest ranking Union officer killed during the war and the only commander of a Union army to die in the field. Here Sherman refers to Germantown, Tennessee, and the Memphis-Charleston Railroad, which General Robert E. Lee called “the vertebrae of the Confederacy.” The railroad came under the control of the Union forces in April 1862, when General O.M. Mitchell took the raild yards at Huntsville, Alabama. In October, Sherman would be ordered to march eastward from Memphis with his 20,000 men, repairing the Memphis & Charleston RR as tehy traveled. Despite Confederate attempts at retaking the line, the South would be deprived of this crucial east-west rail route for the duration of the war.
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