Letters of Two Brothers: Passages from the Correspondence of General and Senator Sherman

Letters of Two Brothers: Passages from the Correspondence of General and Senator Sherman Review

These poignant and revealing letters between General William Tecumseh Sherman and his brother, Senator John Sherman were edited by William T. Sherman's daughter, Rachel Ewing Sherman. In her introduction to the letters, she wrote:

"After General Sherman’s death the desire to know what use was to be made of his papers was expressed so promptly, and with such evident sincerity, that I was led to undertake their arrangement for publication. Early in the work I found a series of letters which at once awoke my deepest interest, and which proved to be a correspondence between General Sherman and his brother John, during more than fifty years.

These letters, exchanged by men of such eminence, and many of them written during the most stirring times of our country’s history, seem to me a unique collection. They make a correspondence complete in itself, are of great historical value, and the expressions of opinion which they contain are very freely made, and give an excellent idea of the intellectual sympathy existing between the brothers. Their temperaments and dispositions were so unlike, and their paths in life led in such different ways, that they naturally looked upon the great events of the day from widely different points of view. Still they never failed to feel and show for each other the greatest love and devotion as well as respect.

In publishing these letters, my chief desire has been to let them speak for themselves, and to put them in such form that they may easily be understood. I feel sure that they will command general interest, and be accorded that ready sympathy which was so freely and lovingly expressed at the time of General Sherman’s death.