Beschreibung:

SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH, General . Autograph letter signed ("W.T. Sherman, Maj. G. Vols.") as Major General, TO MAJOR GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, "Camp on Big Black" [east of Vicksburg, Miss.], 15 August 1863. 1 page, 4to, on lined stationery, nearly imperceptible light browning at center . SHERMAN TO GRANT, ACCEPTING HIS ARMY COMMISSION: "I KNOW THAT I OWE THIS TO YOU" An exceptional letter, written a little more than a month after the grueling Vicksburg campaign culminated in the surrender of the Confederate stronghold. Although Sherman had played a critical role as Grant's subordinate at Shiloh, Corinth, Missionary Ridge and Vicksburg, Sherman only held the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers. In June, Grant had recommended to General Halleck that Sherman be appointed Brigadier General in the regular army; President Lincoln approved the promotion on 4 July. Sherman writes: "I had the satisfaction to receive last night the appointment as Brig Genl in the Regular Army, with a letter from Gen[era]l [Henry Wagner] Halleck, very friendly and complimentary in its terms. I know that I owe this to you, and beg to acknowledge it, and to add that I value the commission far less than the fact that this will associate my name with yours and [General James Birdseye] McPherson's in opening the Mississippi, an achievement the importance of which cannot be overestimated. I beg to assure you of my deep personal attachment, and to express the hope that the chains of war will leave me to serve near and under you till the dawn of that peace, for which we are contending with the only purpose that it be honorable and lasting..." "Sherman joined Grant's command just before Shiloh, and their acquaintance grew into a comfortable friendship based on trust...and fostered by Sherman's never-failing public recognition that Grant was his superior" (McFeely, Grant , p. 118), and it was the younger man who talked Grant out of his plan to relinquish his command at Corinth in June 1862, "a critical turning point in the lives of both men, and perhaps in the Civil War" ( ibid , p. 119).