the sixth child of Charles R. and Mary Sherman, both natives of Connecticut, but who migrated to Ohio in 1811. My father was judge of the supreme court of Ohio at the time of his death at Lebanon, Ohio, in 1829. I went to West Point in 1836, graduated No. 6 in the class of 1840, and was commissioned second lieutenant Third Artillery; served in Florida the winters of 1840 and 1841 in Companies A and G; with the latter was ordered to Mobile in March, 1841, and soon after the company was sent to Fort Moultrie and remained there until 1846; was sent on recruiting service to Pittsburg, and in July same year was transferred to Company F, Captain Tompkins, and sent to California in the U. S. Steamship Lexington; reached Monterey, Cal., January, 1847, and served there with that company and afterward as General Mason's adjutant-general until after the wr, when on the arrival of General Persifor F. Smith was taken as his adjutant-general to San Francisco. I remained on his staff till January, 1850, when I was ordered to Washington Cith with dispatches. Was appointed as commissary of subsistence that year, and stationed at Saint Louis till 1851, when I was ordered to New Orleans. That winter certain parties at Saint Louis offered me very fair terms to go to San Francisco to manage a bank, and my army pay being inadequate to my support, I got a leave of absence, went to San Francisco, returned, and resigned. Moved my family to California, where we resided till 1857, when the interests of my partners called me to New York and finally to a discontinuance of the business. I first went to Leavenworth and engaged in business, but soon after was named superintendent of the Louisiana Military Academy; I went to Alexandria, organized the institution, and put it in successful operation; but the seed of this unnatural war began to bear fruit; the State seceded in January, 1861, and the national arsenal was taken possession of by State troops, the arms were scattered, and some sent to me to guard. I then saw that war and anarchy were upon us and determined to leave.

My letter of resignation was public. I have no copy, but Mrs. W. T. Sherman, Lancaster, Ohio, has a copy, and to show my status there it should enter into any biography of mine to show how I received matters then from that stand-point. Giving my employers thirty days to replace me, and no successor being appointed, I turned over all business to the proper officers, went to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, settled carefully all cash accounts which I had with the Sate, and left the South, I think with the respect and affection of all with whom I had been associated. Reaching my family in Ohio, I was invited by my brother, John Sherman, to go to Washington, which I did, but confess I was saddly disappointed to find as I thought, the little appreciation of the terrible future that awatied us. I declined all offers of assistance, and anxious to earn an honest living for my family, I resorted to my old banking friends who had always offered to help me. I promptly received an office of moderate salary - theh presidency of a street railroad - moved my family there, and resolved to keep allof from the complications of events that seemed to bode no good. I was in that capacity in Saint Louis in May and June, declining an offer made me in the militia by Hon. Frank P. Blair, and subsequently of a post in Washington as Assistant Secretary of War. Whatever others may think, I do honestly believe that the politicians of that day did not make up the issue for war fairly. I know that the people of the South did not expect war. They has been cajoled into the belief that the excitement of the day was of the same nature and kind which had