Ohio History Journal

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THE RELIGION OF WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN       by JACK J. DETZLER         Throughout his adult life William Tecumseh Sherman fought a battle with himself and his family that was far more personally intense and disturbing than any of his epic military campaigns: this conflict was, in a word, a battle for his soul.1 His religious faith and state of grace received frequent discussion within his family circle. An incessant dialogue went on between this God- fearing but nonsectarian husband and his dedicated Roman Catholic wife, Ellen. Through the years Sherman resisted the pressure for religious ortho- doxy, another sign -- if such were needed -- of the strength of character which made him an incomparable military leader during the Civil War. Sherman's attitude toward religion constituted one part of his general view of the way in which an individual should live. He assigned great im- portance to meeting all situations with honesty and truth, a belief he demonstrated in his business and army careers. As a banker he was clean-     NOTES ARE ON PAGES 68-70

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THE RELIGION OF SHERMAN                                             27

 

handed even though he felt himself apart from the times.² Better, he con-

cluded, to lose his money, as he did, than compromise his integrity. During

his army career he met in forthright fashion all decisions requiring truth-

fulness -- as on the occasion he wrote his wife from the camp before Corinth:

"I will not alter one syllable of my official report."³ Sherman was confident

that the honesty of his actions would stand out: in the long run, history

would expose the claims of his opponents.4

Another of Sherman's beliefs was in the duty man owed to his family and

associates. The personal duty appeared in the Sherman family crisis which

erupted when his son Tom joined the Jesuit order. The public duty appeared

in his support of the Union cause, when much of his sympathy lay with

the southern people, among whom he had lived and worked. The army always

had a sentimental call on his sense of obligation.

Sherman believed that one met the demands of life head-on, no matter

how unpleasant. He tackled life as he found it: "I will do the best I can."

In his earliest recorded views he wrote, if with no novelty of expression, of

the need to "grin and bear it," to "stand up manfully, make the best of the

present."⁵ Sherman considered being practical as part of facing life; and

practicality included an inventory of assets, making judgments, proceeding

to action.⁶

He believed in taking the inevitable with humor and was at ease with the

thought of death.⁷ But the grimness of death and the inescapable problems

of daily living were never to obsure the enjoyment of life, as Sherman fre-

quently lectured his wife. The darkness which befalls every life must not

cloud the happiness of the hour. He believed that the nature of human

existence was to challenge individuals by every adversity and that the

balanced, tolerant man would survive.⁸ It seemed to him axiomatic that

"Time makes all things even"⁹ and unthinkable that anyone should hesitate

in stride. A man took his chances.

He believed that inexorable fate ruled much of life.¹⁰ Perhaps this oft-

repeated principle served as the safety valve for his personal, business, and

military problems. Throughout his life he talked of the role of fate. Luck --

the happy face of fate -- he likewise understood. In discouraging moments he

questioned struggling at all against fate: "The antelope runs off as far as

possible but fate brings him back. Again he dashes off in a new direction,

but curiosity or his Fate lures him back, and again off he goes but the

hunter knows he will return and bides his time. So have I made desperate

efforts to escape my doom."11

It is perhaps possible, therefore, to say that Sherman's acceptance of

fate served as the link between his philosophy of life and his sense of religion.

God knew the fate of all men.12 Fate, defined as the will of God, was not

frightening because Sherman possessed faith in the justice of his deity.

The deity Sherman honored held man accountable to no formal doctrines

but governed by universal law of right and justice which no man could alter.13

"I believe," he said, "that God governs this world with all its life, animal,

vegetable, and human, by 'invariable laws' resulting in the greatest good."

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28                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Near the close of his life he reiterated his confidence: "I am sure that you

know that the God who created the minnow and who has moulded the rose

and the carnation, given each its sweet fragrance, will provide for those

mortal men, who strive to do right in the world which he himself has stocked

with birds, animals, and men; -- at all events I will trust Him with absolute

confidence."14

From uncertain youth, to manhood, to elderly hero, he held his position.

Such was his religion and his philosophy; but how could a Roman Catholic --

his wife, for example -- accept or even tolerate it?

Sherman had been baptized a Catholic.¹⁵ His father was a Mason,¹⁶ and

his family was Presbyterian;17 but young "Cump" grew to manhood, from

the age of nine onward, in the home of a strict Roman Catholic foster

mother. All this had come about because, when Sherman's father died in

1829, the father's good friend Senator Thomas Ewing took Cump into his

own family and treated him as a son.¹⁸ Senator Ewing's sense of honor and

his tolerant religious views resulted in insistence that the boy not have to take

a religious affiliation different from that of his natural father. Young Sherman

observed but did not join the religious rites of the household he called

home. He learned to view tolerantly the religious attitudes of his foster

family during the seven years he lived with them. Despite the Catholic

baptism, related above, he never absorbed the devout Roman Catholicism of

Mrs. Ewing, his foster mother. Her children reacted differently, with dedica-

tion to the Roman Church. Sherman's attitude probably stemmed both from

his own family heritage and from admiration for the Senator, who stood

aloof from the Catholicism of his family. Years later Sherman saw Ewing

as "a great big man, an intellectual giant," who "looked down on religion as

something domestic, something consoling which ought to be encouraged,"

and to whom "it made little difference whether the religion was Methodist,

Presbyterian, Baptist, or Catholic, provided the acts were 'half as good' as

their professions."19

Sherman felt obligated to Ewing for his youthful home, for his appoint-

ment to West Point, and even for the girl he married. The Senator's daughter,

Ellen Ewing, was just four years Sherman's junior and had been his child-

hood playmate. They were married in 1850, with the wedding in what is

now called Blair House in Washington -- that delightful old classic building

on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House. Father James Ryder,

president of Georgetown University, performed the ceremony.20

From the outset Ellen was disappointed. Even though the marriage cere-

mony was impressive, with a dazzling array of Washington politicians in

attendance, it was less than she had wished for. Had she married a Catholic

boy, she could have had a "real Catholic" wedding. She understood that

"Well educated Catholic young gentlemen are scarce and Catholic girls

cannot all have an opportunity of marrying suitably, in the church."²¹ To

marry a man such as Sherman, belonging to no church, was a tolerable

alternative to Ellen, but she never fully accepted it.

It was tolerable only after she conducted long oral and written examina-

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THE RELIGION OF SHERMAN                                           29

 

tions of Sherman's views toward religion. As early as 1842 he tried to satisfy

her "curiosity," acknowledging that after leaving home he had practiced no

special creed. He did believe "firmly in the main doctrines of the Christian

religion, the purity of its morals, and in the almost absolute necessity for its

existence and practice among all well regulated communities to assure peace

and good will amongst all. "Yet, I can not," he told her, "with due reflection,

attribute to minor points of doctrine or from the importance usually attached

to them.^"22 He admitted his ideas on religion were general, subject to time,

circumstance, and experience.

This latter observation provided the wedge, the hope, with which the

dedicated Ellen sought to convert the adamant Cump during the rest of

their long life together.

Ellen Sherman had developed her strong religious views as a result of

her mother's training and from her Catholic school education. She always

seemed happiest when in clerical company. She held her children to a strict

Catholicism. Through the Church, Catholic schooling, and her guidance the

children received the "religious faith and fervor to prepare ... for the struggles

and temptations of the world."²³ Ellen worked for Catholic charities, for

the Catholic poor, for struggling Catholic authors, for the advancement of

Catholic chaplains, the protection of Catholic reservation Indians -- for any

cause associated with the Church. Poor Sherman considered her "absolutely

more Catholic than the Pope . . . far more Catholic than any Roman ever

professed to be."²⁴ Again and again she went after her husband. Pressure

was constant -- subtle or obvious by turn.

Her proselytizing fell into patterns. He should, she argued, accept the

Catholic Church and faith for her sake, for the sake of their family, for his

own sake, or for the sake of their beloved deceased child Willy. Occasionally

she called attention to friends who had become converts. At other times she

would censure him as a non-Christian.

She went after his soul with the relentlessness of General Grant before

Richmond. She regularly told him of her fervent prayers for his conversion.

Long before their marriage she had begun to complain of Protestants torment-

ing and insulting her, and she questioned Sherman as to how he could protect

and defend her from all ills when he was classed among them. "How can

you be sincere in your defense unless you . . . can prove the truth of that

which I claim to be true."²⁵ Sherman's unresponsiveness, she charged, denied

her the assistance she was entitled to in raising their children, denied their

married life a close and perfect communion both here and in heaven.²⁶ "My

happiness depends on yours, my misery on yours. If you die without uttering

a prayer for mercy I shall lose my reason. It would kill me to see you die

without faith and prayer. Save me that sorrow in this world and in the next."²⁷

When the appeal of her own happiness could not move him, Ellen Sherman

sought to have her husband accept Catholicism for the sake of his family.

"If you die without faith you leave us miserable the rest of our lives with a

weight of sorrow upon the heart which no worldly influence can dissipate.²⁸

And think what happiness it would confer upon those all who are nearest

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and dearest to you."²⁹ She hoped that when he died his children "may mourn

for you . . . not alone as one of earth's heroes but as an humble and devout

believer in the divinity of our Saviour.^"30

Ellen then turned to self-interest. For Sherman to die outside the Church

was a disaster for himself. Although the family prayed for him, this was

not enough -- his own prayers were essential. Conversion was a positive

benefit, he was told, for "peace which surpasseth all human understanding.

Why do you not go to the Church since you find no hope and no peace out

of it. It cannot do you any harm. It must do you so much good."³⁰ His

attacks of depression and melancholia, she said, perhaps oblivious of her own

contributions to his moods, would disappear in the glory of the great faith.

Sherman, who in the war was sacrificing so much for others, need sacrifice

only his human pride to gain heaven for himself.³1

Ellen never gave up. The deceased son Willy had been their idol: the

eldest son, a bright boy with a winning personality. He died suddenly of

fever while visiting Sherman's camp on the Mississippi in 1863. An inordinate

grief, continuing for the rest of their lives, took hold of the parents. Ellen

well recognized her husband's attachment and did not scruple to use it when

urging Sherman to join the Church. Immediately after Willy's death she

told Sherman of the faith and hope the child had held for his father's religious

future. Subtly she associated God's goodness, in which Sherman believed,

with Willy's faith: Sherman could "die in the faith that sanctified our holy

one."³² With Willy praying for him in heaven and his other children praying

to Willy "to pray for Papa,"33 Ellen relentlessly pressed her husband to

become a Catholic during probably the most emotional moment in his

life. If anything on earth could aid Willy in heaven, he learned, it would be

knowledge that his father had said prayers for his soul: "Ask Willy to

pray for you and God will give you faith. Willy felt very badly about your

not having faith and it was a trial to his loving heart to know that the father

he so idolized on earth never prayed to God for blessings which are eternal.

Of course I never talked to him of this," Ellen admitted, "but he made the

application of faith and religious instruction and in his heart lamented what

he had too much love and respect for you to criticize and he lamented it as

a misfortune, but little things several times showed me his keen feelings on

the subject which he sought to conceal."³⁴

Through the years Sherman saw Ellen use the name of every casual

acquaintance who joined the Catholic Church as witness to the ease with

which sensible friends saw the path to salvation. On occasion she struck out

viciously, charging that her husband was not even a Christian. While she

always embedded this denunciation in phrases complimenting Sherman's

kindness, gentleness, generosity, and goodness, the indictment was never-

theless clear. She told him in 1862, when he had many nonreligious concerns,

"You only want Christianity to make you perfect. With all your natural

goodness, your honor and high toned principle you are not the Christian that

I believe we will see you before you are called to your long account.^"35

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THE RELIGION OF SHERMAN                                             31

 

Sherman absorbed these pressures and responded in various ways, demon-

strating always a devotion to his philosophy of life. He held to his convic-

tions as to the role of religion in life. His response varied from tolerance of

all religious discussion to full annoyance with those practicing intolerance.

Throughout his experiences runs the denominator of an open mind, ques-

tioning, indeed puzzling, about religion. His views were consistent with broad

Christian doctrines but never in accord with the principles of the Roman

Church.

Sherman's religious tolerance appeared in his relations with his children

who were reared as Roman Catholics. When in his care, they attended church

and he reported to his wife the daily fulfillment of their religious obligations.

This habit continued even after his quarrel with the Church, which is

characteristic of his sense of responsibility. He could always point out that

he had never placed an obstacle to his children's practice of their mother's

religion.36 He seemed to have satisfaction knowing they would "grow up on

the safe side about the Great Future" with a security he could not have.37

Except during the family crisis over his son's decision to become a priest,

Sherman showed only friendliness toward the Church. He preserved a gift

of a religious medal, and many times referred sympathetically to colleagues

who were Church members.38 He seemed to recognize the strength these

communicants drew from Catholicism. He was sensitive to the dedicated

work of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and responded to overtures of friend-

ship from the clergy of the University of Notre Dame.39

In many instances Sherman's general appreciation of the Church appeared

in his showing almost special favors to the Catholic religious, often in

response to requests of his wife, but willingly and wholeheartedly given.

During the war he cooperated with sisters working in hospitals of his military

command and permitted them to use his name, unusual for him, in their

money-raising programs. His reception of the Rev. Joseph Carrier, C.S.C.,

as a chaplain at his camp on the Mississippi in 1863 was noted in Catholic

circles for its openheartedness. Ellen had secured the priest's assignment to

Sherman's army, but Sherman far extended himself in welcome.40

Friendly interest in the Church is shown by his visits to churches during

his travels. While every tourist includes churches for sightseeing, Sherman's

detailed descriptions are unusual. At first he did show an early naivete about

religion, but that disappeared in the later travels. In 1846 he looked at the

surface scene and was shocked to see communicants "more like squaws than

good Christians."⁴¹ His efforts to appear worldly and experienced caused him

to generalize at what he observed in a moment, and he concluded impulsively

in Rio de Janeiro that "the church stamps a strong character upon all the

people."⁴² If the tone was critical, the observations showed Sherman as anxious

to compare, contrast, learn, observe. His spirit was of the inquisitive, inquiring

student.

A much more sophisticated Sherman toured Europe in 1872 -- still describ-

ing church structures in long letters to his wife. By this date his comments

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set out the role of religion in European politics and the lives of people. He

was amused that so many religions throughout the centuries had claimed to

be the "true religion." He regarded whimsically the Egyptian's evaluation

of Christians as an "inferior race," but viewed with distress the magnificent

Spanish mosques which bore such a large investment of human toil. These

structures he saw as devoid of reverential feeling, unworthy of their symbolic

position.43 Only in Russia and Switzerland did he find religious sincerity

and zeal.44 In Russia the religion combined the Moslem and the Catholic

forms, which pleased him because it reinforced his view that true religious

ideas are universal and form is unimportant. The European travel resulted

in his thinking about religion in the lives of people -- not as deity-centered --

but as a political instrument. In France, Italy, Germany, and England he

observed with disdain the effects of religious groups on politics; in private

correspondence he repeatedly praised the American separation of Church

and State. He hoped that eventually churches, priests, and preachers would

"confine themselves to their own special sphere and leave politics alone."45

He long had felt that religion often disregarded common sense, and his

experiences in Europe confirmed this belief. He had always sought to under-

stand God through reading, thought, or discussions with informed persons.46

None of these efforts led him to a doctrinaire position. He never became

interested in abstract points of doctrine, try as he might for the sake of his

wife. His position became one of defense of his right to disagree, more than

aggressive attack on those who opposed him.

This mood and this approach to religion may have entered into Sherman's

decision to decline the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1884.

His biographer has implied, although without proof, that acceptance would

have involved him in a defense of his family's religion.47 Defense of a particular

religion was not his way; just as he would not have placed himself in a

position antagonistic to religion. Had the religious question been of import-

ance in the decision about the nomination, his philosophical views of duty

might have required him to accept the nomination to defend his belief in

man's right to tolerance. He regarded himself as truly catholic because he

"embraced all Creation, recognizing the maker as its heart and all religions

past present and future as simple tools in the great accomplishments yet to

be."⁴⁸ This all-encompassing religious feeling, first expressed in 1844, con-

stituted his perennial appraisal of God. The "same God who made the

universe and afterwards permitted his son to be massacred to display his

interest in the human family . . . will enable us if we exercise properly our

judgments with due charity and sincerity to attain a fair share of worldly

happiness."49

Politics was something Ellen did not understand, and Sherman had to

be careful when her religious zeal carried political ramifications. While he

was on the European vacation, Ellen demanded that he visit Catholic ac-

quaintances. This annoyed him, for he feared that crafty European politicians

would give the gesture a religious interpretation and he would be labeled a

member of the Church. Sherman felt that his wife lacked appreciation of

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THE RELIGION OF SHERMAN                                           33

 

his position, and refused. "I can hardly expect you," he wrote, "to feel as

I do about these things and deeply regret that you always set your heart on

things that do not chime in with my preferences or prejudices. I wish you

would tax me in some other ways."50

Sherman found his wife's intolerance of Protestants obnoxious, but ac-

cepted the situation. More difficult to bear was the intolerance shown by

his children.51 Even though he knew that his wife's zeal absorbed the better

instincts of her nature, he warned her that she should help the children

avoid bigotry. He wanted them to have "every chance possible to conform

to ... religion and . . . whilst enjoying the widest privilege not to question

the sincerity of others."⁵² His wife was never obedient to this wish.

Ellen believed parochial school training essential and nagged Sherman into

enrolling the children in Catholic schools, calling the public schools "schools

of corruption!" She was "mortified and distressed" that her "children have

ever gone to them."⁵³ She beseeched Sherman to give the children a "Catholic

education" should she die. A major family consideration in Sherman's accept-

ance of any position was always the availability of Catholic schools.54 Sherman,

for his part, felt that Catholic schools were not skilled in teaching sciences,

but accepted his wife's desire, nevertheless. He was convinced the home,

not the school, controlled religion and morals; any school could teach subject

matter. Learning "depends more on you than the school master."55

Not until his son Tom joined the priesthood did Sherman regret that his

children had received a Catholic education. From that time on Sherman

was a harsh critic of the Catholic educational system. Not only, he said,

did it separate children from parents, but failed to accept modern knowledge.

In fact, he rejected parochial schools as incompetent.56 He felt they had

unduly influenced his son, and he was bitter for the remaining years of his

life. He presented his case to anyone who would listen.

A minor irritant was his wife's financial contributions to the Church. She

protested that she used her own funds.57

The son's decision to enter the priesthood occurred at the same time

Congress cut his salary. The family finances tightened. Sherman complained

endlessly of the $20,000 he had spent on his son's education -- an investment

from which he would receive no return.58 In worldly transactions, he said,

"this would be simply swindling."

Sherman centered his outward protest of his son's decision only around

this point. He saw that his plans were "all wrecked," for Tom had been

the "keystone" in his plan for family security and "his going away lets

down the whole structure with a crash."59

Tom Sherman's decision to join the Jesuits had come as a surprise, but

only because through the years the father had closed his eyes to many clear

signs. Tom was seven when Ellen wrote Sherman she had urged the boy

to "use his talents for the greater honor of God . . . not for the acquisition

of worldly position or renown."60 When he was eight and "fairly well estab-

lished at school," Sherman wrote he would "risk his being a priest." He

did not want him a priest and would reject such a choice, but Tom was

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"too young for even the thought of it." When he was fifteen and a student

at Georgetown, Sherman saw the fervor of Catholicism in him and urged

him to respect the religious views of others.61 But the boy, like his mother,

rejected the father's pleas for tolerance.

Then came the vocational decision. When he heard of it, Sherman exploded.

He directed his anger toward the Church, rather than toward his son. He

labeled the Church a public enemy whose policies eventually would erupt

into violence. This selfish institution had committed a crime in taking his

son away "from the legitimate work cut out for him."⁶² He concluded that

Tom's alienation had begun in the Catholic schools. He raged at the Church

which claimed the right to educate children at their parents' expense and

then, "under inspiration called 'vocation,'" took the children for its use.

He challenged the idea of a calling to the priesthood. His practical mind

said that such an idea denied reason; its acceptance implied blind animal

reaction. God gave man reason, he argued, and man's obligation was to use

it. The Church had led Tom to disregard duty to the family, an obligation

no man had the right to throw off, even to save his soul. Sherman said the

demands of religious life were vapors compared with responsibilities of man

to his fellow man.63 Concern over the next life was self-indulgence incom-

patible with obligations held, willingly or unwillingly, in this world.

His views annoyed his family and his Catholic friends. In turn, he resented

their lack of sympathy. He believed that because of Tom's decision the

Church was using his name and position. The Church was trying to capture

him and his office by indirection. Should Catholic journals continue to

publish statements indicating he had consented to Tom's decision or should

the Church become brazen over its victory, he threatened a public pronounce-

ment of "eternal condemnation" of the Roman institution.64

The family handled this anger with patience and kindness.65 After the

shock he would become his tolerant self; they knew his habits of fairness.

Time proved them largely correct, as he accepted the inevitable in keeping

with his philosophy of life. Through the efforts of his family a rapprochment

with the Church took place. He returned to his mild acceptance, his gentle

skepticism, his pleasant tolerance.

The family prayed that Tom's decision would bring a state of grace and

Church membership to Sherman.66

After his wife's death, the children replaced her as the voice pleading for

his conversion; and in the last moments of his life they exercised their

loving prerogative. Believing their father would not have denied them the

comfort of knowing he died in their faith, they obtained for him -- as he

lay unconscious, about to die -- the last rites of the Church,67 the institution

of which he once said, "claims to be God himself -- O.K. -- We will find out

in time."68

 

 

THE AUTHOR: Jack J. Detzler is As-

sistant Professor of History at the Indian-

apolis Downtown Campus of Indiana

University.

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