CHAPTER XVII

DEATH AND THE GRAVE.

With the death of Sherman the title of "General" completely disappears from our military system.

It has been held by three men only. It was created in 1866 by act of Congress, and conferred upon Grant. Sherman then succeeded Grant as Lieutenant-General, and when the latter took his seat as President in March, 1869, the former became General of the Army.

In 1884 Sherman was put on the retired list with the title which he held to the time of his death.

In the active service the office by provision of law became vacant, and the title extinct, Sheridan being commander of the army with the rank of Lieutenant-General.

In 1888, just before Sheridan's death, the rank of Lieutenant-General was abolished, and that of General revived, with the understanding that Sheridan should be made General, and the express provision that the title should continue only during his life.

Since that time the head of the army has been a MajorGeneral.

General Sherman's illness was of little more than a week's duration. Following a taste, natural and cultivated, which he loved to gratify, the General attended the performance of "Poor Jonathan," at the Casino, on Wednesday night, February 4. It was, in fact, a special performance. Invitations had been sent to the military officers of the city, and General Sherman occupied one of the proscenium boxes with a party of friends. He seemed

to be in the best of health and spirits, and gave every evidence of keen enjoyment of the opera.

He returned to his home immediately after the performance, and, although the weather was clear and cold, in some way the General caught a severe cold. Its first effects were noticed on the following morning. His condition, however, did not prevent his attendance at the wedding of Miss Shepard on that afternoon. He coughed a little and complained of the cold while in the church. On Friday morning his condition had become more uncomfortable, but excited no alarm. His throat, however, had become affected in the mean time, and he was obliged to give up a dinner with Lawrence Barrett that evening at the Union League Club. When he began to show signs of facial erysipelas, accompanied by fever, he felt some anxiety, and sent for Dr. Alexander, who had been his family physician for a number of years. On Sunday the disease began to get a firm bold upon the old warrior. His face and neck became much swollen and inflamed, and conversation became difficult and painful. His condition was such that Dr. Alexander sent for Dr. Janeway for the purpose of holding a consultation. The General was then confined to his bed, and it was found that the ordinary treatment applied in cases of erysipelas would not answer the purpose; in part owing to the General's advanced age.

His physician, Dr. C. T. Alexander, gives the following history of his fatal illness:

"The General caught cold Wednesday a week ago, February 4th, 1891. The next day he attended a wedding against the urgent advice of the members of his family. On Friday I was called in and found the General suffering from a cold and a sore throat. On

Saturday he felt so much better that he wanted to keep an appointment he had made for that day. On my advice, however, he desisted, and spent the day playing cards, I believe, with his family. Erysipelas set in on Sunday. He was flighty that day, and on Monday he became delirious. The erysipelas spread over his face, and the lymphatic glands in his neck became swollen. I applied treatment for the erysipelas. Wednesday came and there was no change for the better, but General Sherman slightly rallied on Thursday morning. His rally was not such to insure even faint hope of the Generals recovery, and I so informed Surgeon General Moore at Washington. Friday was the turning point for the patient. The erysipelas had almost completely disappeared, but the attack had left the General very much weakened. His old complaint, bronchial trouble and asthma, I think, killed General Sherman, In his weakened condition he was unable to throw off the mucus which gathered on his lungs. The mucus accumulated, and the General was slowly strangled to death.

"I think he suffered greatly. There was always the quick respiration, the gasp for breath, but he bore everything without a murmur, and no one could have been more heroic.

"Since Tuesday we had practically abandoned all hope of General Sherman's recovery."

Lieutenant Fitch, authorized the following account of scenes at the death bed of the General :—

"General Sherman lay in bed from Friday morning until he died at 1.50 P. M. February 14th without speaking a word. He made the attempt to do so several times, but was unable to utter a sound other than a hoarse gasp.

He apparently recognized those about him by a look of the eye. His tongue was swollen and his jaws were stiff some hours before he died.

Signs of death were noticed half an hour before he died, in the icy coldness of the finger tips. This coldness gradually extended to his hands and arms. He was unconscious for the last two hours he was alive. At the bedside were his son, P. T. Sherman; his daughters Rachel and Lizzie; Lieutenant and Mrs. Fitch, Lieutenant and Mrs. Thackara, Senator John Sherman, Dr. Alexander and General Thomas Ewing. The two daughters remained kneeling, one at each side of the bed during the last hour of the life of their father. Neither priest nor clergyman was present; neither was any sent for. The General did not suffer any pain for the last two days.

All night long he lay in bed with his head high, but toward morning he worked his head down until at last he lay perfectly flat. Death came so quietly that those at the bedside did not realize that the General was dead until Dr. Alexander said "All is over." Death came with one long sigh.

Suffocation, due to the lungs filling with mucus, was the cause.

Immediately after his death Generals Howard and Slocum, who were on General Sherman's staff, were sent for. Some two weeks before, the General had made known his wishes as to his burial. He particularly requested that his body should not lie in state anywhere

He also requested that the funeral be a strictly military one. He said he did not care particularly for any military observances in New York, but that he did want a military burial in St. Louis, which would be participa

ted in by his old comrades in arms. He also requested that the funeral rites be not in conformity with any particular form of religion. He wanted a soldier's burial.

The body was embalmed and laid out in the room in which he died. The features were natural, with the exception of a slight swelling on the right jaw and under both eyes. The eyes were closed and his arms folded across his breast.

Under the starry folds of the flag he loved so well the honored form of the dead chieftain lay at rest.

It was a rest well earned. Ripe in his years and full sheathed in his honors, the rancors of the past faded out by the kindly hand of time and the comradeship and friendship of men whom he had once waged fierce but honest warfare with. He had lived a life plethoric with the best blessings that attend humanity, and died honored and mourned by the millions of the united nation.

An unstained name, a deathless fame, a vault into the great unknown after a silent and heroic battle with disease that added to the lustre of his renown, who could die more happily than William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who, with prophetic eye, saw death coming afar off, and blanched not at the dreadful apparition? Let drums be muffled and flags float low, but let the hearts of the American people rejoice that they can claim such men as he, last, but not least, of the war's great triumvirate.

A formal announcement of the General's death was sent to President Harrison, Vice-President Morton, Secretary of War Proctor, Secretary of State Blaine, Secretary Noble and General Schofield.

The wires flashed the sorrowful intelligence over the country, and to Europe. Flags fell to half-mast on all the capitols, national buildings, and in the commercial