Brigade Commander, March‒August 1861

Abstract This chapter assesses William T. Sherman’s efforts to introduce himself to President Lincoln, as well as his presidency at the Fifth Street Railroad, a company specializing in street cars. Sherman was unimpressed with the president; Lincoln seemed to Sherman the partisan-in-chief. Sherman would write several weeks after his meeting with Lincoln that the president had intimated “that military men were not wanted”; this seems unlikely, unless it refers to regular officers rather than volunteers. On April 1, 1861, Sherman began his new job as president of the Fifth Street Railroad. Yet, though Sherman had chosen to concentrate on domestic prosperity, public affairs kept breaking in to disturb his tranquility. The extent to which he lurked in the background as a spectator is revealed in the final, dramatic conclusion to the struggle to bind Missouri to the Union. At the end of April, Sherman was offered by Frank Blair Jr. the rank of brigadier general of volunteers and command of the Department of Missouri. On June 30, he received notification that he would command a brigade in Brigadier General Irvin McDowell’s army, Third Brigade in First Division, commanded by Brigadier General Daniel Tyler. Sherman was praised by Tyler in his report and had also earned McDowell’s high opinion. He demonstrated resolve, organizational capacity, and ability to think and make decisions under pressure.