Sherman, William Tecumseh

Autograph letter signed ("W.T. Sherman"), four pages (9 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.; 240 x 147mm), Philadelphia, 5 May 1887, to his former aide, Colonel John Eaton Tourtellotte; on imprinted stationery of the New Hotel Lafayette; marginal fraying and browning. Red linen portfolio, tan morocco lettering piece.

Answering Lord Wolseley. After much detail of family travels and cultural pursuits, Sherman informs his former aide he sent him a copy of the American Review containing his answer to Lord Wolseley, "which has brought on such a flood of letters highly entagonistic [sic] . . . but I will not notice them." Sherman explains when he came to New York everyone approached him and declared "somebody must answer Lord Wolsley [sic]--so his assertions would not be accepted by history" and he finally consented. Still outraged, he writes: "We did not dream in 1865, that we would have to apologize for our conduct in the War, but so it is  . . . we conquered by shear force of brute courage . . . we must meet this new issue and fight it out on paper--far easier than by bullets . . . ."