Adam Badeau, Grant in peace: from Appomattox to Mount McGregor, a personal memoir

And now the two men who had stood side by side since Shiloh, in good report and evil report, in disaster and trial and in final triumph, were to be tested on another field. Andrew Johnson conceived the idea of making them rivals, of pitting the friends against each other in politics. When he found that he could not win Grant to his purposes, he bethought him that Sherman's reputation and popularity might serve him almost as well. Sherman had lived out of the strife between Congress and the President, and could not know all that Grant knew of Johnson's cunning and designs. His subordination might be counted on, as Grant's had been. Then, too, Sherman had seemed to entertain notions in politics not entirely dissimilar to those with which Johnson himself had started; he might be inclined to act with the loyal men who had followed Johnson in his aberrations. Above all, he might be tempted by the chance to supplant his only superior in military position or possibly fame. So the scheme was laid to entrap Sherman and use him to further Johnsons views in antagonism to Grant.

General Sherman to General Badeau.

headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, D. C., June 27, 1877.

dear Badeau,—Your letter of June 13th catches me in the act of packing up for an absence of three months, and leaves me only time to say that the marked honors paid General Grant by all classes, from the sovereign down to the masses of England, touch our people, especially his old comrades, with great force. All the papers of every shade of politics chronicle his movements and furnish the minutest details. We all know that he and Mrs. Grant went up from London last evening at 5 P. M., and were the guests of her most gracious Majesty, Victoria, at Windsor Castle. I esteem these marks of favor, not as mere compliments to the General and his country, but as a foreshadowing of the judgment of history on his wonderful career. Now that he is untrammeled by the personal contests of partisans, all men look upon him as the