GENERAL THOMAS EWING, JR. Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912, pages 276-282. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL THOMAS EWING, JR. Written for the Kansas State Historical Society by MAJOR HARRISON HANNAHS.(1) IN JULY, 1862, the President issued a call for 300,000 volunteers for "three years or during the war." Under this call Gen. James H. Lane was appointed, July 22, commissioner of recruiting in Kansas. He was authorized to raise three regiments, to be designated the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth. Thomas Ewing, jr., was authorized by Lane to recruit the Eleventh, Charles W. Adams, Lane's son-in- law, the Twelfth, and Thomas M. Bowen the Thirteenth. The state was divided into three recruiting districts, and it was expected that each recruiting officer would confine his work to the district assigned him. Ewing had the first choice, and chose the district along the Kaw valley and north to the Nebraska line, and on the 6th of August, 1862, established regimental rendezvous near Fort Leavenworth, which he christened Camp Lyon. Ewing was chief justice of the state at the time, and ambitious to be the successor of Lane in the United States senate. He knew, as every one in Kansas knew, that in order to reach the goal of his ambitions he must have a military record back of him, for when the Kansas soldiers returned from the war they would dictate who should be the successor of Lane. In six weeks the Eleventh was mustered. I enlisted at Topeka August 15 as private, and recruited a squad for company H. In the latter part of August we were ordered into camp at Fort Leavenworth. Ewing came to my tent one evening and invited me to go to his house for supper. After supper he said: "I have a horse saddled here for you, and I want you to go to Lawrence with a message to Lane. Captain Joy has a squad of recruits at Burlingame, and they are outside my territory, and I want Lane to order them to report to me to be mustered into my regiment. I want you to be in Lawrence to-morrow morning, and as soon as Lane gets up, see him before Captain Joy's company reaches Lawrence. He will he there in the forenoon, and may attach his command to Adams' regiment." I reached Lawrence in due time, put up at a hotel, and waited for the morning. In the morning I walked out to the vicinity of Lane's house and watched for signs of life. Presently Lane came to the front door in his shirt sleeves, his shirt collar unbuttoned. I started for the house, knocked at the door, and Lane opened it and invited me in. I handed him the message from Ewing. He stood while he read it, and then inquired how the recruiting was going on. He then said, "I will see Mr. Joy when he arrives in the city, and I think I can arrange it with him to go on to Leavenworth and report to Ewing." About ten o'clock Joy and his squad arrived, and I accompanied Lane to meet him. Joy had recruited his men with the understanding they were to join the Twelfth regiment, and he said he would talk with them and see how they felt about joining the Eleventh. Lane talked with the men also. The result was that Joy and his men marched with me to Leavenworth and reported to Ewing, and subsequently were mustered in the Eleventh as company I. I relate this story to show that at that time Lane and Ewing were good friends. This incident shows it, for it would have been very natural for Lane to favor his own son-in-law, Mr. Adams, who was recruiting the Twelfth. I talked with Adams about it then, and he objected strenuously to the transfer of Joy's men to the Eleventh. Our regiment was mustered on the 15th day of September, 1862, and started at once for Fort Scott. It is not my purpose here to give a history of our march to Fort Scott and on to southwest Missouri, and of our campaign into Arkansas. Other pens have described that. I will state at this point that we left Fort Leavenworth on the day of muster without receiving our muster-in rolls, and the officers without their commissions, and we did not receive them for several months thereafter. Returning from our campaign into Arkansas, I was ordered to Fort Leavenworth on official business. We had not then received any pay, because we had no copies of our muster rolls. Arriving at the fort I called on the adjutant and inquired if he knew anything about our muster rolls. He did not. I called on the several officers there with like results, but I learned that Captain Thompson, who was the mustering officer, was supposed to be dead, and no one at the fort knew anything about what he did with our rolls. I went through the different buildings at the barracks, most of which were vacant, and finally found the one in which Captain Thompson had his office. It was empty, the door was open, and the only piece of furniture in the room was a desk, in which were some bits of paper but no muster rolls. I began to give up in despair of finding them. The desk was an old-fashioned one, reaching nearly to the ceiling. I finally hunted up a stepladder and climbed to the top of the book case over the desk, and there to my great joy I found the muster-in rolls of the several companies of our regiment, officially signed by Captain Thompson, mustering officer. After the battle of Prairie Grove, Ewing was commissioned a brigadier general. In the spring of 1863 the District of the Border was created, with headquarters at Kansas City, and General Ewing placed in command, whereupon I became acting adjutant general. In the winter of 1864 Ewing was transferred to the District of St. Louis, and I went with him as acting adjutant general. On the 9th of March, 1864, General Grant was commissioned lieutenant general in command of all the armies, and after receiving his commission he returned to Nashville to meet Sherman and talk over matters relating to the spring campaign. Sherman assumed command of the Military Division of the Mississippi on the 18th of March. Grant invited Sherman to accompany him to Cincinnati on his return to Washington, so they could mature plans for the movement of the armies.(2) About nine o'clock on the evening of the 18th of March General Ewing and I were in our office at St. Louis, when he received a telegram from Sherman to meet him at Pana, Ill., at an hour designated. Ewing asked me to get a time table, and we found he could get the train that night for Pana. Mrs. Ewing and the children were in the city, and he requested me to notify them, then started at once. The following is the story he gave me on his return from the trip. Arriving at Pana, he joined Sherman and Grant, who were in a private car journeying east. Sherman had prepared maps of the country between Chattanooga and Atlanta, showing the various woods, strategic points and forts. I have one of these maps, also an original photograph of Sherman and his staff on Kenesaw Mountain, overlooking Atlanta, which General Ewing gave me after the war. Sherman laid before Grant his plan of march to Atlanta, and they discussed it; also Sherman's plan of March from Atlanta to the sea. Grant did not at first favor the plan of march to Atlanta, and refused utterly to consider the plan from Atlanta to the sea. Finally Grant said he would consent to the plan as far as Atlanta, and would submit it to Mr. Lincoln for his approval, leaving the matter there; and if Sherman should be successful in capturing Atlanta, then he would consider the plan to the sea. Grant gave Sherman full power to choose his corps commanders and the regiments. Sherman selected, with one or two exceptions, West Point men as corps commanders, and mainly western regiments for his army. Leaving Cincinnati, Grant went on to Washington. Sherman and Ewing returned together to Pana, there separating; Sherman returned to Nashville and Ewing to St. Louis. On their return trip Ewing asked Sherman why he telegraphed him to meet him at Pana. Sherman replied that he wanted some one on whom he could depend for a witness to what might be said and done between him and Grant. Sherman offered Ewing a command in his army. Ewing replied that he was only a brigadier general, and doubtless junior in rank to most of the brigadiers in Sherman's army. Sherman told him he would put him in command of a division and that he might select his regiments and brigadier commander, also that he should have a major general's commission just as soon as there was a vacancy, which would be very soon; but Ewing declined the proposition. Sherman told him that he was very anxious for him to go with him and have a share in the glory--"for," said Sherman, "I am going into Atlanta as sure as the sun shines, and I will show the world that the South is as hollow as an eggshell." The two generals separated at Pana, and each went to his command. Ewing came direct from the train to my room. It was in the night, and he wakened me, and, sitting on my bed, told me the story. In response I said: "General, of course you told Sherman you would go with him." He said, "No." "General Ewing," I replied, "you have made the mistake of your life. Sherman will not only go to Atlanta, but he will go to the sea, just as sure as there is a God in Israel." He returned: "If I was as sure of it as you are I would go. You may go, and I will get Sherman to give you a position on his staff." "How would it look for me," I replied, "a field officer in a volunteer regiment, to accept a position on ShermanŐs staff among a group of West Point men. If you will go I will be only too glad to go." Continuing, I referred to his political ambition, saying: "General Ewing, you are ambitious to be Lane's successor in the United States senate; and if you go with Sherman in this campaign, which will be one of the greatest in history, and after the war you return to Kansas, the boys who were in the army will send you to the United States senate, no matter who is a candidate against you." I could see in Ewing's face that he had been through a severe mental struggle. He left my room to go to his own, there awakening his wife. He told her the story as he had related it to me; and when he told her that Sherman had offered him the command of a division in his army, she said with enthusiam: "General, you accepted, did you not?" He answered, "No." She then spoke with great earnestness, saying, among other things, "General, you have made the mistake of your life"--the exact words I had used. From that time on he seemed to gradually lose his interest in the war, although he gave strict attention to his military duties. He fought the battle of Pilot Knob in September, 1864, when Price with 15,000 men attacked him. We had less than 1000 men in Fort Davidson, and Price left 1500 men dead and wounded on the field--the most sanguinary battle of the war, if not in history. Two weeks after the battle there were in the hospital at Pilot Knob representatives of seventeen different military organizations of the Confederate army. This gives some idea of the number of men of Price's army in that battle. Where is there another instance during the war, or recorded in history, where an army of 900 men killed and wounded in six hours more than once and a half times their number? Ewing felt that he was never given full credit for that day's work. After it he began to plan to leave the service, and frequently told me that he should never return to Kansas to live. He said he should go to Washington, D.C., and resume the practice of law, and early in 1865 he obtained a leave of absence and went to Washington and handed his resignation to Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln urged him to reconsider his resignation, and told him if he would remain in the service and report to Sherman he would give him a major general's commission just as soon as there was a vacancy, and said: "There will be one soon." But Ewing declined to reconsider. Finally Lincoln said: "Ewing, I will put your resignation in that pigeonhole in my desk and not send it through the regular channel of the War Department; and now you think the matter over, and to-morrow you come to me and get it." And there Ewing's resignation remained until after Lincoln's death. Ewing wrote me the above facts, ordering me, as his acting adjutant general: "Until you receive official information through the regular military channels that I am out of the service, you go on signing orders. 'By order of Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr.' You will be general in command and acting adjutant general at the same time." I consulted Gen. G. M. Dodge, commander of the Department of Missouri, showing him Ewing's personal letter to me containing the foregoing statements, and he said: "Major, go ahead; you are in command virtually, but the regular military form of orders must be observed." And so I went on issuing orders and signing them, in due form, "By order of Brigadier General Ewing," until long after Mr. Lincoln's death. Ewing never returned to Kansas to live. I do not think this story of his resignation has ever been in print, and I have been invited to prepare it for the Kansas State Historical Society. --- NOTE 1.--[biography of Maj. Harrison Hannahs] NOTE 2.--I had left Washington the night before to return to my old command in the West and to meet Sherman, whom I had telegraphed to join me at Nashville. Sherman assumed command of the military division of the Mississippi on the 18th of March, and we left Nashville together for Cincinnati. I had Sherman accompany me that far on my way back to Washington, so that we could talk over the matters about which I wanted to see him without losing any more time from my new command than was necessary."--Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, vol. 2, p. 118. "On the 18th of March, 1864, at Nashville, Tenn., I relieved Lieutenant General Grant in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing the departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee and Arkansas, commanded respectively by Major Generals Schofield, Thomas, McPherson and Steele. General Grant was in the act of starting east to assume command of the armies of the United States, but more particularly to give direction in person to the armies of the Potomac and James, operating against Richmond; and I accompanied him as far as Cincinnati on his way, to avail myself of the opportunity to discuss privately many little details incident to the contemplated changes and of preparation for the great events then impending. Among these was the intended assignment to duty of many officers of note and influence who had by the force of events drifted into inactivity and discontent."--Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, vol. 2, p. 5.