GENERAL SHERMAN IN CALIFORNIA 1846 - 1850 [manuscript title] by Sherman, William Tecumseh - 1871.

Washington, D.C., 1871.. [2],181pp., plus four additional pages (numbered 74¼, 74½, 150½, 150¾). The entire original manuscript is in Sherman's distinctive hand, written in ink on the rectos of sheets of white lined paper. Occasional corrections, cross-outs, or emendations in ink and pencil. A total of approximately 32,000 words. Folio. Contemporary three-quarter morocco and cloth, gilt, spine gilt, raised bands. Boards rubbed and shelfworn. A few leaves with some small tears or chips, but on the whole very neat, clean, and legible. Near fine. An exceptional American manuscript memoir, this is the original manuscript of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's memoirs of his experiences in California from 1846 to 1850. Written entirely in Sherman's hand, the manuscript describes his experiences during the Mexican-American War, the American conquest of California, the discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort in 1848, and the subsequent Gold Rush. This is the original text of what became the first two chapters of Sherman's MEMOIRS..., regarded as a classic American autobiography.

General Sherman began writing a memoir of his life before the Civil War some time around 1870, chiefly for the edification of his family. The present manuscript is that memoir, written entirely in Sherman's hand. The manuscript is dated March 1871, and Sherman presented it to his loyal aide-de-camp, Joseph C. Audenried, at that time. These recollections of Sherman's early years in California became the first two chapters of his MEMOIRS, published in 1875. This original manuscript is therefore the earliest part of Sherman's memoir, and the earliest autobiographical writing in which he engaged.

In early 1874, Sherman began to expand his memoirs to encompass the Civil War years, and this grew into a larger, more disciplined project, which resulted in a two-volume work, published in 1875 by Appleton and Company, entitled MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. In the preface to the first edition Sherman wrote that he intended his memoir to be merely his "recollection of events, corrected by a reference to his own memoranda, which may assist the future historian when he comes to describe the whole, and account for the motives and reasons which influenced some of the actors in the grand drama of war." Sherman's work, priced $7 a set, was immediately popular, and sold some 10,000 copies in the three weeks after publication, and ultimately sold some 25,000 sets, for which Sherman was paid $25,000.

The present manuscript is very much in the form of a rough draft, with numerous corrections, cross-outs, and emendations, and also with variations from the published text. For example, in the opening paragraph Sherman lists the officers stationed at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina in the Spring of 1846. In the published text a "Surgeon McLaren" is listed, while in this manuscript the name is given as "Surgeon Hawkins." The manuscript also shows clarifications and corrections by Sherman that were incorporated into the published text. This manuscript actually goes beyond the two chapters in Sherman's published memoirs devoted to his time in California, concluding with some of the initial events described in his chapter entitled "Missouri, Louisiana, and California 1850-1855," particularly his experiences in Washington. This portion is substantially different from the published version of Sherman's memoir. In all, this manuscript is an excellent source through which to study the writing, re-writing, and editing of Sherman's work.

As mentioned, this manuscript became the first two chapters of the first edition of Sherman's published MEMOIRS (the second edition, published in 1886, added a preceding chapter, describing Sherman's life up to the Mexican-American War). Sherman recounts his being assigned to California, his voyage around Cape Horn in the winter of 1846-47, his scouting trips around California in 1847, and his assignment as assistant adjutant to Col. Richard B. Mason, the civil and military governor of California. Sherman also relates how he received the news of the initial discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort, his meeting with Kit Carson, who brought the first overland mail to California, his trips to inspect the gold fields, and his drafting of an official report on the discoveries. In February 1849, Sherman became adjutant to Gen. Persifor Smith, the new commander of the Division of the Pacific, and he describes those experiences, as well as his work surveying for land speculators and ranchers. In the Fall of 1849, Sherman attended the California constitutional convention at Monterey and describes his experiences there, as well as his observations in Sacramento as the region was flooded with gold seekers.

Two excerpts from the text give fine examples of the high narrative quality and sense of immediacy with which Sherman recounts his experiences in California. The first describes the circumstances when he first heard of the great gold strikes, the second is his recollection of his first meeting with Kit Carson:

"I remember one day in the Spring of 1848, two men Americans came into the office & inquired for the Governor. I asked their business and one answered that he had just come down from Captain Sutter on special business, and he wanted to see Governor Mason. I took them in to the Colonel and left them together. After some time the Colonel came to his door & called to me. I went in and my attention was directed to a series of papers unfolded on the table on which lay about half an ounce of Placer Gold. Mason said to me what is that? I touched it & examined one or two of the larger pieces & said, is it Gold? Mason asked me if I had ever seen native Gold, and I answered that in 1843 I was in upper Georgia and saw some native gold, but it was much finer than that, and that it was in a phial or transparent quill. But I said that if that was Gold it could be easily tested, first by its malleability and next by acids. I took a piece in my teeth and the metallic lustre was perfect."

On Kit Carson:

"As yet we had no regular mail to any part of the United States, but mails had come to us at long intervals around Cape Horn and one or two by land. I well remember the first overland mail. It was brought by Kit Carson in a saddle bag from Taos in New Mexico. We heard of his arrival at Los Angeles and waited patiently for his arrival at h'quarters. His fame then was at its height from the publication of Fremont's books and I was very curious to see a man who had achieved such feats of daring among the wild animals of the Rocky Mountains and still wilder Indians of the plains. At last his arrival was reported at the town in Monterey and I hurried to meet him. I cannot express my surprise at beholding a small, stoop shouldered man with reddish hair, freckled face, soft blue eyes, and nothing to indicate extraordinary courage or daring. He spoke but little, and answered questions in monosyllables. I asked for his mail and he picked up his light saddle bags containing the 'Great Overland Mail' and we walked together to Head Qrs., where he delivered his parcel into Col. Mason's own hands."

This paragraph alone contains a few instances where the manuscript of Sherman's memoir is at variance with the published version.

Mark Twain called Sherman "a master of narrative," and literary critic Edmund Wilson wrote that while Ulysses S. Grant's PERSONAL MEMOIRS... are "aloof and dispassionate," in Sherman's memoir "the man is all there in his book; the book is the man speaking." Wilson goes on in his appreciation of Sherman:

"He had a trained gift of self-expression....his memoirs are quite amazing. The vigorous accounts of his pre-war activities...is varied in just the right proportion and to just the right degree of vivacity with anecdotes and personal experiences....He tells us what he thought and what he felt, and he never strikes any attitudes or pretends to feel anything which he does not feel. His frankness and self-dependence, his rectitude in whatever he undertakes...and his contempt for petty schemes and ambitions, together with a disregard for many conventional scruples, make Sherman, in spite of his harshness, a figure whom we not only respect but cannot help liking."

This original manuscript of the California section of Sherman's MEMOIRS was presented by Sherman to his long-serving, trusted aide-de-camp, Col. Joseph C. Audenried. Sherman has written, below the manuscript title, "presented to Col. Audenried A.D.C. by Gen. Sherman in consideration of Col. Audenried having copied the same for the General. Hd. Qr. of the Army Washington D.C. March 17, 1871." At the conclusion of the text is a similar inscription. It appears that Sherman gave this copy of his original manuscript memoir to Audenried after Audenried made a copy for Sherman himself to keep. This copy, entirely in Sherman's hand and the original manuscript of the memoir has descended through the Audenried family, appearing on the market here for the first time.

Joseph Crain Audenried (1839-80) was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from West Point in 1861. Brevetted a second lieutenant, he assisted in organizing and training troops in Washington before being assigned as an aide to several generals, including Daniel Tyler, William H. Emory, Edwin Sumner, John Wool, and Ulysses S. Grant. In October 1863, Audenried was transferred to Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's command, and he served as Sherman's aide-de-camp and principal assistant until his death in 1880 at age forty. With Sherman, Audenried participated in the events for which Sherman is most famous: the siege of Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and the March through the Carolinas. He was promoted to captain in the 6th Cavalry in 1866, and then to colonel in 1869. Audenried was stationed with Sherman at St. Louis for much of this time, and joined his commander in the Indian Wars of the West and on tours of the West, and also on Sherman's tour of Europe and the Middle East in 1871-72. Audenried married Mary Colkett in 1863, and the two had a daughter, Florence, in 1867. After Audenried's death in 1880, Sherman and Mary Audenried grew quite close, and it has been speculated that the married commander engaged in an affair with his aide's widow.

The original manuscript of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's memoir of his time in California during the tumultuous late 1840s. A highly significant portion of one of the great American memoirs.