Washington During War Time: A Series of Papers Showing the Military, Political, and Social Phases During 1861 to 1865.

BENJAMIN, Marcus [William Tecumseh Sherman].

$1,750.00

Item Number: 145745

Washington City: Committee on Literature for the Encampment, 1902.

Official souvenir of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic; from the library of Philemon Tecumseh Sherman. Octavo, original green cloth with gilt titles, frontispiece portrait of Abraham Lincoln, illustrated. P. T. Sherman’s bookplate to the front flyleaf. Presentaton copy, inscribed to Philemon Tecumseh Sherman, “Mr. P. T. Sherman, with cordial regards. From Thomas M. Stewart, Brigadier General, U. S. Army. December 25, 1905.” In very good condition with light toning to the spine and front panel, closed tear to the front free endpaper. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s son P. T. Sherman was a lawyer in New York, specializing in labor and insurance, and was elected a member of the New York Board of Alderman in the late 1880s. In the early 1900s, he was appointed the New York Commissioner of Labor. He transferred his library to his niece, Eleanor Sherman Fitch, the granddaughter of General Sherman through his eldest daughter, Maria “Minnie” Ewing Sherman Fitch, before he died. Until now, the book was held at the family estate in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Of Grand Army Reunions, General William Tecumseh Sherman explained that "the object [of the reunion] is purely social, and designed to preserve the memories of war, and to cherish the friendships formed during that period of our national history." General Sherman loved army reunions, typically eschewing the uniform and insignia of his high rank, preferring to wear a Grand Army of the Republic hat like everyone else (Katharine Burton, Three Generations, 1947, p. 216).