LETTER FROM GENERAL SHERMAN.

[The following characteristic letter, addressed to Colonel Bowman, of Washington, forms an appropriate conclusion to this work.]

CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, VA., May 19.

DEAR BOWMAN-I am just arrived. All my army will be in to-day. I have been lost to the world in the woods for some time. Yet, on arriving at the "settlements," found I had made quite a stir among the people at home, and that the most sinister motives have been ascribed to me.

I have made frequent official reports of my official action in all public matters, and all of them have been carefully suppressed, while the most ridiculous nonsense has been industriously spread abroad through all the newspapers. Well! you know what importance I attach to such matters, and that I have been too long fighting with real rebels, with muskets in their hands, to be scared by mere non-combatants, no matter how high their civil rank or station.

It is amusing to observe how brave and firm some men become when all danger is past. I have noticed on fields of battle brave men never insult the captured or mutilate the dead; but cowards and laggards always do. I cannot now recall the act, but Shakespeare records how poor Falstaff, the prince of cowards and wits, rising from a figured death, stabbed again the dead Percy, and carried the carcass aloft in triumph to prove his valor. So now, when the rebellion in our land is dead, many Falstaff's appear to brandish the evidence of their valor, and seek to win ap

plause, and to appropriate honors for deeds that never were done.

As to myself, I ask no popularity, no reward; but I dare the War Department to publish my official letters and reports. I assert that my official reports have been purposely suppressed, while all the power of the press has been malignantly turned against me.

I do want peace and security, and the return to law and justice from Maine to the Rio Grande; and if it does not exist now, substantially, it is for state reasons beyond my comprehension. It may be thought strange that one who has no fame but as a soldier, should have been so careful to try to restore the civil power of the Government, and the peaceful jurisdiction of the Federal courts; but it is difficult to discover in that fact any just cause of offence to an enlightened and free people. But when men choose to slander and injure others, they can easily invent the facts for the purpose when the proposed victim is far away, engaged in public service of their own bidding. But there is consolation in knowing that, though truth lies at the bottom of a well, the Yankees have perseverance enough to get to that bottom.

Yours truly,

W. T. SHERMAN.

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