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The Transition to Peacetime Soldiering, 1865–1869

This chapter highlights William T. Sherman’s return to Washington. The arrival of “the Vandal Sherman,” as he described himself, plus his troops loud in threats that his Washington critics would have them “to reckon with,” had led to significant developments even before his return. There had also been some wild talk, probably exaggerated in the re-telling, of overthrowing the government. Edwin M. Stanton, perhaps sensing a matter he could exploit to his disadvantage, ordered both Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman to testify before the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War on the issues surrounding the ill-fated Memorandum of Understanding reached between Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston. In retrospect, the Committee’s failure to embarrass Sherman serves to underline the complete failure of Congress at this date to make any mark on Reconstruction policy. The ensuing great battle over this issue in 1866–67 would emerge as the defining, momentous political contest of these years, and Sherman would be dragged unwittingly into its margins.