5

(St. Louis, MO, 1865)

[Civil War - ALS] General William Tecumseh Sherman Autograph Letter

One lined bifolium on Headquarters, Military Division of the Missouri letterhead, St. Louis, December 1, 1865. Two-page autograph letter, signed, from General William Tecumseh Sherman to Joseph A. Sladen, aide-de-camp to General Oliver Otis Howard, concerning a potential appointment in the Regular Army. Sherman replies that Sladen had already attained such distinction in service that a recommendation from Howard would be more beneficial.

Partial transcription: "I have received your letter of Nov 25 and would greatly aid you to an appointment in the Regular Army...[I] am asked for so many letters of the kind that I naturally try to avoid giving them except in the cases when the applicants have special claims to my notion. It looks to me that you are so formally proved, so near the Dept. and so near Gen. Howard that my recommendation would add little if any to your claims. All applicants will of course have to be examined by some board and I feel assured General Howard will provide you all I could possibly give..."

Joseph Alton Sladen (1841–1911) was a career Army officer whose service spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the western frontier. Born in England and raised in Massachusetts, he entered the Union Army with the 33rd Massachusetts Infantry and was awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Resaca in 1864. He went on to serve in the Atlanta and Alabama campaigns, accompanied General Oliver Otis Howard as aide-de-camp during Sherman's March to the Sea, and later worked with the Freedmen's Bureau in the immediate postwar period. During the Indian Wars, Sladen played a central role in the 1872 expedition that resulted in a peace agreement with the Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise, an experience he later recorded in his account Making Peace With Cochise. Despite suffering grave injuries, including the loss of a leg, he continued in active service during the Nez Perce and Bannock wars, ultimately reaching the rank of captain before retiring in 1889. In civilian life he settled in Portland, Oregon, where he pursued careers in insurance and banking, served as a clerk of the U.S. Circuit Court, and remained engaged in public affairs until his death; his remains were later reinterred at West Point Cemetery in 1929.
9 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (24.1 x 19.7 cm.)

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