ALS signed “W. T. Sherman, General,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 5 x 8, Headquarters Army of the United States letterhead, March 11, 1871. Letter to General Manning Ferguson Force, in part: "As to the eligibility of Col. Geo. Ward Nichols to membership in the Society of the Army of the Tennessee my decision is that he is. He was duly commissioned as an aid de camp to the President, and was assigned to duty with me by a regular order of the War Department when I commanded the Armies of the Tennessee, Ohio and Cumberland. This made him a part of those Armies…The cases of…all the officers of the General Staff are exactly parallel. The construction should be the most liberal possible, for exclusion would make it shortlived, whereas every thing in nature struggles for continued existence. Therefore in all questions of doubt, the most liberal construction of bylaws should be given." In fine condition, with splits to the ends of the folds.
As an interesting historical note, the George Ward Nichols that Sherman mentions is credited with creating the legend of Wild Bill Hickok. After the Civil War, he became a journalist and published an article about 'Wild Bill' in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, which is said to have exaggerated many of Hickock's outlandish exploits as a gunfighter. He also published The Story of the Great March, a firsthand account of Sherman's march to the sea. The recipient of this letter, Manning Ferguson Force, commanded the Union Army's 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during the Civil War.
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