Sold – William T. Sherman Comments on “the good fight”

The 1st Wisconsin Infantry was one of the great fighting regiments of the Union Army, seeing action in such battles as Perryville, Stone’s River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. It served under Sherman throughout the Atlanta Campaign, right up to the taking of the city. The unit was then merged into the 21st Wisconsin, under which banner the men participated in the March to the Sea and witnessed the surrender of Joseph Johnston and his Confederate army in April 1865.

After the war, Sherman remained in the service, was promoted to full general, and replaced Grant as Army commander-in-chief. He was often invited to gatherings of veterans and attended when his schedule permitted. Here he replies to an invitation from the 1st Wisconsin, reminding them of wartime days and memorably characterizing their cause as the “good fight.”

Autograph Letter Signed, Washington, Headquarters of the Army of the United States, February 3, 1873, to Charles H. Benton, former quartermaster of the regiment. “I thank you for remembering me in connection with your proposed celebration of the 21st of February – the Third Annual Reunion of the old 1st Wisconsin. Of course I would like to be with you but that is impossible. And from this distance I can only send my best wishes that you may long cherish the memory of the period when we fought the good fight.”

Letters of Sherman containing characterizations of the Union cause (and indeed his own campaigns such as the one that wrecked Georgia), are very uncommon. We cannot recall seeing another in which he labels it “the good fight.”