Reel Seven: Items Relating to the Sherman Children -- Thomas Ewing Sherman (1875-1891) and Philemon Tecumseh Sherman (1875-June, 1881).

The great bulk of the Thomas Ewing Sherman material is to be found on this reel. The correspondence between Tom and his father becomes much more frequent with the former's attendance at Yale University (1874-1876) to complete his final two years of college. The extent and the importance of that correspondecne did not diminsh with Tom's graduation from Yale, for in the succeeding year he proceeded to St. Louis for the Study of law. While there, his father entrusted him with the care of the Sherman property in St. Louis. This naturally necessitated a good deal of correspondence between the two. Upon the son's decision in May of 1878 to enter the Jesuits and become a Roman Catholic priest -- an act which the General construed to be a desertion of the family -- the correspondence between the two and, indeed, the material relating to Tom become quite meager. The remainder of the reel features early papers relating to Philemon Tecumseh Sherman, the youngest of the Sherman children.

Reel Eight: Items Relating to the Sherman Children -- Philemon Tecumseh Sherman (July, 1881 - June, 1891).

The great bulk of the Philemon Tecumseh Sherman Papers is to be found on this reel. They consist of both incoming and outgoing letters as well as various other items, and they include an extensive and interesting correspondence with his parents. The correspondence with his mother, Ellen Ewing Sherman, becomes quite frequent with Philemon's attendance at Yale University (1886-1888). Thereafter, the material becomes rather scanty until 1891 when, upon his father's death, young Philemon was burdened with the task of administering the estate.

Reel Nine: Items Relating to the Sherman Children -- Philemon Tecumseh Sherman (July-Dec., 1891); Items from the Philemon B. Ewing Papers in the Ewing Family Collection (1849-1891); and John Sherman Papers (1847-1891).

The remainder of the Philemon Tecumseh Sherman material, with which the reel begins, concerns mainly the settlement of his father's estate. The major portion of the reel features items of correspondence withdrawn for filming as part of this microfilm publication from the Philemon B. Ewing Papers in the Ewing Family Collection at the University of Notre Dame Archives. Philemon, a successful lawyer and judge, was the brother of Ellen Ewing Sherman and had been the boyhood comrade of William Tecumseh. Consulted frequently on matters of business by the latter, he was also often the confidant of the former. These letters, the overwhelming majority of which are from either William or Ellen, are, therefore, of considerable importance. The final series of items on this reel features Papers of John Sherman, a younger brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. Born on May 10, 1823, John was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in May, 1844, married Margaret Sarah Cecelia Stewart on Aug. 31, 1848, and served as a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio from March, 1855, to March 1861, at which time he took a seat in the Senate. In 1877 he resigned that seat and entered President Hayes' Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, a post he held until 1881. He again served as Senator from Ohio from 1888 until 1897, at which time he resigned to enter President McKinley's Cabinet as Secretary of State. The latter post he retained only until April 25, 1898, when he resigned in a dispute over foreign policy. He died on Oct. 22, 1900. Unfortunately, the material concerning him in the Sherman Family Collection is rather scanty, consisting mainly of scattered items of correspondence and a number of cancelled checks. It does not include the correspondence between John and his brother, William Tecumseh, which was subsequently edited and published by Rachel Sherman Thorndike in The Sherman Letters (New York, 1894).

Reel Ten: Papers of General Thomas Ewing from the Yonkers Collection of Thomas Ewing (1831-1882); and Miscellaneous Drafts and Copies of Articles, Letters, Speeches and Reports (1859-1890).

The first series of items on the reel, the Papers of General Thomas Ewing, although forming a part of the William Tecumseh Sherman Family Papers as they were deposited in the University of Notre Dame Archives by Eleanor Sherman Fitch, does not have any direct and immediate relation with the William Tecumseh Sherman family. Instead, they concern various aspects of the public and private life of Thomas Ewing, the brother of Ellen Ewing Sherman. Born on Aug. 7, 1829, Tom Ewing was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1855. On Jan. 8, 1856, he married Ellen Cox. That same year he and his wife moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he combined the practice of law with various political activities. In 1861 he was chosen to be the first Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, an office he retained until September, 1862, when resigned in order to join the Union Army. After a successful army career which saw him promoted to the rank of major-general, he resumed the practice of law. A leader of the Greenback wing of the Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio, in 1879 he was defeated in a bid for the governorship of Ohio. In 1881 he retired from Congress and moved to New York City where he practiced law until his death on Jan. 21, 1896. With the second and final series of items on this reel we return to material having a direct relationship with Willam Tecumseh Sherman. Included in this series of letters pertaining mainly to Sherman's tenure as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning. Following these manuscripts in chronological order are such diverse items as: copies of letters on such subjects as the criticism levelled at Sherman for his conduct at the Battle of Shiloh by Lieutenant Governor Benjamin Stanton of Ohio, reconstruction, and reorganization of the army; a draft proposed by Sherman for the report of the Indian Peace Commission in 1868; drafts of several speeches; a draft for Sherman's Report of Nov. 10, 1880, as General of the Army; and a draft for the an article on California which appeared in the North American Review for March, 1889. The two manuscripts relative to Sherman's