The High Tide of Small-r Republicanism

A couple of days ago, I posted an item about the old soldiers at the Delhi Durbar. It put me in mind of another memorable public spectacle—the celebratory parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington at the end of the Civil War, and in particular, the force led by General William Tecumseh Sherman, ending the long march that had taken it across the length and breadth of the Confederacy:

The morning of the 24^th was extremely beautiful and the ground was in splendid order for our review. The streets were filled with people to see the pageant, armed with bouquets of flowers for their favorite regiments or heroes, and every thing was propitious. Punctually at 9 a.m. the signal-gun was fired, when in person, attended by General Howard and all my staff, I rode slowly down Pennsylvania Avenue, the crowds of men, women and children, densely lining the sidewalks and almost obstructing the way. … When I reached the Treasury-building, and looked back, the sight was simply magnificent. The column was compact, and the glittering muskets looked like a solid mass of steel, moving with the regularity of a pendulum. …

[Sherman’s Army] was, in my judgment, the most magnificent army in existence—sixty-five thousand men, in splendid physique, who had just completed a march of nearly two thousand miles in a hostile country, in good drill, and who realized that they were being closely scrutinized by thousands of their fellow-countrymen and foreigners. … The steadiness and firmness of the tread, and the careful dress on the guides, the uniform intervals between the companies, all eyes directly to the front, and the tattered and bullet-riven flags, festooned with floors, all attracted universal notice. Many good people, up to that time, and looked upon our Western army as a sort of a mob; but the world then saw, and recognized the fact, that it was an army in the proper sense, well organized, well commanded and disciplined, and there was no wonder that it had swept through the South like a tornado. … Some of the division commanders had added, by way of variety, goats, milch-cows, and pack-mules, whose loads consisted of game-cocks, poultry, hams, etc., and some of them had the families of freed slaves along, with the women leading their children. M mach division was preceded by its corps of black pioneers, armed with picks and spades. These marched abreast in double ranks, keeping perfect dress and step, and added much to the interest of the occasion. On the whole, the grand review was a splendid success, and was a fitting conclusion to the campaign and the war.

--William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman 805-6
(Library of America ed. 1984)

I am aware, of course, that there are places in this country where people still find it possible to contain their admiration for Sherman. Perhaps because I grew up in New Hampshire, I have never been tempted to see things their way. As a warrior, he was a success by any measure. Yet the mark of a successful general is not his kill rate but his capacity to prevail. Sherman’s capacity to prevail is beyond any cavil but his kill rate, measured in context pretty mild. What he produced was not just a famous victory, but one of the most remarkable armies in human history—in many respects, the high tide of small-r republicanism, the very model of a citizenry in arms.

Fn.: April 24th. By my count, that is 142 years ago Tuesday.