After the surrender of Vicksburg Mississippi to Union forces in July, 1863, there was a lull in the prosecution of the war. So true was this that many union officers sent for their families to come and spend some time with them in the area where only a short time before Vicksburg had been under siege for forty seven terrible days. Grant had some of his family present even before the surrender, and afterward William Tecumseh Sherman was among the officers who sent for family.

Sherman had a son who was named after him, Willie. Willie was nine years old. The boy became positively enthralled with everything military  particularly Captain C.C. Smith's Battalion, Thirteenth United States Regulars. He was thrilled watching this battalion march and drill. When the boy became seriously ill and was diagnosed with Typhoid, there was much concern not only among his family but among the soldiers of the Thirteenth who had adopted young Willie as their mascot.On doctor's advice the Shermans and Willie headed for Memphis where there were reportedly newer medicines and a better doctor.In spite of all efforts,  the child died.

The following letter from General Sherman to Captain Smith speaks for itself. Have a tissue handy for more than likely there will be some tears as  you read the letter. Please notice demonstrated in this letter what people a hundred and fifty years ago could accomplish with the English language. You will feel Sherman's heartbreak at the death of his young son, and you will not just hear of the gratitude the general felt for those soldiers who had befriended little Willie, you will feel it in your soul. What do you say to someone after they pledge on behalf of themselves and their family that you will share "our last blanket, our last crust"? People hardly ever communicate on that level anymore and it is a huge shame.

Instead we're at a place where we chose, as a leader, a highly touted young superstar, intelligent, articulate, a great orator (if you fall for the hype) who has accomplished exactly nothing of merit in his entire life and who's  grades at university are a state secret. We've been had. We have gone from someone who said he was a "uniter" and not a divider to someone who generally cannot string together two coherent sentences without a teleprompter. At least we knew the "uniter" had a c average, and we are learning that the superstar is rapidly loosing the ability to cover up the raw anger, rage actually, that motivates him much of the time. God help anyone who reports a substantial profit, it is not the redistribution of wealth model  that he favors.

GAYOSO HOUSE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
October 4, 1863, Midnight
 Captain C. C. SMITH, commanding Battalion Thirteenth United States Regulars.

 MY DEAR FRIEND: I cannot sleep to-night till I record an expression of the deep feelings of my heart to you, and to the officers and soldiers of the battalion, for their kind behavior to my poor child. I realize that you all feel for my family the attachment of kindred, and I assure you of full reciprocity. Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and office, I could not leave my post, and sent for the family to come to me in that fatal climate, and in that sickly period of the year, and behold the result! The child that bore my name, and in whose future I reposed with more confidence than I did in my own plan of life, now floats a mere corpse, seeking a grave in a distant land, with a weeping mother, brother, and sisters, clustered about him. For myself, I ask no sympathy. On, on I must go, to meet a soldier's fate, or live to see our country rise superior to all factions, till its flag is adored and respected by ourselves and by all the powers of the earth.

But Willie was, or thought he was, a sergeant in the Thirteenth. I have seen his eye brighten, his heart beat, as he beheld the battalion under arms, and asked me if they were not real soldiers. Child as he was, he had the enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor, and love of country, which should animate all soldiers.

God only knows why he should die thus young. He is dead, but will not be forgotten till those who knew him in life have followed him to that same mysterious end.

Please convey to the battalion my heart-felt thanks, and assure each and all that if in after-years they call on me or mine, and mention that they were of the Thirteenth Regulars when Willie was a sergeant, they will have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it has; that we will share with them our last blanket, our last crust!

Your friend,

 W. T. SHERMAN, Major-general.

Now for the lessons from the past, lesson number one: The newspapers of the day often reported that Sherman was crazy, insane and otherwise unfit for duty and some of them even implored President Lincoln to relieve him of duty.The similarities in reporting about Sherman and G.W. Bush in his day are not unnoticed. The question is, how could someone so out of touch with reality, so crazy, ever manage to write such a letter as Sherman wrote regarding his beloved Willie? There's also another question begging for an answer. Has anything changed? Do we not still have a news media largely as  rotten as it was in Sherman's day?

Lesson Number Two: And this is for our President, Barak Obama and his Chicago cronies who definitely do not  think that our country shines above the rest or that it should. It is also for a president who has difficulty with the concept of victory because it would make his adversaries uncomfortable. Hirohito surrendering at the end  of World War Two is one example the president gives, but the Japanese emperor was never directly involved in any surrender. You'd think our president would know that, as prominent a thing in U.S. history as the details of our victory in the big war. But no, Mr.Obama seems more thoroughly steeped in America's aggressiveness and arrogance than in the details of our victory in World War Two. These are the attributes he mentions  in his visits with our neighbors. Unlike Barak Obama, Abraham Lincoln found much joy in the Union and the freedoms of the Declaration of Independence, enough to refer to all of it as, "the last best hope of earth", in his annual message to Congress in December, 1862. The thought of The United States being  exceptional is not something that warms the heart of President Obama. Remember, he did say that We are no more exceptional than "Brits think Britain is or Greeks think Greece is". Where Lincoln saw "the last best hope of earth" President Obama sees only the mediocrity of another welfare state but one which has many grave sins to atone for.

 General Sherman wanted our "flag adored and respected by ourselves and all the powers of the earth." He also wrote of the childlike "enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor and love of country" he found in his son. Does anyone think Mr. Obama will ever adapt such goals for the country he's supposed to lead?

Oh what a leader and  what a world we would have today if young Barak Obama had spent his time emulating the Shermans, both the general and Willie, rather than the Chicago mob.