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Biographical Notes
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William Tecumseh Sherman
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Sherman was present when messengers from Johann Sutter brought samples of gold from the American River discovery to the military governor's office. On June 17, 1848, Mason and Sherman accompanied by four trusted soldiers and Mason's black servant, Aaron, departed Monterey for the gold fields. In San Francisco, three days later, they found the city largely deserted. At Sutter's Fort they found enormous activity and a large influx of people. On July 5, 1848, Mason and Sherman reached Mormon Bar on the American River and saw their first gold rush community. They spent several more days in the mountains and Sherman estimated that they had seen about four thousand men extracting about fifty thousand dollars worth of gold a day. On their return to Monterey, Mason received word that the Mexican War was over and California now belonged to the United States. Sherman composed the dispatch that Colonel Mason sent to Washington confirming the discovery of gold. In September 1848 Mason and Sherman revisited the gold fields and together with Lieutenant William H. Warner each invested $500 in a store in Coloma. (Sherman's memoirs notes that each of the partners made a profit of $1,500 from their investment).
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General Persifer F. Smith replaced Colonel Mason and moved his headquarters to San Francisco in the Spring of 1849. Sherman remained as Smith's adjutant and moved north to establish their new office in the Customs House while taking over the old Hudson's Bay Company building for living quarters. Smith found San Francisco unacceptable for his headquarters and ordered Sherman to move it to Sonoma. In May 1849, while on furlough, Sherman took on several surveying jobs. In the process he accumulated, as partial payment for his services, a number of pieces of property which he valued at $6,000. He attended the California Constitutional Convention as General Smith's official observer. In January 1850, Sherman boarded the Steamship Oregon on the first leg of his trip to New York carrying dispatches from General Smith for General Winfield Scott. Also on board the Oregon were California's first two Senators - William Gwin and John Fremont. On arrival in New York, at the end of January, Sherman delivered Smith's dispatches to General Scott and Sherman complained to the general of his lack of promotion. Scott had presidential aspirations and wanted the political support of Sherman's foster father, Thomas Ewing, then serving as first Secretary of the Interior. Scott sent Sherman to see the Secretary of War to see if he might advance Sherman's career, but with no immediate results.
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Sherman married his foster sister, Ellen Ewing, on May 1, 1850, in the Ewing residence - Blair House - across the street from the White House. The wedding was a grand affair with over 300 prominent guests including President Zachary Taylor and Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. The newlyweds went on a honeymoon that took them on an extensive tour of New England. They returned to Washington in time for the Fourth of July celebrations and the subsequent death of President Taylor. Sherman was present in Congress during the debates that led up to the Compromise of 1850 that admitted California to the Union and postponed the Civil War. On September 22, 1850, after General Scott assured Secretary Ewing that his foster son was to be promoted to captain, Sherman travelled alone to his new posting in St. Louis, Missouri. War with Great Britain over the status of Oregon was considered a possibility and Sherman believed that he might well be involved in it. In March 1851 Ellen joined him in St. Louis. Ewing and Sherman invested in property in and around St. Louis and Sherman managed their holdings.
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In October 1852 Sherman was sent to New Orleans to clear up a case of impropriety in the commissary service. He established his office in Lafayette Square and promptly set things straight. In December 1852 Henry S. Turner, a St. Louis banker (Lucas and Turner), asked Sherman to leave the army and help him open a branch of his bank in California. Sherman took a six month leave of absence from the army and in April 1853 travelled by steamship to San Francisco. (The ship went aground near Bolinas, but Sherman and the rest of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore safely.) In September 1853 he resigned his commission and accepted the bank position. An important percentage of the deposits in his bank were from army officers and he felt a particular sense of responsibility for this trust. On February 17, 1855 word arrived in San Francisco of the failure of the Page and Bacon Bank of St. Louis. A general run on all of the banks in San Francisco soon followed. Sheman's bank was one of the few that avoided having to close its doors. He was one of the city's leading personalities, was selected to be the Grand Martial for San Francisco's statehood celebratory parade and urged to run for political office. In the spring of 1856 he accepted the position of major general commanding the California militia.
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