The William Tecumseh Sherman Family Papers, as they were deposited in the University of Notre Dame Archives by Miss Eleanor Sherman Fitch, the granddaughter of General Sherman, prior to her death in 1959, consisted of correspondence, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, various legal papers and documents, cancelled checks, bankbooks, financial ledgers, drafts for and copies of articles, speeches and military orders, and explanatory notations -- sometimes on the items themselves and sometimes on separated sheets. This material ranged from the year 1808 to the year 1959 and consisted of originals, photostats, microfilm, typewritten copies and handwritten copies. the nucleus of the collections had been gathered and preserved by Philemon Tecumseh Sherman followed the death of the father, General Sherman. It was subsequently augmented by Miss Fitch, Philemon's niece, who added items in her own possession, typewritten copies which she had made of various items in the collections itself, items or copies of items which she was able to acquire from the others, and her own explanatory notes.
The microfilm edition, sponsored by the National Historical Publications Commission, was completed in 1967, together with a guide to the edition. Most of the original material in the collection dating 1808-1891 was filmed.
For the most part only original items belonging to the period up to and including the year 1891 -- the year of General Sherman's death -- have been selected for microfilming. To this material from the Sherman Family Papers have been added various items of relevant correspondence gleaned from other collections in the possession of the University of Notre Dame Archives. The great bulk of this additional material is from the Ewing Family Collection. However several items have been added also from the Orestes Augustus Brownson Papers, the Papers of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the Daniel E. Hudson, C.S.C. Papers, and the Edward F. Sorin, C.S.C., Papers. The material not filmed, which consists of items of more recent vintage, printed material, clippings, and copies of items for the period up to 1891, is available for consultation at the Archives.
Although Miss Eleanor Sherman Fitch had begun the task of arranging the material which constitutes the William Tecumseh Sherman Family Papers, that work was far from completion when she deposited those papers in the University of Notre Dame Archives. Where meaningful groupings that lend themselves readily to microfilming, such as the correspondence between William T. Sherman and his wife Ellen or items relating to the Sherman children, had been constructed by Miss Fitch, these have been preserved and perfected. Items within each such grouping have been arranged chronologically with undated items pertaining to the particular grouping coming last. Items which did not fit in with any such grouping have been placed together in one over-all chronological series entitled "General Correspondence and Related Items."
In a large number of instances, dates have been supplied as part of the editorial procedure. Where this has been the case, the supplied dates have been placed in brackets in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Question marks have been used to indicate questionable dates. Items dated only by month have been placed at the beginning of that year. Enclosures have been placed immediately after their cover letters. Undated items have been arranged in alphabetical order.
William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Correspondence, clippings, scrapbooks, diaries, legal and financial papers, drafts and copies of articles, speeches and military orders, and explanatory notes; originals, photostats, microfilm, typewritten copies and handwritten copies; also books from the Sherman family library and photographs, including many by George Barnard taken during the Civil War.
Available on microfilm from the Archives of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556.
The sixth of the eleven children of Charles Robert and Mary Hoyt Sherman, upon the death of his father in 1829 he went to live with the Thomas Ewings, a prominent Ohio family. In 1850 Sherman married one of the Ewing daughters, Ellen. They had eight children: Maria Ewing Sherman Fitch, Mary Elizabeth Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman, Jr., Thomas Ewing Sherman, Eleanor Mary Sherman Thackara, Rachel Ewing Sherman Thorndike, Charles Celestine Sherman, and Philemon Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman, a West Point graduate and Army captain at the time of his marriage to Ellen, resigned his commission in 1853; before his re-entry into the service in 1861, he served as a banker in California, a lawyer in Ohio, a