SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH. 1820-1891.
Autograph Letter Signed ('W.T. Sherman') to Admiral David D. Porter, requesting assistance at Annapolis for the son of General John T. Slough, who had been recently killed in New Mexico, 3 pp, 8vo (195 x 125 mm), Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri stationery, Lancaster, Ohio, August 11, 1868, faded both recto and verso, matted and framed with portrait of Sherman.
WITH: Clipped signature ('W.T. Sherman / General / 1886'), 50 x 100 mm, matted beneath portrait and framed.

SHERMAN REQUESTS 'GENEROUS TREATMENT' FOR GENERAL SLOUGH'S SON AT ANNAPOLIS IN THE YEAR FOLLOWING SLOUGH'S TRAGIC DEATH IN NEW MEXICO. General John T. Slough fought for the Federal Army first in defense of Fort Union in New Mexico against Confederate forces, and then in Virginia. After the war, he was appointed Chief Justice of New Mexico and in this role made a series of judgements upholding the rights of the Pueblo Indians as equal citizens and against the peonage system which he saw as akin to slavery, which he had just risked his life to abolish. His reformist decisions on the bench, along with a fiery temper, made him unpopular as a judge in the territory. Led by lawmaker William Logan Rynerson, the Senate passed a joint resolution declaring Slough unfit as chief justice. When Slough denounced Rynerson publicly, Rynerson confronted him in a hotel bar and shot him. He died two days later.

Here Sherman intercedes on behalf of the younger Slough as he nears his examinations at Annapolis: '... his mother is now a widow, in deep distress. The fact that General Slough's family was changed about from place to place made the proper schooling of his children an impossibility ... I do think by reason of the services of General Slough, and of his death in the high office he held, his son is worthy of generous treatment ....'
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