Fr. Sherman's March With The Jesuits

Father Thomas Ewing Sherman (1856 – 1933)

"The General’s Son"
by Carol Gums

Back in the 1860’s, General William T. Sherman gained fame by his victorious march to the sea during the closing days of the Civil War. His name is much remembered for the mark he left on history. Lesser known today, but famous in his time was Father Thomas Ewing Sherman, the General’s son. He had become a great Orator, gaining national recognition in his adult years.

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Father Tom Sherman Chaplain in 1898 during the Spanish American	Tom Sherman- Oct. 1877 In Law Office of Henry Hitchcock in St. Louis	Father Tom Sherman May 1914

Thomas Ewing Sherman was born on October 10, 1856. He weighed in at a whopping 10lbs 8oz.! A big boy with some big shoes to fill. In the first few months of the Civil War, when Tom was five years old, he and his family would visit the General in various camps. He was given a uniform in his size to wear and got to sleep on the ground like the soldiers under his father’s command. He loved the military and the military code of conduct. On his way home from a camp in Memphis, his younger brother, Willie, became ill and died a few days later. Willie had been the General’s favorite son and the death devastated him. It was at this time that the General placed all his hopes and dreams on Tom. He had become more endearing to his father and reciprocated with great love and admiration for the General. The Shermans changed their base of operations five times during the first nine years of young Tom’s life. Moving around was a way of combating the General’s restless nature.

Tom’s mother, Ellen, taught her children the Catholic faith. One of her closest friends was Archbishop Purcell who visited the family frequently and impressed young Tom with his way of life.

Ellen and the General stressed pride in the family heritage and in the Sherman name to all their children but especially to Tom. In May of 1865 when Tom was nine years old, he stood beside President Grant at a parade honoring his father and the Union Army for the victory and end of the war. Young Tom’s shoulders straightened as he realized the importance of this momentous occasion.

He was awestruck by his father’s accomplishments and remained so all his life. Tom was quite naughty when he was young. So much so that his parents were afraid he’d become an outlaw as an adult, but their fears proved groundless. Tom grew up taking trips to the theater, songfests, and entertaining the famous people of his day including politicians and the clergy.

It was not unusual for Tom to dine at the White House on occasion with the Grants. He had a life of privilege that he readily accepted and enjoyed. Tom was very intelligent for his age and skipped grades at the Notre Dame nuns’ school. He continued to be at the top of his classes all through college. He was well liked in school. He sang loud, enjoyed stimulating conversation, and had a great sense of humor. He was good at everything he did including swimming, skating, and horseback riding.

At sixteen years of age Tom traveled all over Europe alone. He loved traveling and the independence that it gave to him. Tom attended Yale but didn’t care for the professors very much. He didn’t think they encouraged original thinking. He wanted to get a degree in law, but thought the University of Law in St. Louis would be a better school to attend for that particular degree.

He continued his graduate work in both law and the sciences. He loved Liberal Arts and studied them during his senior year, while graduating at the top of his class. It was important for Tom to keep up with men of wealth and social standing but he detested secret societies and fraternities and refused to be a part of them. Tom studied some law in St. Louis and began helping his father manage his financial affairs. The General became more and more dependent on Tom and was looking forward to him joining the Bar.

In 1878 Tom finally informed his family of the vocation he had chosen for himself. He wanted to become a Jesuit Priest. He had made the decision four years earlier, but was afraid of his father’s reaction. Tom waited and hoped that the longing to be a Jesuit would subside but instead it grew stronger until he could fight it no longer.

His father was grief stricken and took the news harder much than Tom could possibly imagine. The General didn’t speak to him or write him for a long time. He felt disappointed and deceived and could not understand why Tom wasted all that had been given to him.

Tom described his feeling for his vocation in a letter. "People in love do strange things," he wrote, "Having a vocation is like being in love, only more so, so there is no love more absorbing, so deep, and so lasting as that of a creature for the Creator."

The Jesuit life offered many aspects of the military that Tom admired including the code of obedience and self-control. Tom dutifully submitted to authority even when he thought the rules were useless. He was tightly controlled outwardly and eventually this would affect him inwardly. Tom went to Woodstock, a college in Maryland, to study Philosophy and was enthusiastic about being a Catholic.

He was the type of person who would emphasize the Kingdom more than the King but he was hungry for converts. In St. Louis Tom was assigned as a teacher. He was better at inspiring his students than he ever was at instructing them. He managed to encourages everal young men to join the Jesuits.

In 1889 Tom was invited to give a theological disputation, and that marked the beginning of his ministry as an Orator for the Catholic faith. Tom was ordained as a priest in Philadelphia seven months after his mother died. His father cited conflict with official business for not attending the ceremony. The General did arrive a few days afterward to spend some time with Tom. (More than likely he avoided the ordination on purpose.) During some of these later visits with his son, the General later mellowed some, and Tom and his father eventually established a more congenial relationship. In 1891 Tom was aboard ship when he learned his father had died. He always regretted not being with the General during his final hours.

Tom’s speaking engagements increased and he became a very out spoken defender of the Catholic Faith. Between 1891 and 1894 he traveled extensively - preaching, lecturing and explaining the Catholic religion, and blasting communism and labor unions.

He drew large crowds because of his father’s fame but he became such a skilled Orator that people began coming just to hear him speak. Tom could lecture for two hours without referring to his notes more than once and he always managed to get new converts to the faith by the time he was finished.

Tom had become so popular with the crowds that in 1896 the Provincial of Missouri ordered him to stop giving lectures. He felt Tom had become prideful and too theatrical, compromising the Jesuit image.

Tom’s sermons declined in quality and, shortly after ceasing the speeches, he suffered a complete nervous break down. His brother-in-law was a doctor and he convinced the Order that Tom needed to go to Boston and be with family to recuperate. Dr. Thorndike thought a trip abroad would be beneficial to Tom’s recovery as well. The Order agreed as long as Tom stayed in Jesuit housing. To get out of the constricting confines of the Jesuit housing, Tom mustered into the Missouri Volunteer Infantry as a Chaplain. He spent his time in Puerto Rico and fell in love with the people. In 1899 Tom was appointed parish priest and traveling missionary with his headquarters in Chicago.

He again began public lecturing and the crowds increased. He had to turn down numerous engagements due to his popularity. His Superiors recognized his talents and gave him freedom to continue his work and to convert non-Catholics along the way.

By 1900-1905 Tom was traveling coast to coast and gaining admiration from the Jesuits as well as the nation. President Theodore Roosevelt invited Tom to the unveiling ceremony of a statute of General William T. Sherman. He furthered invited Tom to ride with West Point cadets into Georgia to retrace his father’s famous march to the sea. Tom was both honored and thrilled with the prospect of such a journey and accepted readily. However, the Southerners were furious, thinking that Tom was afraid of entering the South without a military guard. The Southern Congressmen were upset because their pride in hospitality was bruised. Had Tom arrived in the South alone he would have been treated courteously and with respect. The President withdrew the military guard leaving Tom alone and deeply embarrassed. Tom did not finish the trip and was very angry with the President for bowing to pressure and letting him look like the guilty party when in fact he had been the invited guest.

Tom wanted to go to Rome to speak with the Superiors there so he concocted a reason siting indiscretion with money matters concerning the Catholic Truth Society, which he founded. Permission for the trip was denied. Eventually his persistence paid off, and he finally went to Rome and cited all his complaints against the Jesuits.

They listened politely knowing that he was not in possession of his mental facalties. Tom’s behavior began to change. He flew into a rage threatening criminal prosecution because his office was entered and the lights extinguished. He was doing things without consulting his Superior and ended up in the hospital for a month’s rest. In 1909 Tom requested to go to California to rest indefinitely. Permission was granted.

By July 1911 Tom suffered a complete mental break down and was put into a sanitarium. He tried to commit suicide shortly after and was sent to an insane asylum.

His sister came and transferred him to a Sanitarium in Baltimore. One month later he was moved to one in Boston. He had been violent in the beginning and then softened and despaired over his lost spirituality. He refused to see any Jesuits because he felt he had committed the unpardonable sin. After a year Tom returned to the Jesuit Order and transferred to Milwaukee. He detested his Superior there and left one day showing up unannounced and requesting accommodations in Chicago. As Tom’s mental stability weakened, he began threatening to make public charges against the Jesuits for illegal imprisonment. Being a Sherman he would be able to draw national attention.

To keep Tom quiet the Jesuits appointed him as a special assistant editor of the Jesuit magazine, "The Queen’s Work". Tom ranted and raved about the Jesuits imprisoning him and vowed revenge. As long as he could travel and do as he wished he seemed fine. But his mental state was worsening.

The Jesuits went out of their way to help Tom and keep the peace. Tom wanted to withdraw from the Jesuits but no one had the authority to do it. He wrote letters and threatened lawsuits to get free of the Order, yet at the same time he wanted to be made bishop so he could be a diocese priest. While the bishop was deciding what to do, Tom bought some land to build a church that he would pastor. He took many trips to find people to be "settlers" for his new community. The trips became longer and more frequent until he finally became disillusioned and stopped altogether. From 1924-1929 Tom retired to his bungalow in Santa Barbara. He gardened, prayed, and lived peacefully alone. In 1929 he tried to work as an unpaid missionary to Puerto Rico but physically only lasted a few months. He suffered from Neurasthenia and Gastritis and was broken down and feeble. He applied for disability and put his father down as the nearest relative to be notified in case of death. In November of 1931 Tom’s brother was notified that Tom needed to be institutionalized due to violent behavior. Tom was taken to New Orleans and lived in a facility there from 1931 until 1933.

On April 29th, 1933 Tom suffered a massive hemorrhage of the stomach. He asked for a Jesuit priest to come and renewed his own vows as a Jesuit by memory. That evening he passed away peacefully.

Fr. Thomas Ewing Sherman left his mark on this world as his father had done before him. General William T. Sherman will always be remembered for his infamous march to the sea and his son will be recalled as a great Orator who moved the hearts and spirits of the men and women of his time.

Link (here) to even more of this interesting American Jesuit

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From McNamara's Blog, a post entitled, Was General Sherman Catholic?