AMERICA - SHERMAN (WILLIAM T.) Autograph letter signed ("W.T. Sherman") to Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd ("O.H. Oldroyd Esq."), in response to his letter of 22 April; "...I will state that it would take more than this Scrap of paper for me to record my sentiments of the life & service of Abraham Lincoln...", one page, on a letterhead depicting an engraved profile portrait of Abraham Lincoln on recto and Lincoln's tomb on verso, discolouration, light smudging, upper corners , small tears to edges with some loss not affecting text, small area of water staining lower left corner, in cloth folder, 8vo (210 x 137mm.), Washington D.C., 26 April 1880 TWO FOREMOST FIGURES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: LINCOLN'S TRUSTED COMMANDER GENERAL SHERMAN COMMENTS ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LEGACY. General William T. Sherman here responds to a request from Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd of Springfield, Illinois (1842-1930), who wrote to several important figures of the Civil War enclosing the engraved letterhead he had especially prepared, and inviting them to comment on Lincoln's legacy. He collected over 200 testimonials, and published them, together with Lincoln's speeches and sayings, as The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles. Original life pictures, with autographs, from the hand and hearts of eminent Americans and Europeans contemporaries of the great martyr to liberty, Abraham Lincoln in 1883. A longer appreciation of Lincoln by Sherman was included in the final publication (Oldroyd, p.367) and it is therefore conceivable that our letter may have been his initial response to Oldroyd's request, or may have accompanied Sherman's essay. Oldroyd began collecting items connected in Lincoln in his twenties, when Lincoln was still alive, and he rapidly became the foremost collector of Lincoln memorabilia, collecting '...everything I could find sacred to Lincoln's memory, from a newspaper scrap to his large cook-stove...' (Oldroyd, p.vi), so much so that he founded his own museum in 1883 in the old Lincoln home at Springfield. On the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in November 1860, Sherman, who was teaching at a military academy in Louisiana, broke with the South and joined the Union cause. Their first meeting was not auspicious and due to their differing attitudes towards the South and slavery, it is said their relationship was based on mutual respect rather than friendship. His capture of Atlanta in September 1864 saved Lincoln's Presidency, and on the capture of Savannah, Sherman telegraphed 'I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah', to which Lincoln replied 'many, many thanks'. Sherman was tasked with announcing Lincoln's assassination to the army in 1861, and in his memoirs, would say of him 'Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other'. Provenance: Oliver Barrett, Lincoln historian and collector; Raab Collection, who described it as 'The only document of Sherman on his feelings about Lincoln we have found ever reaching the market'; Private collection, U.K.