Sometimes I fear that I might find the monotonous and the plodding life of a lawyer too much lacking the excitement to satisfy me after three years in the army, as many before me have done, bus I mean to be a more domestic and sociable man than I have ever been before, and I am sure that I shall find in the delights of home and family all that my heart longs for. On one point my mind is fully made up, and that is that I will never again make myself a slave to my business as I did for several years before going into the army. I am sure we shall be a happier family with a smaller income and more time spent in domestic and social intercourse.
Letter to Caroline Harrison, March 17th, 1865.
Idle, lonely time at Camp Sherman in South Carolina forced General Harrison to focus upon his shortcomings as a husband and father. The four years leading up to the Civil War had been a hard slog for Harrison, one in which he dedicated himself joylessly toward growing his business, financial fears and not love of family driving him. Stuck at Camp Sherman, he was not even receiving letters from home; they were detained at XX Corps headquarters.
While lonely Harrison drilled men near Blair’s Landing, his men under Sherman won the campaign against Johnston, effectively ending the war in the Deep South.
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