June 2 1862, While I was packing up to leave, Gen. Sherman arrived.  He asked if it were true that I was going away.  I told him it was.  He asked why and I told him, “Sherman, you know.  You know that I am in the way here.  I have stood it as long as I can and can endure it no longer.”  He asked where I was going, to which I replied “St. Louis”.  “Do you have any business there?” he asked.  “Not a bit,” I replied.

Sherman then asked me to stay.  “Before the battle of Shiloh, I was cast down by a mere newspaper assertion of ‘crazy’, but that single battle gave me new life, and I am now in high feather.”  He argued that if I went away I would be left out of the war, but if I remained, some happy accident might restore me to my true place.  I was touched, and promised to think about what he had said, and not to go away until I had communicated with him further.

Grant, JE Smith, p 212

Grant: A Biography, William S McFeely, p 118-9

Memoirs, William T Sherman, p 237-8