John Bidwell first met William Tecumseh Sherman in California in 1847 when Sherman was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and Bidwell was a surveyor and a major in the California Battalion. I’ve written about that encounter, as told in Sherman’s memoirs, elsewhere.

They saw each other off and on in the following years. Sherman was a banker in San Francisco from 1853 to 1857, and Bidwell, who often had business in the City, probably saw him there. Sherman’s army career took off with the Civil War and by the end of the war his fame was only second to General Grant’s. Both Grant and Sherman attended the wedding of John Bidwell and Annie Kennedy on April 16, 1868.

In 1877 Sherman made a trip to the West Coast to inspect Army posts. Everyone hoped to see him and speak to the hero. But he could be elusive. On his journey by stagecoach and train from Oregon to San Francisco he passed through Chico. An item in the Chico Enterprise announced his imminent arrival.

John Bidwell wrote in his diary:

Sat. October 6.
Wife, sister and self went to Depot to see Gen Sherman. He did not get out of car so no one but myself saw him, for he called me into his room.

It seems that General Sherman, having had some sleepless nights, was still in bed. He was not properly dressed to meet the ladies, let alone the crowd that had gathered at the depot. When he reached San Francisco he wrote Bidwell a letter of apology.

As you can see, his handwriting is not the easiest to decipher. But I have been working on it and next time I will give you a complete transcription.