As William T. Sherman was trying to reorganize his brigade after the retreat from Bull Run, one of his officers, a lawyer, informed him that he was returning to New York because his three-month term of enlistment had expired. Sherman told the officer, without flinching: "Captain, if you attempt to leave without orders, it will be mutiny, and I will shoot you like a dog."- Later that afternoon President Lincoln himself appeared in his carriage to help back up the troops. As he and Sherman were sitting in his carriage, the same officer approached and said: "Mr. President, I have cause of grievance; Colonel Sherman threatened to shoot me." Lincoln, looking at Sherman and then back to the man, answered in a loud stage whisper: "Well, if I were you, I would not trust him. I believe he would do it!"
Bull Run ist the first battle of the american civil war. The lawyer´s laxness shows the widely spread ignorance about modern war at that time, when families of Washington´s upper society were picknicking around the battlefield to be entertained. Later Sherman was noted: „War is hell“.
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