Eleanor Boyle Ewing Sherman

In 1832, while her mother Maria was visiting her husband in DC, Ellen was sent to a convent school in Somerset run by Dominican Sisters, much to her apparent displeasure.

Luck would have it that her uncle, Judge William W. Irvin, was on the same coach, and he was able to secure her travels so she could spend a few days at home before being sent back to the convent until her mother picked her up later that year.

[1] She married William Tecumseh "Cump" Sherman in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 1850, in a ceremony attended by President Zachary Taylor and other political luminaries.

In addition, Ellen worked to protect her husband's military standing during the war, especially in a January 1862 Washington meeting with Lincoln at a time when General Sherman's reputation was under a cloud due to newspaper charges of insanity.

In 1864, Ellen took up temporary residence in South Bend, Indiana, to have her young family educated at the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's College.