First telecommuter?

I was just re-reading Lee Kennett’s Sherman: A Soldier’s Life, when I read the following paragraph on page 309:

In 1874 Sherman [then Commanding General of the Army] decided to execute another withdrawal. He asked permission to follow the precedent set by Winfield Scott and transfer his headquarters from Washington to St. Louis. [President] Grant gave his approval and Sherman made the move, though any number of his associates, including Sheridan, advised strongly against it. With reliable telegraphic communications between the two cities the commanding general could argue that he would not be that remote, yet at the same time the distance would liberate him from the baneful influences of the capital, where he said he “would have to bend to the personal influences of Senators and members of Congress who naturally wish rather to serve their friends than to watch over the economy and good of the service.”

(Italics mine) The man was the first telecommuter. Substitute “Internet” for “telegraphic” and that’s pretty much the same rationale I’ve been using since January 1996 for living in Indianapolis and working in Maryland…and as for being liberated from baneful influences, well, maybe that would be the sales and marketing departments…:)