Word Celebrity Blog

William Tecumseh Sherman



William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author.  He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States.

Military historian B. H. Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general."

Historian John D. Winters in "The Civil War in Louisiana" (1963) describes Sherman, accordingly: "Sherman, beset by hallucinations and unreasonable fears and finally contemplating suicide, had been relieved from command in Kentucky.  He later began a new climb to success at Shiloh and Corinth under Grant.  Still, if he muffed his Vicksburg assignment, which had begun unfavorably, he would rise no higher. As a man, Sherman was an eccentric mixture of strength and weakness.  Although he was impatient, often irritable and depressed, petulant, headstrong, and unreasonably gruff, he had solid soldierly qualities.  His men swore by him, and most of his fellow officers admired him."


























William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8, 1820.   His father Charles Robert Sherman, married his mother Mary Hoyt Sherman,on May 8, 1810, in Norwalk, Connecticut.   The family had originally come to America and New England from England in the seventeenth century.

Mary Hoyt had married her neighbor and childhood sweetheart, Charles Robert Sherman.  He had been born on September 26, 1788, to Judge Taylor Sherman and his wife Elizabeth Stoddard Sherman.  Charles had studied law under his father and another noted attorney and then he was admitted to the Connecticut Bar.

Charles and Mary Sherman had been married only a few months when Charles left Mary in Connecticut while he traveled to the new state of Ohio to explore the 1,280 acres his father owned in northeastern Ohio. Charles Sherman was eager to see the land in this new territory and perhaps settle there and open a law practice.  When he arrived in Ohio , he learned that the Indians were engaged in war with white settlers in the northern part of the state.  Feeling that it was not safe to go north at that time, he instead followed the southern route of Zane’s Trace (Ebenezer Zane, who had constructed Zane's Trace, a pioneer road through present-day Ohio) through Zanesville to Lancaster, Ohio at the point where Zane's Trace met the Muskingum River.

Charles Sherman was so pleased with the beauty and the promise of a bright future in Lancaster, that he quickly returned to Norwalk to convince Mary that they should settle there.  He arrived in Connecticut, in time to be with his wife Mary for the birth of their first child. Charles Taylor Sherman who was born February 3, 1811.

Mary Sherman said goodbye to her family, her friends and the comforts of her home. It took  almost two months of hard, wilderness travel to a place she had not seen. She would never again return to her native Connecticut.

When the Shermans arrived in Lancaster they moved into a little brown salt-box shaped, frame house near the center of town.  Lancaster had only began to be settled in 1800.  It was still a young town with a good deal of future growth potential.


























Charles and Mary Sherman had 11 children:  Charles Taylor, Mary Elizabeth, James, Amelia, Julia Ann, William Tecumseh, Lampson Parker, John, Susan Denman, Hoyt and Frances Beecher,  who was born one month before her father’s death.

After moving to Lancaster, Ohio,  Charles Robert Sherman began to practice law on the Circuit Court, which was nicknamed the "Stirrup Court" since more time was spent in the saddle than in the courtroom.  A good friend and lawyer Thomas Ewing, who he had encouraged to settle in Lancaster, often joined him.  They traveled by horseback with the accompaniment of other lawyers and the Supreme Court Judges to try the cases that awaited them throughout the district.  There was great feelings of camaraderie among them and Charles Sherman was known to be gregarious and outgoing.

The Supreme Court Judges were required to visit each county in their district once a year, and this made the circuit trips as long as two or three months.

In 1823 the Ohio Legislature elected Charles Sherman as Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court.  While he was holding court in Lebanon, Ohio in June 1829,  he suddenly fell ill and died six days later at the "Golden Lamb Inn". 

Charles Robert Sherman left his wife, Mary, and eleven children in bad financial straits. He may have been poor in finances, but he was rich in friends and family, who they came to the rescue.  Several of his children were raised by family and friends.  Thomas Ewing raised William Tecumseh Sherman, who would, years later, marry his daughter, Ellen.

Charles Sherman had been well known for his legal integrity and in Judge Moses M. Granger's 1872 review of Judge Sherman's legal opinions he wrote "not one has ever been overruled,” and "he possessed a legal ability and acumen of a very high grade, his grasp of legal principles was firm, his reasoning clear and his logic precise,” and "Judge Charles R. Sherman must ever hold a high place among the Supreme Judges of Ohio.”


























William T. Sherman's childhood home in Lancaster.


 William Tecumseh Sherman, recalled how excited the children were when their father came home.  He wrote, “I can remember well his coming home as usual on horseback, when all the boys would run to meet him. Whoever got to him first had the privilege to ride his horse ‘Dick’ back to the stable on the rear of the lot.”

He wrote of his father’s death:  “Of course father’s death was a terrible event in a family of eleven children. I was too young to appreciate it, but it was manifest that had it not been for the large circle of warm friends to help mother we would have been poor indeed. Mother had absolutely nothing but the house, two or three town lots and some little bank stock but I have reason to believe that Mr. (Thomas) Ewing, Mr. (Henry) Stanbery (present Attorney General), Mr. (Philoman) Beecher and others arranged her affairs so that she had a small income, besides the house. Still so large a family was more than she could have cared for without the positive help of friends. Mr. (William J.) Reese took Julia. Lamp was taken by Mr. Charles Hammond of Cincinnati. John by a Cousin John Sherman of Mount Vernon, and the younger children remained with mother at Lancaster. I was taken by Mr. Ewing and put on a par with his own children.”
In 1844, Mary Sherman moved from Lancaster to Mansfield, Ohio with John, Susan and Frances.  She lived there until her death on September 23, 1852.  She was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Lancaster.


























Thomas Ewing.


The eighth Sherman child was a nine-year-old boy that his father had given the middle name of Tecumseh for a famous Indian chief.  Mary Sherman gave up the boy, William Tecumseh Sherman, and two of his brothers for adoption.

Thomas Ewing adopted William.  He sent the bright and energetic boy to Lancaster schools the next seven years, and then secured a cadetship at West Point in 1836 for his young protege, who would one day, become one of the most famous of the Civil War Union generals. 

Attorney Thomas Ewing,  served as a Senator from Ohio and as the first Secretary of the Interior.

William T. Sherman had taken quite a liking to Thomas Ewing's daughter Ellen and after 14 years of separation, they were  married in 1850 in Washington D.C. at Thomas Ewing's Pennsylvania Avenue home with a flock of Washington dignitaries attending.  The Ewing family also gave William T. Sherman his lifelong nickname, "Cump."


William T. Sherman discovered that he was distantly related to the American founding father Roger Sherman and he grew to admire him.






















One of the other brothers who was given up for adoption,  John Taylor Sherman,  served as a  Cabinet secretary,  became a United States Senator from Ohio and is best known for the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.






















Hoyt Sherman  (1827-1904)  was the younger brother of General William T. Sherman.  He was a Major and served as a Paymaster for the Union Army.  He was also a successful banker and insurance executive in Des Moines, Iowa.





.















Two of William T. Sherman's foster brothers served as major generals in the Union Army during the Civil War. Hugh Boyle Ewing, would later become an ambassador and author.


























Thomas Ewing, Jr. would also serve as a defense attorney in the military trials against the President Abraham Lincoln conspirators.


























William Tecumseh Sherman's unusual given name has always attracted considerable attention.

William T. Sherman himself reports that his middle name grew from the fact that his father "caught a fancy for the great chief of the Shawnees, 'Tecumseh.'" 

Since the publication of a 1932 biography, it has often been reported that, as an infant, William Tecumseh Sherman was named simply Tecumseh.  According to these accounts, he only acquired the name "William" at age nine or ten, after being taken into the Ewing household.  These accounts are very suspect dince William T. Sherman himself states in his Memoirs that his father named him "William Tecumseh", and there is corroborating evidence that the young Sherman was baptized by a Presbyterian minister as an infant and given the name William at that time.  As an adult, William T. Sherman signed ALL his correspondence (even to his wife)  "W.T. Sherman,"  but his friends and family always called him "Cump".

William T. Sherman did not adhere to any organized religion for the latter part of his adult life. His wife, Ellen Ewing Sherman, was a devout Catholic and his son Thomas became a Catholic priest.  According to Thomas, William T. Sherman attended the Catholic Church until the outbreak of the Civil War, but he did not attend  thereafter.






















Senator Ewing secured an appointment for the 16-year-old Sherman as a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he roomed and became good friends with another important future Civil War General, George H. Thomas.

At West Point, William T. Sherman excelled academically, but he was indifferent to the demerit system. . Fellow cadet William Rosecrans would later remember William T. Sherman as "one of the brightest and most popular fellows" and "a bright-eyed, red-headed fellow, who was always prepared for a lark of any kind".

About his time at West Point, William T. Sherman says only the following in his Memoirs: "At the Academy I was not considered a good soldier, for at no time was I selected for any office, but remained a private throughout the whole four years. Then, as now, neatness in dress and form, with a strict conformity to the rules, were the qualifications required for office, and I suppose I was found not to excel in any of these.  In studies I always held a respectable reputation with the professors, and generally ranked among the best, especially in drawing, chemistry, mathematics, and natural philosophy.  My average demerits, per annum, were about one hundred and fifty,  which reduced my final class standing from number four to six."


























Upon his graduation in 1840, William T. Sherman entered the Army as a second lieutenant  in the 3rd U.S. Artillery and saw action in Florida in the Second Seminole War against the Seminole Indian tribe.  He was later stationed in Georgia and South Carolina.  As the foster son of a prominent Whig politician, in Charleston, the popular Lieutenant William T. Sherman moved within the upper circles of Old South society.

While many of his colleagues saw action in the Mexican-American War,  Lieutenant William T. Sherman performed administrative duties in the captured territory of California.  He and fellow officer Lieutenant Edward Ord reached the town of Yerba Buena two days before its name was changed to San Francisco.  In 1848,  Lieutenant William T. Sherman accompanied the military governor of California, Col. Richard Barnes Mason, in the inspection that officially confirmed the claim that gold had been discovered in the region. This confirmation set off the California Gold Rush.  Lieutenant T. Sherman, along with Lieutenant Edward Ord, assisted in surveys for the sub-divisions of the town that would later become Sacramento.

Lieutenant William T. Sherman earned a brevet promotion to captain for his "meritorious service", but his lack of a combat assignment discouraged him and may have contributed to his decision to resign his commission. Lieutenant Sherman would become one of the relatively few high-ranking officers in the Civil War who had not fought in the war with Mexico.


























In 1850,  Lieutenant William T. Sherman was promoted to the rank of Captain and married Thomas Ewing's daughter, Eleanor Boyle ("Ellen") Ewing, in a Washington ceremony attended by President Zachary Taylor and other political figures. (Thomas Ewing was serving as the first Secretary of the Interior at the time.)   Like her mother , Ellen Ewing Sherman was a devout Roman Catholic, and the Shermans' eight children were reared in that faith.  In 1864, Ellen Sherman 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. 

In 1853, William T. Sherman resigned his captaincy and became manager of the San Francisco branch of a St. Louis based bank.  He returned to San Francisco at a time of great turmoil in the West.  He survived two shipwrecks and during one, he floated through the Golden Gate on the overturned hull of a foundering lumber schooner.  In 1856, during the vigilante period,  he served briefly as a major general of the California militia.

William T. Sherman's San Francisco bank branch closed in May 1857, and he relocated to New York on behalf of the same bank.  When the bank failed during the financial Panic of 1857,  he closed the New York branch.  In early 1858, he returned to California to wrap-up the bank's affairs there.  Later in 1858,  he relocated to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he tried his hand at law practice and other ventures without much success.


























134 North High Street, Lancaster, Ohio.


While her husband, General W. T. Sherman was assigned to the Louisiana Military Academy, Ellen Ewing Sherman and her children rented the house in 1859, and lived there for several years.

In 1859, William T. Sherman accepted a job as the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy in Pineville, Louisiana. It was a position he sought, at the suggestion of Major D. C. Buell, and secured because of General George Mason Graham.  He proved an effective and popular leader of that institution, which would later become Louisiana State University (LSU).

Colonel Joseph P. Taylor, the brother of the late President Zachary Taylor, declared that "if you had hunted the whole army,  from one end of it to the other, you could not have found a man in it more admirably suited for the position in every respect than Sherman."



















On hearing of South Carolina's secession from the United States,  William T. Sherman observed to a close friend,  Professor David F. Boyd of Virginia,  an enthusiastic secessionist,  almost perfectly describing the four years of war to come:  "You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail."

In January 1861, as more of the Southern states were seceding from the Union,  William T. Sherman was required to accept receipt of arms surrendered to the State Militia by the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Instead of complying,  he resigned his position as superintendent and returned to the North,  declaring to the governor of Louisiana, "On no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile ... to the ... United States."

Immediately following his departure from Louisiana, William T. Sherman traveled to Washington, D.C., possibly in the hope of securing a position in the army, and met with Abraham Lincoln in the White House during inauguration week. William Sherman expressed concern about the North's poor state of preparedness but found Abraham Lincoln was unresponsive.

















St. Louis, Missouri Mail Streetcar


Thereafter, William T. Sherman became president of the St. Louis Railroad,  a streetcar company,  a position he would hold for only a few months.  He was living in the border-state of Missouri as the secession crisis came to a climax.  While trying to hold himself aloof from controversy,  he observed firsthand the efforts of Congressman Frank Blair,  who later served under William T. Sherman,  to hold Missouri in the Union.  In early April,  he declined an offer from the Lincoln administration to take a position in the War Department as a prelude to his becoming Assistant Secretary of War.

After the bombardment of Fort Sumter,  William T. Sherman hesitated about committing to military service and ridiculed President Lincoln's call for 75,000 three-month volunteers to quell the secession. It was  reported that he remarked:  "Why, you might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt-gun."

In May, 1861, he offered himself for service in the regular army, and his brother (Senator John Sherman) and other connections maneuvered to get him a commission in the regular army.  On June 3, he wrote that "I still think it is to be a long war – very long – much longer than any Politician thinks."   He received a telegram summoning him to Washington D.C. on June 7, 1861.



























William T. Sherman was first commissioned as colonel of the 13th U.S. Infantry regiment, effective May 14, 1861. This was a new regiment yet to be raised, and Sherman's first command was actually of a brigade of three-month volunteers. With that command, he was one of the few Union officers to distinguish himself at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, where he was grazed by bullets in the knee and shoulder. The disastrous Union defeat led Colonel Sherman to question his own judgment as an officer and the capacities of his volunteer troops.

President Abraham  Lincoln, however, was impressed by Colonel William T. Sherman while visiting the troops on July 23 and promoted him to brigadier general of volunteers (effective May 17, 1861, with seniority in rank to Ulysses S. Grant, his future commander).  He was assigned to serve under General Robert Anderson in the Department of the Cumberland in Louisville, Kentucky, and in October succeeded General Anderson in command of the department. General Sherman considered his new assignment to violate a promise from President Abraham Lincoln that he would not be given such a prominent position.


Having succeeded General Robert Anderson at Louisville, General William T. Sherman now had principal military responsibility for the border state of Kentucky, in which Confederate troops held Columbus and Bowling Green. They also were present near the Cumberland Gap.  He became exceedingly pessimistic about the outlook for his command, and he complained frequently to Washington, D.C., about shortages and provided exaggerated estimates of the strength of the rebel forces. Very critical press reports appeared about him after an October visit to Louisville by the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, and in early November General Sherman insisted that he be relieved. He was promptly replaced by General Don Carlos Buell and transferred to St. Louis, Missouri.

In December, General William T. Sherman was put on leave by Maj. General Henry W. Halleck, commander of the Department of the Missouri,  who considered him unfit for duty.  General Sherman went to Lancaster, Ohio, to recuperate.  Some believed that, in Kentucky and Missouri,  General Sherman was in the midst of what today would be described as a nervous breakdown.


























While William T. Sherman was at home, his wife, Ellen, wrote to his brother Senator John Sherman seeking advice and complaining of "that melancholy insanity to which your family is subject."

William T. Sherman later wrote that the concerns of command “broke me down,"  and he admitted that he had contemplated "suicide."   His problems were further compounded when the "Cincinnati Commercial" newspaper described him as "insane".

By the middle of December,  General Sherman was sufficiently recovered to return to service under Maj. General Henry Halleck in the Department of the Missouri (in March,  Halleck's command was redesignated the "Department of the Mississippi" and enlarged to unify command in the West).  General William T. Sherman's initial assignments were rear-echelon commands,  first of an instructional barracks near St. Louis and then command of the "District of Cairo".  Operating from Paducah, Kentucky,  General Sherman provided logistical support for the operations of Brig. General Ulysses S. Grant to capture Fort Donelson.

General Grant, the previous commander of the District of Cairo,  had recently won a major victory at Fort Henry and been given command of the ill-defined "District of West Tennessee".  Although General Sherman was technically the senior officer at this time, he wrote to General Grant,  "I feel anxious about you as I know the great facilities [the Confederates] have of concentration by means of the River and R Road, but [I] have faith in you — Command me in any way."

After General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson,  General Sherman got his wish of serving under General Grant when he was assigned on March 1, 1862,  to the Army of West Tennessee as commander of the 5th Division.  His first major test under General Grant was at the Battle of Shiloh.  The massive Confederate attack on the morning of April 6, 1862,  took most of the senior Union commanders by surprise.


























Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston.


General Sherman,had dismissed the intelligence reports that he had received from militia officers. He refused to believe that Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston would leave his base at Corinth., He took no extra precautions except the strengthening of his picket lines.  He did not entrench,, build abatis, ,or send out reconnaissance patrols.  He wished to avoid appearing overly alarmed in order to escape the kind of criticism he had received in Kentucky.  General Sherman had written to his wife that, if he took more precautions, "they'd call me crazy again".

Despite having been caught unprepared by General  Joe Johnson's attack,  General William T, Sherman rallied his division and conducted an orderly, fighting retreat that helped avert a disastrous Union rout.  Finding

At the end of the day, he found General Grant sitting under an oak tree, in the darkness, smoking a cigar.  General Sherman simply said: "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?"   After a puff of his cigar,  General Grant replied calmly:  "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."  

At the battle of Shiloh,  General William T, Sherman was wounded twice ( in the hand and shoulder) and he had three horses shot out from under him.  His performance that day, was praised by both General Grant and General Halleck.  After the battle, William T, Sherman was promoted to major general of volunteers, effective May 1, 1862.


























Major General Henry W. Halleck.


Near the end of April, a Union force of 100,000 men moved slowly against Corinth, under General Henry Halleck's command.  General U.S. Grant was relegated to a role that he found unsatisfactory. He was second-in-command to General Halleck.

General Sherman commanded the division on the extreme right of the Union's right wing under General George H. Thomas.

Shortly after the Union forces occupied Corinth on May 30, General Sherman persuaded General Grant not to resign his command,  despite any serious difficulties he was having with his commander,  General Henry Halleck.

General Sherman offered General Grant an example from his own life,  "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'm now in high feather."   He assured General Grant that, if he remained in the army, "some happy accident might restore you to favor and your true place."

In July, General Ulysses S. Grant's situation improved when General Henry Halleck left for the East to become general-in-chief, and General Sherman became the military governor of theoccupied city of Memphis, Tennessee.


























The careers of both these distinquished officers rose considerably after that.  In General Sherman's case, this was partly because he developed close personal ties to General Grant, during the two years they served together in the West.  At one point during the long and complicated Vicksburg campaign, one newspaper complained that the "army was being ruined in mud-turtle expeditions, under the leadership of a drunkard [Grant], whose confidential adviser [Sherman] was a lunatic."

In December 1862,  forces under General Sherman's command suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi.   His XV Corps was then ordered to join Maj. General John A. McClernand in his successful assault on Arkansas Post,  which was generally regarded as a politically motivated distraction, from the effort to capture Vicksburg.

Before the Vicksburg Campaign, in the spring of 1863,  General Sherman expressed serious reservations about the wisdom of General Grant's unorthodox strategy,   but, he went on to perform well in that campaign under General Grant's supervision.

General Sherman commanded one of the three corps in the siege of Vicksburg.  After the fall of Vicksburg he operated successfully in a fight against General Joseph E. Johnston.

After the surrender of Vicksburg to the Union forces under General U.S. Grant, on July 4, 1863,   General Sherman was given the rank of brigadier general in the regular army in addition to his rank as a major general of volunteers.  General William T. Sherman's family came from Ohio, to visit his camp near Vicksburg.  Their visit resulted in the death of his nine-year-old son, Willie, the "Little Sergeant".  He died from typhoid fever.

General Sherman joined General U.S. Grant at Chattanooga in the middle of November.

While he was traveling to Chattanooga,  General Sherman left Memphis on a train that stopped at the Battle of Collierville, Tennessee.   It was on October 11, 1863,  while the Union garrison there was under attack.  General William T.  Sherman took command of the 550 men and successfully defended against an attack of 3,500 members of a Confederate Cavalry.

During the Battle of Chattanooga, in November,  under General Grant's overall command, General Sherman quickly took his assigned target of "Billy Goat Hill" at the north end of "Missionary Ridge", only to discover that it was not part of the ridge at all,  but rather a detached spur separated from the main spine by a rock-strewn ravine.

When General Sherman attempted to attack the main spine at Tunnel Hill,, his troops were repeatedly repulsed by General Patrick Cleburne's heavy division. Cleburne's division was the best unit in General Braxton Bragg's army.



















General Cleburne by Troiani.


General Cleburne’s military actions brought him well-earned fame.  At the battle of Chattanooga, he repelled General Sherman's forces, despite being outnumbered four to one.






















General Hooker.


Later General Cleburne won the Battle of Ringgold Gap even though General Hooker had three men for every one he had.

During the "Nashville Campaign" Cleburne succeeded to the command of Hardee’s Corps.  General Cleburne was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864.  He was just one of the six Confederate generals that were killed during that battle.


























General Patrick Cleburne.


In a letter to his family in 1861, General Cleburne wrote,  “I am with the South in death,  in victory or defeat.  I never owned a Negro and care nothing for them ,  but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions. 

In addition to this,  I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong,  in violation of the constitution  and the fundamental principles of the government.  They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.”






















General George Henry Thomas.


General Sherman's effort was overshadowed by General George Henry Thomas's army's successful assault on the center of the Confederate line, a movement originally intended as a diversion.

General Sherman next  appeared in Mississippi.  With his 20,000 troops,  he made a destructive raid,  in February, 1864. from Jackson to the intersection of important railways at Meridian, Mississippi.

It was General Sherman's plan was to inflict as much injury on the Confederate cause as possible.  He believed in making the war as terrible as possible. The line of Sherman's march eastward, left a black path of desolation.  No public property of the Confederates was spared.  The station-houses and rolling-stock of the railways were burned.  The track was torn up, and the rails, heated by the burning ties cast into heaps, were twisted and ruined. General Sherman intended to push on to Montgomery, Alabama, and  go southward and attack Mobile.

He waited at Meridian for General W. S. Smith to join him with a force of cavalry,  but General Smith was being held back by the Confederate troops under General Forrest and others.  After waiting for a week, General Sherman left Meridian in ashes, and then returned to Vicksburg with about 500 prisoners and 5,000 liberated slaves.


























Confederate Lieutenant-General Polk.


This raid created great consternation, for Confederate General Polk, with his 15,000 men, who made only a feeble resistance.  General Sherman's loss was 171 men.


























General Ambrose Burnside.


Afterwards, General Sherman led a column to relieve the Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside, who was thought to be in peril at Knoxville. In February 1864, Sherman led an expedition to Meridian, Mississippi, in order to disrupt the Confederate infrastructure.

Despite his mixed record, General William T. Sherman still had General Grant's confidence and friendship.  When President Abraham Lincoln called General U.S. Grant east in the spring of 1864, to take command of all the Union armies,  General Grant appointed General Sherman (by then known to his soldiers as "Uncle Billy") to succeed him as head of the Military Division of the Mississippi.  That entailed the command of all Union troops in the Western Theater of the war.

As General Grant took overall command of the armies of the United States,  General Sherman wrote to him outlining his strategy to bring the war to an end concluding that "if you can whip Lee and I can march to the Atlantic I think ol' Uncle Abe will give us twenty days leave to see the young folks."

General Sherman proceeded to invade the state of Georgia with three armies:  the 60,000-strong Army of the Cumberland under George Henry Thomas,   the 25,000-strong Army of the Tennessee under James B. McPherson,   and the 13,000-strong Army of the Ohio under John M. Schofield.


























General Sherman  fought a lengthy campaign of maneuver through mountainous terrain against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee,  attempting a direct assault only at the disastrous Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  In July, the cautious General Johnston was replaced by the more aggressive General John Bell Hood,  who played to General Sherman's strength by challenging him to direct battles on open ground.

Meanwhile,  in August, General Sherman "learned that I had been commissioned a major-general in the regular army, which was unexpected, and not desired until successful in the capture of Atlanta."
























Atlanta, Georgia. Interior view of Confederate fort.


General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign concluded successfully on September 2, 1864,  with the capture of the city, abandoned by General Hood.  After ordering almost all civilians to leave the city in September,  General Sherman ordered in November that all military and government buildings be burned,  although many private homes and shops were burned as well.  This was to set a precedent for future behavior by his armies.


























Thr Capture of Atlanta was an accomplishment that made General William T. Sherman a household name in the North and helped ensure Abraham Lincoln's presidential re-election in November.  In the summer of that year,  it had appeared likely that President Lincoln would be defeated.

In August, the Democratic Party nominated as its candidate George B. McClellan, the former Union army commander.  Abraham Lincoln's defeat might well have meant the victory of the Confederacy,  as the Democratic Party platform called for peace negotiations based on the acknowledgment of the Confederacy's independence.  Some say that the capture of Atlanta,  coming when it did,  may have been General Sherman's greatest contribution to the Union cause.



























Atlanta Railroad Yards.




























After the fall of Atlanta in 1864,  General Sherman ordered the city's evacuation.  When the city council appealed to him to rescind that order,  on the grounds that it would cause great hardship to women,  children,  the elderly,  and others who bore no responsibility for the conduct of the war,

General Sherman sent a response in which he attempted to explain his convictions that a lasting peace would be possible only if the Union were restored, and that he was therefore prepared to do everything he could do to quash the rebellion: "You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war.[...] I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect and early success. But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for anything. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter."

The country was amazed at General Sherman's success in the capture of Atlanta against two highly regarded southern generals.

Military experts feel that he was a great strategist if not so successful a tactician.  He struck decisively at the South's weak points and according to Gen. Lee,  he was able to give the Confederacy a mortal wound before any of its armies surrendered.  In one account of a confederate officer..."who intended to blow a railway tunnel and one of his fellow officers said 'Don't bother, Sherman probably has another one in his pocket'."

The Union Army was capable of accomplishing tasks that were nearly miracles.  On the advance to Chattanooga.  The Confederate Army had destoyed a great distance of railway line needed to supply the northern army's advance.  The union troops without a dedicated engineering construction unit were able to repair the line.  As most of the troops had been civilians before the war, they already had the various skills necessary.  They completed the repair of 102 miles of track and 182 bridges(many over deep wide chasms) in forty days, while also maintaining the defense of their lines.

There was much talk that his armies unecessarily stripped the land on their marches and caused much suffering therby to the local civilian population.  That General William T. Sherman himself did not intend to go beyond the limits of legitimate warfare,  but, his troops of necessity,  had to forage and this behavior led to excesses.


























Lieutenant General John Bell Hood.


During September and October,  General Sherman and General Hood played cat-and-mouse in north Georgia (and Alabama) as General Hood threatened General Sherman's communications to the north.  Eventually, General Sherman won approval from his superiors for a plan to cut loose from his communications and march south,  having advised General U.S. Grant that he could "make Georgia howl".   This created the threat that General Hood would move north into Tennessee.  Trivializing that threat,  General  Sherman reportedly said that he would "give [Hood] his rations" to go in that direction as "my business is down south."


























Nashville, Tennessee. Fortified bridge over the Cumberland River.


However, General Sherman left forces under Maj. General George H. Thomas and Maj. General John M. Schofield to deal with General Hood; their forces eventually smashed General Hood's army in the battles of Franklin on November 30, and Nashville on December 15–16.























The Savannah Campaign was conducted across Georgia during November-December 1864 by Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army.
 
Meanwhile, after the November elections, General Sherman began a march with 62,000 men to the port of Savannah, Georgia,  living off the land and causing,  by his own estimate,  more than $100 million in property damage.  General Sherman called this harsh tactic of material war "hard war",  often seen as a species of total war.


























General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea.


General Grant arranged a campaign for the seizure of Atlanta, Georgia., with the focus being on several converging railways.  This expedition was led by General Sherman.  His army numbered 60,000 to 100,000 men.  It was comprised of the Army of the Cumberland,  led by General George H. Thomas;  the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by General J. R. McPherson:  and the Army of the Ohio, led by General J. M. Schofield.

For thirty-six days that army moved through Georgia,  with very little opposition,  pillaging the countryside.  It  required very little military skill in the performance,  and as little personal prowess.  Union troops were deployed against defenseless citizens.  It was easily executed.  Yet on that march there were many deeds that tested the prowess and daring of the soldiers on both sides.  Kilpatrick's first dash across the Flint River and against General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry, and then towards Macon, Georgia,  burning a train of cars and tearing up the railway, gave the Confederates a suspicion of General Sherman's intentions.  There was widespread panic in Georgia and South Carolina,  for the invading army's destination was uncertain.


























Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard was sent from the Appomattox to the Savannah to confront the Nationals.  He sent before him a manifesto in which he said, "Destroy all the roads in Sherman's front, flank, and rear," and, "be trustful in Providence."  Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia., in the Confederate Congress at Richmond wrote to the people of his State:  "Every citizen with his gun and every negro with his spade and axe can do the work of a soldier. You can destroy the enemy by retarding his march. Be firm!"

The representatives of Georgia in the Confederate Congress called upon their people to fly to arms. "Remove your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from Sherman's army," they said, " and burn what you cannot carry away. Burn all bridges and block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in front. flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him have no rest."  And Governor Brown, before he fled from Milledgeville on the approach of the Nationals, issued a proclamation ordering a levy en masse of the whole white population of the State between the ages of sixteen and forty-five, and offering pardon to prisoners in the penitentiary if they would volunteer and prove themselves good soldiers.  But the people did none of these things,  and only about 100 convicts accepted the offer.


























President Jefferson Davis.


All confidence in President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government had disappeared in Georgia,  and a great portion of the people were satisfied that it was,  as they expressed it,  "the rich man's war, and the poor man's fight," and would no longer lend themselves to the authorities at Richmond.  The National army moved steadily forward.

At Griswoldsville there was a sharp engagement on Nov. 22, 1864,  with a portion of Hardee's troops sent up from Savannah,  and several brigades of militia.  The Confederates were repulsed with a loss of 2,500 men.  General Howard could have taken Macon after this blow upon its defenders,  but that was not a part of General Sherman's plan.

The Union troops were attacked at the Oconee River while laying a pontoon bridge,  but the agressors, largely composed of General  Wheeler's cavalry, were defeated.


























General Kilpatrick made a feint towards Augusta,  Georgia to mislead the Confederates as to General Sherman's destination,  and to cover the passage of the army over the Ogeechee River,  and, if possible,  to release Union captives in the prison pen at Millen.  General Kilpatrick and General Wheeler had several skirmishes,  but no severe battles.  On Nov. 30,  Sherman's whole army,  excepting one corps,  had passed the Ogeechee.  This was a most skilful maneuver;  and then, having destroyed the principal railways in Georgia over long distances,  Sherman was prepared to make a final conquest of the State.


























After the fighting stopped, the Third Brigade of Judson Kilpatrick’s Union cavalry division,  including the 1st and 2 other regiments,  about 800 men, had routed 5,000 Confederates.  The rebels lost 103 dead and many more wounded at a cost to the Union of 18 dead, 70 wounded and 105 missing.  A potential disaster had become a clear cut victory.  A few weeks later,  the 1st was present at the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate army.



















When General Sherman reached Millen Georgia,  the Union prisoners had been removed;  and so he pushed on,  amid swamps and sands,  toward the city of Savannah,  where General Hardee was in command.  This  was his chief goalt.  General Kilpatrick and General Baird covered the rear of the wing columns between the Ogeechee and Savannah rivers.  There was some skirmishing,  but no Confederate troops in force until they were within 15 miles of Savannah.

All the roads leading into that city were obstructed by felled trees,  earthworks,  and artillery.  By December 10, 1864, the Confederates were all driven back within their lines,  and Savannah was completely surrounded. The Union fleet was anchored offshore. The only approaches to the city were by five narrow causeways.  TheUnion troops had cut off communications,  so that no supplies could be received in Savannah.

General Sherman sought to make the Ogeechee river an avenue of supply, oceanward, for his army, and to communicate with the Union fleet offshore.


























Genera William Babock Hazen.


The city of Savannah was defended by confederate General Hardee with 10,000 men, and was well protected by forts and by the rice swamps which had been flooded.

Fort McAllister, near the mouth of the Ogeechee river, was in the way, and, on the 13th, General Slocum ordered General Hazen to take the fort by assault.  It was a strong,  enclosed redoubt,  that was garrisoned by 200 men. It was taken by General William Hazen's men..

This opened to General Sherman's army, a new base of supplies. General Sherman communicated with the officers of the fleet, and, on Dec. 17,  he ordered Confederate General  Hardee to surrender.  Hardee refused.






















General William Hardee.


After cooperation had been established between General Sherman and the Federal gunboats on the coast and in the mouths of the rivers,  General William Hardee saw that it would be impossible to hold on yo Savannah,  and in order to save his army,  he secretly withdrew  with 15,000 men ,in the dark on a night of stormy weather,  across the Savannah River with small boats, into South Carolina.   General William T. Sherman and the Union army took possession of Savannah on Dec. 22. 1864.

General Sherman sent the following message to President Abraham Lincoln:  "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."


























General Sherman's success in Georgia received ample coverage in the Northern press at a time when General Grant seemed to be making little progress in his fight against Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. There was a bill that was introduced in Congress to promote General Sherman to General Grant's rank of lieutenant general,  probably with a view towards having him replace General Grant as commander of the Union Army.   General Sherman wrote both to his brother,  Senator John Sherman,  and to General Grant vehemently repudiating any such promotion.


























According to a war-time account, it was around this time that General Sherman made his memorable declaration of loyalty to General Grant: "General Grant is a great general. I know him well. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always."

While in Savannah, General Sherman learned from a newspaper that his infant son Charles Celestine had died during the Savannah Campaign;  William Sherman had never seen his child.

General U.S. Grant initially ordered General Sherman to embark his army on steamers to join the Union forces confronting General Lee in Virginia.  Instead, General Sherman persuaded General Grant to allow him to march north through the Carolinas,  destroying everything of military value along the way,  as he had done in Georgia.  He was particularly interested in targeting South Carolina,  the first state to secede from the Union,  for the effect it would have on Southern morale.

The campaign began in late November 1864,  even before the surrender of Savannah,  but due to the strong resistance by General Wheeler's Cavalry,  Sherman's first troops did not cross the river into South Carolina until 15 January 1865.  He had reported to his superiors that he expected the Carolina march to last 4 to 5 weeks,  but in fact it was late March before his troops passed out of South Carolina into North Carolina.  He later reported that his march had not begun until the end of January.

The Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina reported that "there were not 1,400 able bodied men left in the entire state of South Carolina to defend against Gen. Sherman's march."  Indeed, by this time,  South Carolina had lost over 20,000 of her men to the war, and at least one third of the men between ages 16 and 50 having been killed for the cause.

General Sherman's march through South Carolina began in late December, 1864.


























General Joseph E Johnston.


General Sherman's army proceeded north through South Carolina against light resistance from the troops of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston.  Upon hearing that General Sherman's men were advancing on corduroy roads through the Salkehatchie swamps at a rate of a dozen miles per day,  General Joseph Johnston "made up his mind that there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar."

On Saturday, March 4, 1865,  General Sherman gathered his troops for a celebration.  President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration was taking place in Washington D.C..  General William T. Sherman ordered that the 20 huge cannons which came from Charleston be lined up on the field and overloaded with gunpowder.

Abraham Lincoln made one of the most memorable speeches in American history:  “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

General William Tecumseh Sherman made a calculation of the time Lincoln would probably finish his address.  He set that as the moment to fire the overloaded cannons one by one.  The explosions provided a tremendous salute to the president, while at the same time destroying the big guns, a symbol of the defeated Confederacy.




















The burning of Columbia, South Carolina, February 17, 1865.


General Sherman captured the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17, 1865.  Fires began that night and by next morning, most of the central city was destroyed.  The burning of Columbia, South Carolina has been the subject of controversy ever since,  with some claiming the fires were accidental,  others claim a deliberate act of vengeance,  and still others say that the retreating Confederates burned bales of cotton on their way out of town.

Local Native American Lumbee guides helped Sherman's army cross the Lumber River through torrential rains and into North Carolina.  According to General Sherman, the trek across the Lumber River, and through the swamps, pocosins, and creeks of Robeson County "was the damnedest marching I ever saw."   Thereafter, his troops did little damage to the civilian infrastructure, as North Carolina,  unlike its southern neighbor,  which was seen as a hotbed of secession,  was regarded by his men to be only a reluctant Confederate state, b ecause of its position as one of the last to join the Confederacy.


















Union artillery in action on the Morris Farm, late afternoon, March 19, 1865 — Battle of Bentonville — (Harper's Weekly).


General Sherman's last important engagement was a victory over General Johnston's troops at the Battle of Bentonville, on March 19–21.

Jefferson Davis had smugly predicted that General Johnston would retreat before General Sherman all the way to Virginia.  Given his well-known penchant for inaction, why did General Johnston fight at Bentonville?  The general later claimed he hoped to achieve fair terms of peace.  But as much as anything, Johnston had thumbed his nose at President Jefferson Davis and embraced the confidence held in him by  General Robert E. Lee.  Despite inherent obstacles and tactical blunders,  General Johnston's eleventh-hour troop concentration and the resulting battle at Bentonville were the most decisive actions undertaken by "Old Joe" during the war.



















Union troops attack the Confederate left flank, March 21, 1865 — Battle of Bentonville — (Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper).


Despite a losing effort, General Johnston reminded General Sherman that the Confederate Army was still a force still to be reckoned with, in the Spring of 1865.  General Sherman was fortunate that General Johnston could only concentrate a part of his troops before going into battle.

By the end of March, General Sherman's troops had passed out of South Carolina into North Carolina - leaving behind a path of total destruction 100 miles wide, which extended the entire length of the state.

General Sherman's army rendezvoused at Goldsborough, North Carolina, with the Union troops awaiting him there after the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington.


















Abraham Lincoln meets with miltary advisors. Gens. William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln, and Adm. David S. Porter. February, 1865, City Point.


In late March of 1965,  General Sherman briefly left his troops and traveled to City Point, Virginia,  to consult with General U.S. Grant.  President Abraham Lincoln happened to be at City Point at the same time.  This was the only three- way meetings of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman during the war.

























General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General U.S. Grant.



Following General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House and Abraham Lincoln's assassination,  General Sherman met with  General Johnston at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, to negotiate a Confederate surrender.  At the insistence of General  Johnston and Confederate President Jefferson Davis,  General Sherman conditionally agreed to generous terms that dealt with both political and military issues.

General Sherman thought these terms were consistent with the views Abraham Lincoln had expressed at City Point,  but the general had no authority to offer such terms from General Grant,  the newly installed President Andrew Johnson,  or the Cabinet.  The government in Washington, D.C.,  refused to approve the terms and the Secretary of War,  Edwin M. Stanton,  denounced General Sherman publicly,  which precipitated a long-lasting feud between the two men.






















Grigsby house, headquarters of General Joseph E.Johnston.



Confusion over this issue lasted until April 26, 1865, when General Johnston, ignoring instructions from President Jefferson Davis,  agreed to purely military terms and formally surrendered his army and all the Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida,  becoming the largest surrender of the American Civil War.

General Sherman proceeded with 60,000 of his troops to Washington, D.C., where they marched in the Grand Review of the Armies on May 24, 1865 and were then disbanded. Having become the second most important general in the Union army, he had come full circle to the city where he started his war-time service as colonel of a non-existent infantry regiment.

"Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; learn from Northern school books THEIR version of the war; and taught to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects of derision." - Gen. Patrick Cleburne, CSA


















Cannons used to start the Civil War in front of LSU's Military Science Building.


After the war, General William T. Sherman donated two cannons to Louisiana State University.  These cannons had been captured from Confederate forces and had been used to start the war when fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  They are still currently on display in front of LSU's Military Science building.



























Slave Family on a South Carolina Plantation.


Though William Tecumseh Sherman came to disapprove of slavery,  he was not an abolitionist before the Civil War,  and like many people of his time and background,  he did not believe in "Negro equality."   He declined to employ black troops in his armies.


























Scars on the back of a freed slave.


His military campaigns of 1864 and 1865 freed many slaves, who greeted him "as a second Moses or Aaron" and joined his marches through Georgia and the Carolinas by the tens of thousands.


























White Hall Street slave trader.



The fate of these refugees became a pressing military as well as a political issue.  Some northern abolitionists accused General Sherman of doing very little to alleviate the dreadful living conditions of the freed slaves.  





















Green-Meldrim house, where General Sherman stayed after the taking of Savannah in 1864.


To address this issue,  on January 12, 1865,  General Sherman met in Savannah, Georgia with Secretary of War Stanton and with twenty local black leaders.   After General Sherman's departure,  Garrison Frazier,  a Baptist minister,  declared in response to an inquiry about the feelings of the black community:   "We looked upon General Sherman, prior to his arrival, as a man, in the providence of God, specially set apart to accomplish this work, and we unanimously felt inexpressible gratitude to him, looking upon him as a man that should be honored for the faithful performance of his duty. Some of us called upon him immediately upon his arrival, and it is probable he did not meet [Secretary Stanton] with more courtesy than he met us. His conduct and deportment toward us characterized him as a friend and a gentleman."




















Forty Acres and a Mule.


Four days later,  General Sherman issued his Special Field Orders, No. 15.  The orders provided for the settlement of 40,000 freed slaves and black refugees on land expropriated from white landowners in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.   General Sherman appointed Brig. General Rufus Saxton,  an abolitionist from Massachusetts  who had previously directed the recruitment of black soldiers,  to implement that plan.   Those orders,  which became the basis of the claim that the Union government had promised freed slaves "40 acres and a mule",  were revoked later that year,  by President Andrew Johnson.

Although the context is often overlooked,  and the quotation usually chopped off,  one of General Sherman's most famous statements about his hard war views arose in part from the racial attitudes summarized above.   In his Memoirs,  William T. Sherman noted political pressures in 1864–1865,  to encourage the escape of slaves,  in part to avoid the possibility that "'able-bodied slaves will be called into the military service of the rebels.'"

General Sherman thought concentration on such policies would have delayed the "successful end" of the war and the "liberation of all slaves."    He went on to summarize vividly his hard-war philosophy and to add,  in effect,  that he really did not want the help of liberated slaves in subduing the South:  "My aim then was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I did not want them to cast in our teeth what General Hood had once done at Atlanta, that we had to call on their slaves to help us to subdue them. But, as regards kindness to the race..., I assert that no army ever did more for that race than the one I commanded at Savannah."
 






















 Sherman's troops destroy a railroad near Atlanta.



General Sherman's record as a tactician is mixed.  His military legacy rests primarily on his command of logistics and on his brilliance as a strategist.  The influential 20th century British military historian and theorist B. H. Liddell Hart ranked William T. Sherman as one "of the most important strategists in the annals of war, along with Scipio Africanus, Belisarius, Napoleon Bonaparte, T. E. Lawrence, and Erwin Rommel." 




















The Siege of Atlanta by Thure de Thulstrup.


Liddell Hart credited William T. Sherman with mastery of maneuver warfare (also known as the "indirect approach"), as demonstrated by his series of turning movements against General Johnston during the Atlanta Campaign.  Liddell Hart also stated that study of General Sherman's campaigns had contributed significantly to his own "theory of strategy and tactics in mechanized warfare", which had in turn influenced Heinz Guderian's doctrine of Blitzkrieg and Rommel's use of tanks during the Second World War.

Another World War II-era student of Liddell Hart's writings about William T. Sherman was George S. Patton, who "'spent a long vacation studying Sherman's campaigns on the ground in Georgia and the Carolinas, with the aid of [Liddell Hart's] book'" and later "'carried out his [bold] plans, in super-Sherman style'".

















General Sherman and his men approaching Savannah.


General Sherman's greatest contribution to the war, the strategy of total warfare (endorsed by General Grant and President Lincoln) has been the subject of much controversy.  General Sherman himself downplayed his role in conducting total war,  often saying that he was simply carrying out orders as best he could in order to fulfill his part of Grant's master plan for ending the war.

Like General U.S. Grant,  General Sherman was convinced that the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological ability to wage further war needed to be definitively crushed if the fighting were to end.   Therefore,  he believed that the North had to conduct its campaign as a war of conquest and employ scorched earth tactics to break the backbone of the rebellion,  which he called "hard war".

General William T. Sherman's advance through Georgia and South Carolina was characterized by widespread destruction of civilian supplies and infrastructure.   Although looting was officially forbidden,  historians disagree on how well this regulation was enforced.  The speed and efficiency of the destruction by General Sherman's army was remarkable.  The practice of bending rails around trees,  leaving behind what came to be known as Sherman's neckties,  made repairs difficult.  Accusations that civilians were targeted and war crimes were committed on the march have made General Sherman a controversial figure to this day,  particularly in the South.




















Total War.


The damage done by General Sherman was almost entirely limited to the destruction of property.  Though exact figures are not available, the loss of civilian life appears to have been very small.  Consuming supplies, wrecking infrastructure,  and undermining morale were General William T/ Sherman's stated goals,  and several of his Southern contemporaries noted this and commented on it.  For instance,  Alabama-born Major Henry Hitchcock,  who served in General Sherman's staff,  declared that "it is a terrible thing to consume and destroy the sustenance of thousands of people", but if the scorched earth strategy served "to paralyze their husbands and fathers who are fighting... it is mercy in the end."

The severity of the destructive acts by Union troops was significantly greater in South Carolina than in Georgia or North Carolina.  This appears to have been a consequence of the animosity among both Union soldiers and officers to the state that they regarded as the "cockpit of secession".  One of the most serious accusations against General Sherman was that he allowed his troops to burn the city of Columbia. In 1867,  Gen. O.O. Howard, commander of Sherman's 15th Corps, reportedly said, "It is useless to deny that our troops burnt Columbia, for I saw them in the act."   However, Sherman himself stated that "if I had made up my mind to burn Columbia I would have burnt it with no more feeling than I would a common prairie dog village; but I did not do it..."  

























General Wade Hampton, CSA.

General Sherman's official report on the burning placed the blame on Confederate Lt. General Wade Hampton III, who General Sherman said had ordered the burning of cotton in the streets.
In his memoirs, General Sherman said, "In my official report of this conflagration I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and confess I did so pointedly to shake the faith of his people in him, for he was in my opinion a braggart and professed to be the special champion of South Carolina."

Historian James M. McPherson has concluded that: "The fullest and most dispassionate study of this controversy blames all parties in varying proportions - including the Confederate authorities for the disorder that characterized the evacuation of Columbia, leaving thousands of cotton bales on the streets (some of them burning) and huge quantities of liquor undestroyed... Sherman did not deliberately burn Columbia; a majority of Union soldiers, including the general himself, worked through the night to put out the fires."

It dhould be noted that General Sherman and his officerss (particularly John A. Logan) took steps to protect Raleigh, North Carolina, from acts of revenge, after the assassination of President Lincoln.

Literary critic Edmund Wilson found in General Sherman's Memoirs a fascinating and disturbing account of an "appetite for warfare" that "grows as it feeds on the South". 

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara refers equivocally to the statement that "war is cruelty and you cannot refine it" in both the book "Wilson's Ghost" and in his interview for the film "The Fog of War".

When you compare General Sherman's scorched-earth campaigns to the actions of the British Army during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) — another war in which civilians were targeted because of their central role in sustaining an armed resistance — South African historian Hermann Giliomee declares that it "looks as if Sherman struck a better balance than the British commanders between severity and restraint in taking actions proportional to legitimate needs".

The admiration of scholars such as Victor Davis Hanson,  B. H. Liddell Hart,  Lloyd Lewis,  and John F. Marszalek for General William T. Sherman owes much to what they see as an approach to the things that are required in a particular situation of modern armed conflict, that were both effective and principled.
 



















Dead Confederate soldiers collected for burial.

In May of 1865,  after the major Confederate armies had surrendered,  General Sherman wrote the following in a personal letter:  "I confess, without shame, I am sick and tired of fighting - its glory is all moonshine;  even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands and fathers... tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation."

In June of 1865, three months after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox,  General William T. Sherman was given his first postwar command, originally called the "Military Division of the Mississippi" and later the "Military Division of the Missouri".   After changes , his command covered territory west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains.  On July 25, 1866,  Congress created the rank of General of the Army for General U.S.Grant and then promoted William T. Sherman to lieutenant general.  When U.S. Grant became president in 1869,  General Sherman was appointed Commanding General of the United States Army and promoted to General of the Army.

After the death of John A. Rawlins,  General Sherman also served for one month as interim Secretary of War. His tenure as commanding general was marred by political difficulties,  and from 1874 to 1876,  he moved his headquarters to St. Louis,  Missouri in an attempt to escape from them.   One of his significant contributions as head of the Army was the establishment of the Command School (now the Command and General Staff College) at Fort Leavenworth.
 


















One of General Sherman's main concerns in postwar commands was to protect the construction and operation of the railroads from attack by hostile Indians. General William T. Sherman's views on Indian matters were often strongly expressed. He regarded the railroads "as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier."  Therefore, in 1867, he wrote to Ulysses S. Grant that "we are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of [the railroads]."  























 

After the 1866 Fetterman Massacre, General Sherman wrote General Grant that "we must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children." 

After George Armstrong Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, General Sherman wrote that "hostile savages like Sitting Bull and his band of outlaw Sioux ... must feel the superior power of the Government."   He further wrote that "during an assault, the soldiers can not pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

Despite General Sherman's harsh treatment of the warring tribes, he frequently spoke out against the unfair way speculators and government agents treated the natives within the reservations.






































In 1886, after the publication of U.S.Grant’s memoirs, William T. Sherman produced a "second edition, revised and corrected" of his memoirs with Appleton.  The new edition added a second preface, a chapter about his life up to 1846, a chapter concerning the post-war period (ending with his 1884 retirement from the army), several appendices, portraits, improved maps, and an index (1886 edition: Volume I, Volume II). For the most part, William T. Sherman refused to revise his original text on the ground that "I disclaim the character of historian, but assume to be a witness on the stand before the great tribunal of history" and "any witness who may disagree with me should publish his own version of [the] facts in the truthful narration of which he is interested."   However, William T. Sherman did add the appendices, in which he published the views of some others.

Subsequently, William T. Shermanshifted to the publishing house of Charles L. Webster & Co., the publisher of Grant’s memoirs. The new publishing house brought out a "third edition, revised and corrected" in 1890. This difficult-to-find edition was substantively identical to the second (except for the probable omission of Sherman's short 1875 and 1886 prefaces).

After William T. Sherman died in 1891, there were dueling new editions of his memoirs. His first publisher, Appleton, reissued the original (1875) edition with two new chapters about Sherman’s later years added by the journalist W. Fletcher Johnson (1891 Johnson edition: Volume I, Volume II).

Meanwhile, Charles L. Webster & Co. issued a "fourth edition, revised, corrected, and complete" with the text of William T. Sherman’s second edition, a new chapter prepared under the auspices of the Sherman family bringing the general’s life from his retirement to his death and funeral, and an appreciation by politician James G. Blaine (who was related to General Sherman's wife).  Unfortunately, this edition omits Sherman’s prefaces to the 1875 and 1886 editions (1891 Blaine edition: Volume I, Volume II).

In 1904 and 1913, William T. Sherman’s youngest son (Philemon Tecumseh Sherman) republished the memoirs, ironically with Appleton (not Charles L. Webster & Co.). This was designated as a "second edition, revised and corrected". This edition contains Sherman’s two prefaces, his 1886 text, and the materials added in the 1891 Blaine edition. Thus, this virtually invisible edition of Sherman's memoirs is actually the most comprehensive version.

There are many modern editions of Sherman’s memoirs. The edition most useful for research purposes is the 1990 Library of America version, edited by Charles Royster. It contains the entire text of Sherman’s 1886 edition, together with annotations, a note on the text, and a detailed chronology of William T. Sherman’s life. Missing from this edition is the useful biographical material contained in the 1891 Johnson and Blaine editions.


























Citizen Sherman.


William Tecumseh Sherman went to his last post in New York City on February 14, 1891.   His wife Ellen Sherman, after a long illness, preceded him in death ,on November 28, 1888.

The gallant warrior had a severe cold for several days before it settled in his lungs, causing his rapid decline.  A gentle sigh escaped from hislips as his spirit left him.

On February 19,  a military funeral was held at his home in New York,which was followed by a military procession. General Sherman's body was carried by special train, accompanied by a military guard of honor, to St. Louis.  General.Sherman had lived there for many which for many years.  At every railroad station along the long journey, bands played solemn music dirges and crowds gathered to show their respect for the departed hero.














 Fatherr Thomas Sherman


 There was another  funeral service held on February 21, 1891, at a local Catholic church.  His son, Thomas Ewing Sherman, a Jesuit priest, presided over his father's funeral mass.
 
The funeral procession was formed, composed of the regular troops, State and municipal officers, and great numbers of friends of General William Tecumseh Sherman. 





















General Joseph E Johnston CSA.


General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate officer who had commanded the resistance to General Sherman's troops in Georgia and the Carolinas, served as a pallbearer in New York City.  It was a bitterly cold day and a friend of Joseph Johnston, fearing that the general might become ill, asked him to put on his hat.





















Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston 


General Johnston famously replied:  "If I were in [Sherman's] place, and he were standing in mine, he would not put on his hat."

General Johnston did catch a serious cold and he died one month later of pneumonia.





















William Tecumseh Sherman is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri .











































General William Tecumseh Sherman Family Plot.


He was buried beside the graves of his wife and two of his children. His son, the Rev. Thomas E. Sherman, performed the last religious services over the flag-covered casket.

A company of troops fired a farewell salute of three volleys,  this was followed by an answering roar from the artillery. T hen a solitary bugler stepped forward and sounded taps over the grave of the distinguished soldier and American hero,  and the solemn and impressive ceremonies came to an end. 






















General Sherman with Generals Howard, Logan, Hazen, Davis, Slocum, and Mower,  photographed by Mathew Brady,  May 1865.



























There were many Americans who loved and honored the man  who bore the name William Tecumseh Sherman and there were many more who hated and despised him.

As it was then, it is still just about the same today, when it comes to General Sherman.  There is still a lot of controversy about him and his actions, even amongst historical scholars.

I would like to make a couple of brief statements about what I think and feel about the war and about the  man. The following numers are the statistics generally accepted by civil war historical experts.

The Clashing of regional convictions and the determination to defend those convictions cost the United States 620,000 American lives.  That is more than we have lost in all of the other was combined in the history of our nation.


Everybody knew then (on both sides) that the Confederacy could not defeat the Union forces,

The "Free" population in the United States -  21,700,000 in Union  and 5,600,000 in Confederacy.

Number of Soldiers  - 2,100,000 (67%) in Union and  1,064,000 (33%) in Confederacy.

Railroads length -  21,788 miles (71%) in Union and  8,838 miles  (29%) in Confederacy.

Manufactured items   -  90% in Union and  10% in Confederacy.

Firearms production   -  97% in Union   and   3% in Confederacy.

The major thing that the southern states had going for them was that their Generals were much better than the most of the Union generals. They believed that they could make the war so costly that the Union would allow them to leave,

In dollars and cents, the United States government estimated on Jan. 1863 that the Civil War was costing $2.5 million dollars a day.  A final official estimate in 1879 totaled $6,190,000,000.00.  The Confederacy spent approximately $2,099,808,707.00.  The war also cost the lives of Two Percent of the American Population (more than 620,000) died..  Twenty percent (1 out of 5) of the white males in the south were dead.

The Union was getting war weary and the government in Washington D.C. estimated that it would take as much as 3 years more to beat the Confederacy.  Generals Sherman and Grant agreed that a "Scorched Earth" policy would substantially shorten the war and defeat the Confederacy.  General Sherman and his troops did not declare war on the civilian population, they destroyed or captured anything that was of a military nature or things that the Confederate army needed or could use.

I believe that by pursuing this, to fruition,  General William Tecumseh Sherman shortened the war and saved many lives in all of the states - possibly another half-million.  

General Sherman was indeed ruthless when it came to combat.  His purpose was to destroy the enemy's ability to fight.  He was a warrior who always fought win.


After the fighting was over. he showed compassion for his defeated former enemies.  His conflicts with Native American Indians are a good example of this.  After they had been defeated, General Sherman showed compassion and  great concern for their welfare and treatment.  He became an advocate for them.




Some William T. Sherman's Quotes


























"This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."

"Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster."

"An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army."

"Courage_A perfect sensibility of the measure of danger and a mental willingness to endure it."

"Grant stood by me when I was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk and now we stand by each other."

"Hold the fort! I am coming!"

"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell."

"I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which in truth, they are."

"I will accept no commission that would tend to create a rivalry with Grant. I want him to hold what he has earned and got. I have all the rank I want."

"If nominated I will not run; if elected, I will not serve."

"If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war and not popularity seeking."

"It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped."

"My aim then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom."

"The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation's capital reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish."

"The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak violence upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate."

"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen and I say give them all they want."

*****


Some Major Memorials To
General William Tecumseh Sherman




































The General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument,  by Carl Rohl-Smith,  near President's Park in Washington, D.C.













































The General Sherman Sequoia tree is the largest (most massive) living thing on earth, standing over 275 feet tall with a 36 diameter and 102 circumference at its base.  Its volume is over 53,000 cubic feet.  It is estimated to be 2300 to 2700 years old. Giant Forest, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, California.



















General Sherman Monument - The gilded bronze equestrian statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the main entrance to Central Park in New York City.



General Sherman on U.S. postage

There are only a few Generals of the US Army who are honored on a US postage stamp, and even fewer who are so honored more than once or twice.







































William Tecumseh Sherman is one of those generals. The first postage stamp to honor Sherman was released to the public by the United States Post Office on March 21 of 1893,  a little more than two years after his death.  The engraving of this issue was modeled after a photograph of General Sherman that was taken by Napoleon B. Sarony in 1888,  just three years before his death.  Two years later the post office released the second Sherman issue of 1895,  and a third,  again later in 1895,  both almost identical to the first issue with slight changes in the framework design and color.

















General Sherman appeared again in the US Army issue of 1937, a commemorative postage stamp honoring Generals Sherman, Grant and Sheridan.





















The last stamp issue (to date) to honor General William T. Sherman was released in 1995, a 32-cent stamp.  General Sherman has been honored on United States postage for a total of five issues, more than most United States Presidents.


















Other posthumous tributes include the naming of the World War II M4 Sherman tank. The above picture is a  Model of the Sherman Tank.