[6] British military theorist and historian B.H. Liddell Hart declared that Sherman was "the first modern general".[7][8]. Johnston did catch a serious cold and died one month later of pneumonia. [126] He conducted a series of flanking maneuvers through rugged terrain against Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee, attempting a direct assault only at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. In 1864, Sherman succeeded Grant as the Union commander in the Western Theater. "Lick 'em tomorrow, though. [199], Like Grant and Lincoln, Sherman was convinced that the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological ability to wage further war needed to be crushed if the fighting were to end. [100], In December, Sherman's forces suffered a severe repulse at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, just north of Vicksburg. Husband of Alice Matteson. Sherman". Artillery and saw action in Florida in the Second Seminole War. 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. [138], After November elections, Sherman began marching on November 15 with 62,000 men in the direction of the port city of Savannah, Georgia,[139] living off the land and causing, by his own estimate, more than $100million in property damage. I am not and cannot be. Eleanor Mary Sherman (1859-1915) 2. Yet he did not want to run the family salt works near Lancaster. [112], After the surrender of Vicksburg and the re-capture of Jackson, Sherman was given the rank of brigadier general in the regular army, in addition to his rank as a major general of volunteers. He lived in Lancaster, Fairfield, Ohio, United States in 1860. [40] Even though he earned a brevet promotion to captain in 1848 for his "meritorious service", his lack of combat experience and relatively slow advancement within the army discouraged him. [160], Sherman believed that the terms that he had agreed to were consistent with the views that Lincoln had expressed at City Point, and that they offered the best way to prevent Johnston from ordering his men to go into the wilderness and conduct a destructive guerrilla campaign. He captured Atlanta and Savannah and wrought great destruction in marches through Georgia and the Carolinas. [116] Following the defeat of the Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga by Confederate general Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, President Lincoln re-organized the Union forces in the West as the Military Division of the Mississippi, placing it under General Grant's command. This was a new regiment yet to be raised. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65), for whi [298] The admiration of scholars such as B. H. Liddell Hart,[299] Lloyd Lewis, Victor Davis Hanson,[300] John F. Marszalek,[301] and Brian Holden-Reid[302] for Sherman owes much to what they see as an approach to the exigencies of modern armed conflict that was both effective and principled. [43], Sherman was appointed as captain in the Army's Commissary Department on September 27, 1850, with offices in St. Louis, Missouri. Sherman's nine-year-old son, Willie, the "Little Sergeant", died from typhoid fever contracted during the trip. As a man, Sherman was an eccentric mixture of strength and weakness. [79] Sherman was then assigned to serve under Robert Anderson in the Department of the Cumberland, in Louisville, Kentucky. This new edition, published by Appleton, 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. [166][167][168] Before the war, Sherman expressed some sympathy with the view of Southern whites that the black race was benefiting from slavery, although he opposed breaking up slave families and advocated that laws forbidding the education of slaves be repealed. George H. Thomas and John M. Schofield to deal with Hood; their forces eventually smashed Hood's army in the battles of Franklin (November 30) and Nashville (December 1516). Indeed, he had written to his wife that if he took more precautions "they'd call me crazy again". People Projects Discussions Surnames [9] He recovered by forging a close partnership with General Ulysses S. Grant. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results William Tecumseh Sherman Merchant (1867 - 1929) . [87] Operating from Paducah, Kentucky, he provided logistical support for the operations of Grant to capture Fort Donelson in February 1862. [252], On June 19, 1879, Sherman delivered an address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, in which he may have uttered the famous phrase "War is Hell". He passed away on 5 August 1939 in Greenwood County, Kansas, United States of America. "[50], The failure of Page, Bacon & Co. triggered a panic surrounding the "Black Friday" of February 23, 1855, leading to the closure of several of San Francisco's principal banks and many other businesses. The influential 20th-century British military historian and theorist B.H. Liddell Hart ranked Sherman as "the first modern general" and one of the most important strategists in the annals of war, along with Scipio Africanus, Belisarius, Napoleon Bonaparte, T.E. Lawrence, and Erwin Rommel. Sherman's father died unexpectedly in 1829, when Sherman was nine years old, and due to the family's financial problems, he was sent to live with Lancaster . [95][96] In July, Grant's situation improved when Halleck left for the East to become general-in-chief. However, Sherman impressed Lincoln during the President's visit to the troops on July 23, and Lincoln promoted Sherman to brigadier general of volunteers effective May 17, 1861. Sherman would eventually become one of the few high-ranking officers of the U.S. Civil War who had not fought in Mexico. Four or more generations of descendants of William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) if they are properly linked: 1. [108] The bulk of Grant's forces were now organized into three corps: the XIII Corps under McClernand, the XV Corps under Sherman, and the XVII Corps under Sherman's young protg, Maj. Gen. James B. [135] In response, Hood moved north into Tennessee. [163], Grant then offered Johnston purely military terms, similar to those that he had negotiated with Lee at Appomattox. [75], The engagement at Bull Run ended in a disastrous defeat for the Union, dashing the hopes for a rapid resolution of the conflict over secession. [207][208] Though exact figures are not available, the loss of civilian life appears to have been very small. William Tecumseh Sherman, c. 1860-65. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (18611865), achieving recognition for his command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the scorched-earth policies that he implemented against the Confederate States. There, Sherman had replaced his army comrade, the co-founder Henry Smith Turner when family matters forced the latter to return to St. Louis. [10], Sherman was born in 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio, near the banks of the Hocking River. In early 1858, he returned to California to finalize the bank's outstanding accounts there. [287] By the 1880s, however, Southern "Lost Cause" writers began to demonize Sherman for his attacks on civilians in Georgia and South Carolina. [308], Other posthumous tributes include Sherman Circle in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,[309] the M4 Sherman tank, which was named by the British during World War II,[310] and the "General Sherman" Giant Sequoia tree, which is the most massive documented single-trunk tree in the world. Research genealogy for William Tecumseh Sherman Merchant of North Bend, Coos, Oregon, as well as other members of the Merchant family, on Ancestry. The General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument is an equestrian statue of American Civil War Major General William Tecumseh Sherman located in Sherman Plaza, which is part of President's Park in Washington, D.C., in the United States.The selection of an artist in 1896 to design the monument was highly controversial. Sherman's efforts in that position were focused on protecting the main wagon roads, such as the Oregon, Bozeman and Santa Fe Trails. Sherman was one of the few Union officers to distinguish himself in the field and historian Donald L. Miller has characterized Sherman's performance at Bull Run as "exemplary". Johnston, ignoring instructions from President Davis, accepted those terms on April 26, 1865, formally surrendered his army and all the Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. [65][66], Sherman then moved to St. Louis to become president of a streetcar company called the "Fifth Street Railroad". He interrupted his military career in 1853 to pursue private business ventures, without much success. Eventually, Sherman won approval from his superiors for a plan to cut loose from his communications and march south, having advised Grant that he could "make Georgia howl". William Tecumseh Sherman was a Union general during the Civil War, playing a crucial role in the victory over the Confederate States and becoming one of the most famous military leaders in U.S.. [179][180] According to historian Eric Foner, "the 'Colloquy' between Sherman, Stanton, and the black leaders offered a rare lens through which the experience of slavery and the aspirations that would help to shape Reconstruction came into sharp focus."[176]. According to Sherman's biographer Robert O'Connell, "Shiloh marked the turning point of his life. [26], Upon graduation in 1840, Sherman entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. When Grant was promoted and took over the armies in the east, Sherman was put in charge of those in the west. [154] Having defeated the Confederate forces under Johnston at Bentonville, Sherman proceeded to rendezvous at Goldsboro with the Union troops that awaited him there after the captures of the coastal cities of New Bern and Wilmington. As the foster son of a prominent Whig politician, in Charleston the popular Lieutenant Sherman moved within the upper circles of Old South society. [178] On January 12, Sherman and Stanton met in Savannah with twenty local black leaders, most of them Baptist or Methodist ministers, invited by Sherman. [227] In one instance, he was summoned to testify as a witness in Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. He was one of eleven children of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Charles Robert Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman. [14], Sherman's unusual given name has always attracted attention. By Himself, published by D. Appleton & Company in two volumes, began with the year 1846 (when the Mexican War began) and ended with a chapter about the "military lessons of the [civil] war". [10][258] During this period, he remained in contact with war veterans, and he was an active member of various social and charitable organizations. [247][i] Grant, who was president when Sherman's memoirs appeared, later remarked that others had told him that Sherman treated Grant unfairly but "when I finished the book, I found I approved every word; that it was a true book, an honorable book, creditable to Sherman, just to his companionsto myself particularly sojust such a book as I expected Sherman would write."[250]. Lincoln happened to be at City Point at the same time, making possible the only three-way meeting of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman during the war. [296] 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[297] and in his interview for the documentary film The Fog of War (2003). [118], After Chattanooga, Sherman led a column to relieve Union forces under Ambrose Burnside thought to be in peril at Knoxville. Through much of the War, he was General Grant's most trusted subordinate. [28], While many of his colleagues saw action in the MexicanAmerican War, Sherman was assigned to administrative duties in the captured territory of California. Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891. When Grant became president of the United States in March 1869, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the Army. For more detailed discussion of this overall period, see Marszalek. General William Tecumseh "Cump" Sherman Born 8 Feb 1820 in Lancaster, Fairfield, Ohio, USA Ancestors Son of Charles Robert Sherman and Mary (Hoyt) Sherman [291] This led to the publication of several works, notably John B. Walters's Merchant of Terror: General Sherman and Total War (1973),[292] that presented Sherman as responsible for "a mode of warfare which transgressed all ethical rules and showed an utter disregard for human rights and dignity. He dealt in a friendly and unaffected way with the black people that he met during his career. [19][20] As an adult, Sherman signed all his correspondence including to his wife "W. T. [176] Their fate soon became a pressing military and political issue. In 1859, he became superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy (now Louisiana State University), a position from which he resigned when Louisiana seceded from the Union. [274], Sherman wrote to his wife in 1842: "I believe in good works rather than faith. Sherman's younger brother John was, from his seat in the U.S. Congress, a prominent advocate against slavery. His father died when he was nine years old, and Sherman was raised by Senator Thomas Ewing and eventually married into the fam Sheridan used hard-war tactics similar to those he and Sherman had employed in the Civil War. Sherman excelled academically at West Point, but he treated the demerit system with indifference. Fires began that night and by next morning most of the central city was destroyed. Historian Mark Grimsley promoted the use of the term "hard war" to refer to this strategy in the context of the U.S. Civil War. [140] At the end of this campaign, known as Sherman's March to the Sea, his troops took Savannah on December 21, 1864. Early life and career Mary Elizabeth Sherman (1852-1925) 2. [311], This is actually a re-printing of the second, revised edition of 1889, published by D. Appleton & Company, of New York City. [15] However, Lloyd Lewis's 1932 biography claimed that Sherman was originally named only "Tecumseh" and that he acquired the name "William" at the age of nine or ten, when he was baptized as a Catholic at the behest of his foster family. General William Tecumseh Sherman is best remembered for his leadership during the Civil War. Some of us called upon him immediately upon his arrival, and it is probable he would not meet the Secretary [Stanton] with more courtesy than he met us. [86], By mid-December 1861 Sherman had recovered sufficiently to return to service under Halleck in the Department of the Missouri. For other uses, see. According to Sherman, the trek across the Lumber River, and through the swamps, pocosins, and creeks of Robeson County was "the damnedest marching I ever saw". [228], When the Medicine Lodge Treaty failed in 1868, Sherman authorized his subordinate in Missouri, Major General Philip Sheridan, to lead the winter campaign of 186869, of which the Battle of Washita River was part. When William Tecumseh Sherman was born on 17 May 1880, in Page, Iowa, United States, his father, Franklin Sherman, was 32 and his mother, Mary Elizabeth Van Sant, was 21. [16] Sherman had already been baptized as an infant by a Presbyterian minister[17][18] and recent biographers believe, contrary to Lewis's claims, that he was probably given the first name "William" at that time. According to critic Edmund Wilson, Sherman: [H]ad a trained gift of self-expression and was, as Mark Twain says, a master of narrative. 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. [281] In 1888, Sherman wrote publicly that "my immediate family are strongly Catholic. Heeding, he would say, "some wise and sudden instinct not to mention retreat," he made a noncommittal remark. In The White Tecumseh, Stanley Hirshson has crafted a beautiful and rigorous work of scholarship, the only life of Sherman to draw on regimental histories and testimonies by the general's own men. When William Tecumseh Sherman was born on 12 December 1828, in Columbia, New York, United States, his father, Roger Stevens Sherman, was 32 and his mother, Orilla Moses, was 34. In 1875, Henry V. Boynton published a critical review of Sherman's memoirs "based upon compilations from the records of the war office". [136][137] Sherman left forces under Maj. Gens. [122] However, he enjoyed Grant's confidence and friendship. [99] According to historian John D. Winters's The Civil War in Louisiana (1963), at this stage Sherman, had yet to display any marked talents for leadership. "[219] Historian James M. McPherson has concluded that: The fullest and most dispassionate study of this controversy blames all parties in varying proportionsincluding 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. We live through his campaigns in the company of Sherman himself. William Tecumseh Sherman married Margaret E Gleason and had 5 children. 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. [280] Except during the personal crisis triggered by his son Thomas's decision to become a priest, Sherman's personal attitude towards the Catholic Church was tolerant and even friendly at a time when anti-Catholic prejudice was common in the United States. [289] Sherman was thus presented by Lost-Cause authors as the antithesis of the Southern ideals of chivalry supposedly embodied by General Lee. Thomas Ewing Sherman (1856-1933) 2. [183][184] Those orders, which became the basis of the claim that the Union government had promised freed slaves "forty acres and a mule", were revoked later that year by President Johnson. 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