he was a born a warrior, it was of the
most unusual kind. The tall, lanky youth,
who graduated from West Point widely
respected for his brilliance, proved to be
restless in the army. So much so that he
soon resigned in hope of becoming a
successful businessman. The bank he ran
in California, however, failed during a
depression; so he moved to Louisiana
and became the superintendent of a
small military academy.
Southern admirer
Sherman was, perhaps surprisingly,
an emotionally complex man. For one
thing, he loved the South. He loved
its easy grace and charm, its refined
society. He might have been content to
live there the rest of his life had not the
storm clouds of secession gathered. He
was no abolitionist, but he could not
abide the idea of secession. The breaking
of that storm is what drove him back
into the U.S. Army; but after resigning
his superintendency of the academy
when Louisiana seceded, he wept at
his leave-taking.
Although the new Union colonel
withstood his baptism of fire admirably
at the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861,
only a few months later he asked to be
relieved as commander of the
Department of the Cumberland in
Kentucky, which at the time was
threatened with imminent Confederate
invasion. Sherman may have had a
nervous breakdown, a form of anxiety,
or bipolar disorder brought on by
stress, overwork, and lack of sleep.
His detractors thought he was insane
and for several months, he remained
depressed, even suicidal. Soon,
however, he began working his way
back into active service.
The rest of Sherman’s military
career was a tale of redemption.
Each step up that ladder—the
fighting and campaigning, as
colonel and then general,
alongside General Ulysses S.
Grant at Shiloh and
Vicksburg; his mastery of
maneuver, in command of three
armies, down that deadly railroad to
Atlanta; and the unparalleled March
to the Sea through Georgia and the
Carolinas—saw tactical blunders but
revealed a strategic prowess. He
grew used to the carnage. “I begin
to regard the death and mangling of
a couple of thousand as a small
affair, a kind of morning dash,” he
wrote to his wife. “It may be well
that we become hardened.”Redoubtable general
Perhaps most disturbingly,
Sherman’s appetite for war was
growing with each step up the
career ladder; “a manic elation,”
as critic Edmund Wilson observed,
“that compensated for the earlier
demoralization.” The wake of
burning wreckage that marked his
passage from Atlanta, Georgia, to
Columbia, South Carolina, over a
period of three months had proved
Sherman to be a formidable foe.Then, in an about-face, he was all
conciliation. In April 1865, Sherman
offered Joseph E. Johnston, who was
negotiating the surrender of the
Confederacy’s remaining armies, terms
so generous that an enraged secretary
of war, Edwin M. Stanton, tried
relieving him of command.
Sherman remained in uniform after the
Civil War, but opposed the Republicans’
harsh measures under Reconstruction.
That didn’t stop him from succeeding
Grant—elected the Republican president
in 1869—as the Commanding General
of the Army. He held the post for the
next 15 years, when the Indian Wars
in the West approached their tragic
culmination. Despite being named for an
Native-American warrior, both Sherman
and his successor, Philip Sheridan, shared
the hostility toward Native Americans
felt by the majority of Regular Army
officers during the 19th century.Society figure
Sherman seemed to settle more
comfortably into old age. In 1875,
he was among the first of the
Civil War’s leading generals
to publish his memoirs. He
resolutely declined any invitation to
enter politics. When in Washington,
St. Louis, or New York City, he was
instead a sociable, witty figure at
parties and the theater. Former
adversaries Joseph Johnston and Joe
Wheeler dined in his home; and
Sherman’s son recalled that one day
a sad-eyed, one-legged man came
calling. His father was helping
former Confederate general John
Bell Hood, who had fallen on hard
times, to sell his military papers to
the government.
Sherman’s long run as the nation’s
preeminent soldier ended when he
died of pneumonia on February 14,- The sound of muffled drums
and mournful bells accompanied his
funeral procession down New York’s
Fifth Avenue. In the Midwest, crowds
gathered to see the funeral train pass
on its way to Calvary Cemetery in
St. Louis. Tributes were published
and statues erected to the celebrated
general. But despite Northern
plaudits, Sherman’s name remained
anathema across the South.
WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMANTIMELINESherman and his generals
In May 1865, Sherman and his staff officers—Howard,
Logan, Hazen, Davis, Slocum, and Mower—were
photographed together in Washington, D.C. on the
occasion of the Grand Review of the Armies.Sherman’s sword
General William Tecumseh Sherman wore this
Model 1850 staff and field officer’s sword, made by
the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee,
Massachusetts, during the Battle of Shiloh in
Tennessee on April 6–8, 1862.“There is many a boy here today
who looks on war as all glory,
but boys it is all hell.”
SHERMAN, AT THE GRAND REUNION OF THE FEDERAL ARMY, COLUMBUS, 1880■ February 8, 1820 Born William Tecumseh
Sherman in Lancaster, Ohio, the third son of
Charles and Mary. After the death of his father he
is reared by Senator Thomas Ewing, a family friend.
■ Summer 1840 Sherman graduates from West
Point. As a second lieutenant in the artillery, he
is soon battling the Seminole Indians in Florida
during the Second Seminole War (1835–42).
■ May 1, 1850 Marries his stepsister, Eleanor
Boyle Ewing. President Zachary Taylor is a guest.
■ September 6, 1853 Resigns from the army but
remains restless and unhappy in various jobs.
■ May 1861 Sherman rejoins the U.S. Army.
■ July 5, 1861 His daughter Rachel, the first of
eight children, is born.
■ July 21, 1861 As colonel in charge of a brigade, he
distinguishes himself at the First Battle of Bull Run
(Manassas) and is promoted to brigadier general.
■ November 1861 After two months in charge
of the Department of the Cumberland, covering
most of Kentucky, Sherman asks to be relieved
following a nervous breakdown.
■ April 7, 1862 After being reinstated and assigned
to Grant’s Army of West Tennessee, he helps lead
the successful Union counterattack at Shiloh. As a
result, he is promoted to major general.
■ October 16, 1863 After serving at Vicksburg
he succeeds Grant as commander of the Army
of the Tennessee, leading it throughout the
Chattanooga campaign.
■ March 18, 1864 When Grant takes control of
all Union forces, Sherman is given command of
the Military District of the Mississippi, effectively
in charge of all the Union’s Western armies.
■ May 5, 1864 Leaving Ringgold, Georgia, he sets
his three armies—the Tennessee, the Ohio, and
the Cumberland—on the road to Atlanta.
■ September 1, 1864 Sherman captures Atlanta.
■ November 15, 1864 Embarks on the “March
to the Sea,” arriving less than a month later in
Savannah, which on December 22 he presents
to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift.
■ February 17, 1865 He captures Columbia,
South Carolina.
■ March 21, 1865 Defeats General Joseph E.
Johnston’s makeshift Confederate army at the
Battle of Bentonville.
■ April 26, 1865 At Durham, North Carolina, he
accepts Johnston’s surrender of all Rebel forces
remaining in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.
■ January 1869
As General of the
Army, he directs
wars against the
Native Americans,
including the
Cheyenne, Sioux,
and Apache.
■ February 1884
Retires from the
U.S. Army.
■ February 1891
Dies in New York
City on the 14th. SHERMAN AND HIS
DAUGHTER RACHEL