William T. Sherman

Included here are in-depth biographies of General William T. Sherman. Sources include Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography, Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, the Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-65—Records of the Regiments in the Union Army—Cyclopedia of Battles—Memoirs of Commanders and Soldiers, Vol. VIII, Biographical, and Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War.

Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography - SEE BELOW

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography - SEE BELOW

General Sherman’s memoirs, and books on Sherman and his armies and commanders

Collection of books, official records, Army reports on Sherman and his armies

Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army

Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War

Civil War Library website

William T. Sherman - Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH (Feb. 8, 1820-Feb. 14, 1891), Union soldier, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, the third son and sixth child of Charles Robert and Mary (Hoyt) Sherman. The family had been in America since about 1634 when Edmund Sherman came from Dedham in Essex, England, to Boston, Mass., with his son, Samuel, and a cousin, the progenitor of Roger Sherman [q.v.]. Another son was John Sherman, 1613-1685 [q.v.]. Tecumseh's grandfather, Taylor Sherman, of Norwalk, Conn., had served as a commissioner to settle land titles in the Western Reserve, receiving some Ohio lands as compensation. Attracted by these lands, his son, Charles Robert, moved West in 1811, and entered upon the practice of law at Lancaster. He became judge of the state supreme court in 1823 and served until his sudden death in 1829. Most of his eleven children were then distributed among relatives, friends, and neighbors to be cared for, and Tecumseh was welcomed into the family of Thomas Ewing, 1789-1871 [q.v.], who was indebted to the boy's father for helping him begin his career as a frontier lawyer. The red-haired lad, known intimately as "Cump," had been named by his father after the noble Shawnee chief, Tecumseh [q.v.], but under the influence of his devout Catholic wife, Thomas Ewing permitted him to be baptized with the name of William Tecumseh. Ewing never formally adopted him.

A sound education at a local academy was interrupted suddenly when the boy was "notified" to prepare for West Point (Memoirs, post, I, 14). Ewing secured an appointment for his charge in 1836, and Sherman was graduated number six in the class of 1840. He was assigned as second lieutenant, 3rd Artillery, on field service in Florida, and became a first lieutenant in 1841. The following year he was stat ion ed at Fort Moultrie, S. C., where his duties left ample time for him to begin the study of law. During his first leave in 1843 in Lancaster, he became engaged to Eleanor Boyle Ewing ( called Ellen), the daughter of his guardian. Returning from this leave, he traveled down the Mississippi River and began an acquaintance with Georgia which, supplemented by a tour of three months in 1844 and a detail at the Augusta arsenal in 1845, provided him a valuable knowledge of the countryside. During the Mexican War he was aide to Philip Kearny and later adjutant to Richard Barnes Mason [q.v.], but he saw so little action that he submitted his resignation and was persuaded to withdraw it only when Persifor Frazer Smith [q .v.], in command of the new division of the Pacific, made Sherman his adjutant- general. He was relieved in January 1850 to carry dispatches east for General Scott. On May 1, after an engagement of seven years, he was married to Ellen Ewing in Washington, D. C., an event of great social importance in the capital because of the position of the bride's father.

Sherman served as captain in the subsistence department for a year and a half, and th en resigned his commission on Sept. 6, 1853, to become a partner in a branch bank of a St. Louis concern in San Francisco, Cal. Business prospered for a while, but the period of severe depression caused the bank to close in the spring of 1857. He then represented the firm in New York for a short time, but the parent bank itself failed in October, and Sherman voluntarily assumed a heavy personal financial responsibility for losses to friends who had given him money to invest for them. His efforts to return to the army failed and he established a partnership with Thomas and Hugh Boyle Ewing [q. v.], practising law in Leavenworth, Kan. He lost the only case he tried. Contact with the garrison at Leavenworth increased his eagerness to rejoin the service, but after other attempts failed he applied for and received the post of superintendent of a new military college about to be opened at Alexandria, La., now Louisiana State University. He was conspicuously successful in this work, in which he was engaged from October 1859 until Jan. 18, 1861, endearing himself to his co-workers, and winning many friends. Before the secession of Louisiana compelled him to resign he was even offered a high commission in the Confederate army. He later accepted the presidency of a St. Louis street railway. This was a very trying time for Sherman. Failure had dogged his footsteps; his industry, his honesty, his recognized abilities for mastering innumerable details had in the army, in finance, in education, in industry-availed him nothing. He had been forced, time after time, to accept the tactful hospitality of the Ewing household for his family, and had often held off with some difficulty his particular bete noir-the management of the Ewing salt-works in Ohio, a means of livelihood which Thomas Ewing had offered him again and again out of genuine kindness.

The prospect of war between the Union and the South caused Sherman real anguish. He regarded the preservation of the Union and the integrity of the Constitution with the same fervor-almost religious-as did Thomas Ewing, from whose fire it had probably been kindled. He also loved the South and her people. Everything must be done to avert war; if it came, it must be brought to a conclusion as swiftly as possible, and the South must be returned to the fold with no further punishment than the sufferings which the actual conflict would mete out to her. Here lies the spring of Sherman's action from the day he parted from his Southern friends; the key to his prophetic views on the proportions of the war, to the ruthless march through Georgia, to his liberal peace terms, and to his consistent opposition to Congressional reconstruction.

At last when the regular army was increased in May 1861, Sherman was appointed colonel of the new 13th Infantry, and in July was assigned to command a brigade in General McDowell's army. With this command he shared in the disaster of Bull Run. He was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers a month later, and became second in command in Kentucky to Robert Anderson [q.v.], inheriting the thankless job of trying to hold the state with little more than home guards when Anderson's poor health forced him to relinquish it. His anxiety over the raw recruits for whose lives he was responsible preyed upon his mind at this time, and his nervous temperament led him to overestimate the difficulty of his position, the forces of the enemy, and the number of troops required-although, as it was proved later, the last was moderate enough. His efforts to keep newspaper reporters out of his lines in the belief that the enemy learned valuable information from this source unfortunately aroused the enmity of the press, so that the rumour that Sherman's mind was giving way spread quickly t0 officials and to the public. Buell was sent to assume command in Kentucky and Sherman went to Missouri to report to Halleck. He was received with coldness and suspicion and so bitter was his resentment that he even contemplated suicide. Shortly after he returned from leave, he was assigned to the District of Cairo, Grant's former command. After the capture of the forts, he joined Grant with a division of volunteers and took a prominent part in the battle of Shiloh and the advance to Corinth. The frightful carnage at Shiloh again gave the newspapers a chance to strike at Sherman, and they reported that the Federals had been surprised in their camps. True it is, that sufficient preparation had not been made, and it may be supposed that Sherman's experience in Kentucky made him very wary of the camp rumour that Johnston's army was moving against him ( see Lewis, post, p. 218 ff.). Sherman's command, however, was vigorous and he had four horses shot from under him during the battle. He was promoted major-general of volunteers with rank from May 1, 1862.

In July 1862, Grant succeeded Halleck in charge of the western armies and sent Sherman to Memphis to place it in a state of defense. Sherman suppressed guerrilla warfare, established civil authority on a firm basis, organized a charity drive, and would have brought the cotton trade under control had not Federal authorities obstructed him. Pillaging was strictly forbidden to his soldiers. The Mississippi was now open as far down as Memphis, and as far up from the mouth as Port Hudson. The only strong points remaining were Vicksburg, on the first high ground below Memphis, and the fortified naval base at Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, which threatened the western flank of any advance. Grant proposed to move against Vicksburg. He, himself, was to hold Pemberton at the Yalobusha where the general advance of Nov. 24 had pushed him, and Sherman was sent down the river to take Vicksburg. Raids on his communications, however, forced Grant to fall back and release Pemberton, and rendered Sherman's expedition hopeless. After fruitless attempts at an assault he reembarked his troops on Jan. 2, 1863, and turned them over to General McClernand, who had arrived with orders from the president to command the forces on the river. These forces were reorganized into the Army of the Mississippi, with two army corps, one of which Sherman commanded. At Sherman's suggestion, McClernand, with the assistance of Porter's gunboat flotilla, proceeded to the capture of Arkansas Post, then returned to the Mississippi. Grant reorganized the whole force into the Army of the Tennessee, with four corps, Sherman ,retaining his own, the XV, and moved down the river to open his amphibious campaign which led to the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. For his distinguished service in this campaign Sherman was made brigadier-general in the regular army.

In September, Sherman, with his own corps and other troops, was sent back to Memphis and thence eastward to the relief of Chattanooga. Grant's advancement to supreme command in the west placed Sherman in command of the Army of the Tennessee, but strong forces had to remain at Vicksburg and Memphis, so that he could assemble for the Chattanooga operation but little more than he had with him. His command was moved across the rear of Hooker's and Thomas' troops, already in position, and formed the left element of the general movement of Nov. 24, which raised the siege of Chattanooga. The next day Sherman's advance had reached Ringgold, when he was recalled to move to the relief of Knoxville. Starting at once, without waiting for his transport to join him, he reached Knoxville on Dec. 6 only to find that Longstreet had raised the siege and gone back to Virginia. He then placed his troops in winter quarters along the Tennessee River. This campaign, for which he received the thanks of Congress, had been fought under conditions extraordinarily distressing to Sherman. His son and namesake, nine years old, who had been with him during the quiet period after Vicksburg, died of typhoid fever at Memphis as the expedition was starting. In January he went down to Vicksburg to conduct an expedition against the Confederate base at Meridian. Arranging with Banks at New Orleans for a feint toward Mobile, he moved out with four divisions to Meridian, which he reached without serious opposition. After destroying the arsenal and depots he returned to Vicksburg.

The great event of the spring of 1864 was the appointment of Grant as lieutenant-general commanding all the armies. He went east in March, turning over his command to Sherman; McPherson succeeded to the command of the Army of the Tennessee. Grant's opinion of these two great lieutenants was expressed in a letter thanking them as "the men to whom above all others" he was indebted for his successes (Sherman, Memoirs, 1875, I, 399). The combined plan for 1864 called for an advance by Meade's Army of the Potomac against Lee and Richmond, and an advance by Sherman against Johnston and Atlanta. Sherman is sued orders for a concentration about Chattanooga, and moved his headquarters to that place late in April. His field force consisted of the Armies of the Cumberland (Thomas), the Tennessee (McPherson) and the Ohio (Schofield)-in all about 100,000 men. Opposed was Johnston with some 60,000. His first care was to assure his supply. His base was Nashville, 150 miles north, with one single track railway, open to raids, and poorly supplied with rolling stock. He took complete possession of this road, cut off all civilian traffic, reduced military supplies to the strictest essentials, impounded all rolling stock coming in from the north, in spite of the complaints of the northern railways, and reduced field equipment and rations to a minimum. By these stringent measures he succeeded in accumulating a reserve of supplies sufficient to permit him to commence operations by May 5, the date set by Grant.

Johnston was at Dalton, holding Buzzard Roost Gap, where the railway crossed Rockyface ridge. Sherman moved Thomas and Schofield directly against Buzzard-Roost, and McPherson around Johnston's left through Snake Creek Gap. McPherson passed through the Gap on May 9, but failed to take Resaca or to cut the railway. Johnston then fell back upon Resaca. Leaving a detachment of the railway, Sherman moved around by McPherson's route and on May 15 took Resaca and reopened his rail communications. He then followed on to Kingston and established an advanced depot there. Johnston fell back into the rugged hills behind Allatoona Pass. Sherman moved westward off the railway again and pushed up toward the Allatoona-Kenesaw Mountain line. Allatoona Pass was occupied on June I. Progress was now slow. Johnston was entrenched in a strong position. Every advance against it was covered by hasty field works-not as a defensive, but as an offensive weapon. Violent assaults upon Kenesaw at the end of June failed, but a new extension of Sherman's right forced the abandonment of that position. Johnston fell back to the Chattahoochee. Schofield effected a crossing beyond Johnston's right, which forced him to give up the river line on July 9 and retire to the line of Peachtree Creek, immediately covering Atlanta. Here Johnston was relieved by Hood. Sherman extended his left, swinging around Atlanta by the north and east and drew violent attacks from Hood. The defenses of Atlanta being too strong for an assault, Sherman opened a regular siege, then worked his force around by his own right, west of the city, and cut the railways to Montgomery and Macon. Hood evacuated Atlanta on the night of Sept. 1. This victorious campaign won Sherman his promotion to the rank of major- general in the regular army, Aug. 12, 1864. He at once ordered the removal of the civil population from Atlanta, and proposed to Hood an armistice for this purpose. After some correspondence, in which Hood attempted without success to represent the proceeding as barbarous, it was carried out (Memoirs, II, n7 ff.).

Sherman had in mind from the fir st a further movement from Atlanta to some point on the seacoast. After correspondence with Grant, the plan took definite shape. Thomas and Schofield were sent back to hold Hood and to protect Tennessee. On Nov. 15, after destroying installations of military value, the army of 62,000 men marched out of Atlanta, breaking all communications, and disappeared for a month. The "march through Georgia” centered upon Sherman one of the bitterest controversies of the Civil War. His purpose was to break the resistance of the South by cutting off the supply of her armies and Georgia was the only untouched source of supply. The army was under orders to live off the country, to destroy war supplies, public buildings, railroads, and manufacturing shops. Foraging was strictly defined, and the destruction of private property was authorized only upon the order of the highest commanders and when some act of violence impeded the progress of the army. The execution of the orders, however, was extremely difficult to control. The army was in the pink of condition and in a holiday mood. Thousands of stragglers, negro and white, so-called "bummers," or soldiers detached from their own regiments, fringed the marching ranks and considered themselves under no orders. Wheeler's Confederate cavalrymen, also, committed acts for which the Federals were held responsible -by an undiscriminating countryside. Many acts of pillage did occur, and it appears obvious that Sherman's discipline was not strict enough, a judgment which his own men rested upon him (see Hitchcock, post, p. 86). Under no illusions whatsoever as to the terrible effects of his march ( see Home Letters, p. 298), Sherman contended that wanton destruction was prevented in so far as possible, and that there was no serious personal violence to noncombatants. The principle that the war could be terminated soon by bringing it home to a civilian population by the destruction of goods rather than life was a tenet to which Sherman clung. Aside from condemnation and acclaim, it is on the basis of his deliberate exploitation of this principle that he has been called the first modern general ( see Hart, preface). On Jan. 10, 1865, Sherman received for the second time the thanks of Congress

The city of Savannah was occupied on Dec. 21. On the first of February began the march northward through the Carolinas--a march in comparison to which, as Sherman said, that through Georgia was child's play. In seventeen days the army reached Columbia, forcing the evacuation of Charleston. That night Columbia was burned, and Sherman was charged with having ordered the burning. His orders were, however, to destroy only war materials and public buildings (see Lewis, post, p. 501). The evidence, reviewed by a nonpartisan, indicates that the evacuating troops set cotton on fire, that a hi g h wind fanned it, that the citizens distributed liquor too liberally, that negroes and released Union prisoners itching for revenge applied the torch further, but that the officers adopted drastic measures to save the city (see Hart, post, p. 366 ff.). Johnston, commanding the Confederate forces in the Carolinas, was unable to make any effective resistance. On Mar. 22 Sherman effect ed a junction at Goldsboro with Schofield's corps. While his troops were being resupplied, he made a hasty trip by sea to visit Grant's headquarters at City point on the James River, and there held the consultation with President Lincoln which so impressed up on him the government's plan for a liberal peace (Home Letters, p. 336). Sherman then moved upon Raleigh, but Lee had surrendered on Apr. 9, and now Johnston also made overtures for surrender. On Apr. 17 the two generals met, and liberal terms were granted by Sherman. In his eagerness to put an end to the war he inserted in his draft terms which were political in their nature and beyond his province. This fact, however, was explicitly recognized in the agreement signed, which, in effect, was merely an engagement by the generals to do their utmost to secure approval by their respective governments. But the feelin g at Washington was bitter by reason of the assassination of Lincoln, and the agreement was repudiated with a vigor and discourtesy which deeply offended Sherman. At the final grand review in Washington, he publicly refused to shake hands with Secretary Stanton, although he became reconciled later.

Sherman took up his first post-war station at--St. Louis in command of the Division of the Mississippi. He lent great assistance in the construction of the transcontinental railway and in controlling and mollifying the Indian opposition accomplished, in his own opinion, more of permanent value than during the war (Hart, p. 420). In the reorganization of the army, Grant became general and Sherman succeeded him as lieu .tenant-general on July 25, 1866. Soon afterward, he was called to Washington to take temporary command of the army, the President proposing to send Grant on a diplomatic mission to Mexico, escorting the minister accredited to President Juarez. Grant objected to this, considering it a political maneuver to get him out of Washington and Sherman was designated for the mission : The mission went to Mexico but failed to find Juarez; it constituted, however, a part of the diplomatic pressure exerted upon France for withdrawal of support to Maximilian. Upon Grant's inauguration as president, Sherman became general commanding the army on Mar. 4, 1869. Schofield, then still secretary of war, issued an order the next day to settle the long-standing quarrel of the commanding general and the heads of the staff departments, by placing them under his orders. Rawlins, however, who now became secretary of war, saw this as a diminution of the importance of his office, and rescinded the order. Although he had favored the system announced by Schofield, Grant refused to interfere. Sherman was deeply hurt by this and after a year spent on leave in Europe, 1871-72, moved his headquarters to St. Louis .in 1874. A compromise having been reached, he returned to Washington in 1876, although the political chaos of Washington had always distressed him. He was untiring in the exercise of his command up to the moment of his retirement. One of his most important contributions to the army was his establishment of the school at Fort Leavenworth in 1881 which, under various names and forms, has had a continuous existence ever since, and has developed into the most influential agency of the service in shaping doctrine and training methods.

He retired from active service on Nov. 1, 1883, established himself in St. Louis, and remained there until 1886, when he moved to New York City. Repeated efforts were made to draw him into political life, especially in the Republican convention of 1884, when only his positive veto prevented a definite move for his nomination for the presidency. He established no business connections, but lived quietly and at leisure. His correspondence was very large, and he was in frequent attendance at military reunions and celebrations, besides being in constant demand at private social affairs. He died of pneumonia in New York City at the age of seventy-one and was survived by six of his eight children. At the end, while unconscious, Sherman received the last rites of the Catholic church, but had never been a member. Ellen Sherman had died three years before, deeply absorbed to the last in her Catholic charities. Sherman was tall and erect, with sharp, dark eyes, reddish hair and beard, and deeply lined face·. His features were grave and severe in repose, but animated and expressive in conversation, of which he was no mean master. His mind was extraordinarily quick; it flashed from premise to conclusion so rapidly that his associates could not follow, and even he himself seemed unconscious of the process. This rapidity, together with his nervous temperament, gave him the reputation of an erratic, even of a mentally unbalanced, genius--a reputation totally foreign to the fact. He was a cordial and devoted friend, his relations with Grant, in particular, being of the 'most intimate and confidential character. In public as well as in private address, in his letters and in the Memoirs, first published in 1875, his characteristics were strikingly displayed. The famous statement, "war ... is all hell," was made by Sherman in a speech at Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 11, 1880, and was reported in the Ohio State Journal of the following day. Augustus Saint-Gaudens [q.v.] modeled a bust of Sherman during the last years of the testy old general's life. The magnificent equestrian statue in Central Park, New York City, grew out of the first effort.

[Sherman and Ewing papers, Manuscript Division, Lib. of Cong.;
T. T. Sherman, Sherman General. (1920);
Memoirs of General William T. Sherman (2 vols., 2nd ed. revised, 1886);
M. A. DeWolfe Howe, ed., Home Letters of General Sherman (1909);
R. S. Thorndike, ed., Sherman Letters, Correspondence between General and Senator Sherman (1894);
Lloyd Lewis, Sherman-Fighting Prophet (1932);
B. H. Liddell Hart, Sherman-Soldier, Realist, American (1929);
W. L. Fleming, General W. T , Sherman As College President (1912);
Henry Hitchcock, Marching with Sherman (1927) ;
J. F. Rhodes, "Sherman's March to the Sea," Am. Hist. Rev., Apr. 1901;
Ferdinand von Meerheimb, Sherman's Feldziug in Georgien (1869, Berlin);
Boston Evening Transcript, Feb. 14, 1891. See also a critical estimate of the Memoirs in an article by W. B. Stevens in Mo. Hist. Rev., Jan. 1931.]

O. L. S., Jr.

Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume IV, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930, pp. 492-501.

William T. Sherman - Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography

SHERMAN, William Tecumseh, soldier, born in Lancaster, Ohio, 8 February, 1820. His branch of the family is traced to Samuel Sherman, of Essex, England, who came to this country in 1634 with his brother, the Reverend John Sherman, and his cousin, Captain John Sherman. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, traces his lineage to the captain, and General Sherman to that of the Reverend John, whose family settled in Woodbury and Norwalk, Connecticut, whence some of them moved to Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1810. The father of General Sherman was a lawyer, and for five years before his death in 1829 judge of the supreme court. His mother, who was married in 1810, was Mary Hoyt. They had eleven children, of whom William was the sixth and John the eighth. William was adopted by Thomas Ewing, and attended school in Lancaster till 1836. In July of that year he was sent as a cadet to West Point, where he was graduated in 1840 sixth in a class of forty-two members. Among his classmates was George H. Thomas. As a cadet, he is remembered as an earnest, high-spirited, honorable, and outspoken youth, deeply impressed, according to one of his early letters, with the grave responsibility properly attaching to "serving the country." He also at that time expressed a wish to go to the far west, out of civilization. He was commissioned as a 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery, 1 July, 1840, and sent to Florida, where the embers of the Indian War were still smoldering. On 30 November, 1841, he was made a 1st lieutenant, and commanded a small detachment at Picolata. In 1842 he was at Fort Morgan, Mobile Point. Alabama, and later at Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, where he indulged in hunting and society, the immediate vicinity of the fort being a summer resort for the people of Charleston. In 1843, on his return from a short leave, he began the study of law, not to make it a profession, nut to render himself a more intelligent soldier. When the Mexican War began in 1846 he was sent with troops around Cape Horn to California, where he acted as adjutant general to General Stephen W. Kearny, Colonel Mason, and General Persifer F. Smith. Returning in 1850, on 1 May he married Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, at Washington, her father, his old friend, then being Secretary of the Interior. He was appointed a captain in the commissary department, 2 September, 1850, and sent to St. Louis and New Orleans. He had already received a brevet of captain for service in California, to date from 30 May, 1848. Seeing little prospect of promotion and small opportunity for his talents in the army in times of peace, he resigned his commission, 6 September, 1853, the few graduates of West Point being at that period in demand in many walks of civil life. He was immediately appointed (1853) manager of the branch bank of Lucas, Turner and Company, San Francisco,  California. When the affairs of that establishment were wound up in 1857 he returned to St. Louis and lived for a time in New York as agent for the St. Louis firm. In 1858-'9 he was a counsellor-at-law in Leavenworth, Kansas, and in the next year became superintendent of the State Military Academy at Alexandria, Louisiana, where he did good work; but when that state seceded from the Union he promptly resigned and returned to St. Louis, where he was for a short time president of the Fifth street Railroad.

Of the Civil War he took what were then considered extreme views. He regarded President Lincoln's call for 75,000 three-months' men in April, 1861, as trifling with a serious matter, declaring that the rising of the secessionists was not a mob to be put down by the posse comitatus, but a war to be fought out by armies. On 13 May he was commissioned colonel of the 13th Infantry, with instructions to report to General Scott at Washington. That officer had matured a plan of campaign, and was about to put it into execution. Sherman was put in command of a brigade in Tyler's division of the army that marched to Bull Run. His brigade comprised the 13th, 69th, and 79th New York and the 2d Wisconsin Regiments. The enemy's left had been fairly turned, and Sherman's brigade was hotly engaged, when the Confederates were re-enforced; the National troops made fatal delays, and, struck by panic, the army was soon in full retreat. Sherman's brigade hall lost 111 killed, 205 wounded, and 293 missing. On 3 August, 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from 17 May, and on 28 August he was sent from the Army of the Potomac to be second in command to General Robert Anderson in Kentucky. Few persons were prepared for the curious problem of Kentucky politics. What has been called the "secession juggle" was at least partially successful. On account of broken health, General Anderson soon asked to be relieved from the command, and he was succeeded by Sherman on 17 October It was expected by the government that the men, to keep Kentucky in the Union, could be recruited in that state, and that the numbers required would be but few; but this expectation was doomed to be disappointed. Sherman looked for a great war, and declared that 60,000 men would be required to drive the enemy out of the state and 200,000 to put an end to the struggle in that region. Most men looked upon this prophetic sagacity as craziness. He was relieved from his command by General Buell on 12 November and ordered to report to General Halleck, commanding the Department of the West. He was placed in command of Benton Barracks. At this time General Ulysses S. Grant was in command of the force to move on Forts Henry and Donelson in February, 1862, and just after the capture of these strongholds Sherman was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. It consisted of six divisions, of which Sherman was in command of the 5th. In the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, 6 and 7 April (see Grant, Ulysses S.), Sherman’s men were posted at Shiloh Church, and the enemy were so strong that all the detachments were hotly engaged, and Sherman served as a pivot. When the Army of the Ohio came up, during the night, Grant had already ordered Sherman to advance, and when the combined forces moved, the enemy retreated rapidly upon Corinth. The loss in Sherman's division was 2,034. He was wounded in the hand, but did not leave the field, and he richly deserved the praise of General Grant in his official report: "I feel it a duty to a gallant and able officer, Brig.-General W. T. Sherman, to make mention. He was not only with his command during the entire two days of the action, but displayed great judgment and skill in the management of his men. Although severely wounded in the hand on the first day, his place was never vacant." And again: "To his individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle." General Halleck declared that " Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th." After the battle General Halleck assumed command of all the armies, and advanced slowly upon Corinth, acting rather with the caution of an engineer than with the promptness of a strategist. In the new movement General Sherman was conspicuous for judgment and dash. He was employed constantly where promptness and energy were needed. Two miles in advance of the army, as it was ranged around Corinth, he captured and fortified Russell's house, which is only a mile and a half from Corinth. Deceiving Halleck, the enemy were permitted to evacuate the town and destroy its defences. Sherman was made a major-general of volunteers, to date from 1 May, 1862. On 9 June he was ordered to Grand Junction, a strategic point, where the Memphis and Charleston and the Mississippi Central Railroads meet. Memphis was to be a new base. He was to repair the former road, and to guard them both and keep them in running order. General Halleck having been made general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, Grant was, on 15 July, appointed to command the Department of the Tennessee, and he at once ordered Sherman to Memphis, which had been captured by the National Flotilla, 6 June, with instructions to put it in a state of defence. Sherman, to secure himself against the machinations of the rebellious inhabitants, directed all who adhered to the Confederate cause to leave the city. He allowed them no trade in cotton, would not permit the use of Confederate money, allowed no force or intimidation to be used to oblige Negroes, who had left their masters, to return to them, but made them work for their support. He also effectually suppressed guerilla warfare.

The western armies having advanced to the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the next step was to capture Vicksburg and thereby open to navigation the Mississippi River. Vicksburg was strongly fortified and garrisoned and was covered by an army commanded by General Pemberton posted behind the Tallahatchie. Grant moved direct from Grand Junction via Holly Springs, McPherson his left from Corinth, and Sherman his right from Memphis to Wyatt, turning Pemberton's left, who retreated to Grenada behind the Yalabusha. Then Grant detached Sherman with one of his brigades back to Memphis to organize a sufficient force out of the new troops there and a division at Helena to move in boats escorted by Admiral Porter's gun-boat fleet to Vicksburg to capture the place while he, Grant, held Pemberton at Grenada. The expedition failed from natural obstacles and the capture of Holly Springs by the enemy, and at the same moment General McClernand arrived to assume command of the expedition by orders of President Lincoln, and the Army of the Tennessee was divided into the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th Corps, of which Sherman had the 15th. To clear the flank, the expeditionary force before Vicksburg under McClernand returned in their boats to the mouth of the Arkansas, ascended that river a hundred miles, and carried by assault Fort Hindman, capturing its stores and five thousand prisoners, thereby making the Mississippi safe from molestation. In this movement Sherman bore a conspicuous part. The expedition then returned to the Mississippi River, and General Grant came in person from Memphis to give direction to the operations against Vicksburg from the river, which resulted in its capture, with 31,000 prisoners, on 4 July, 1863, thereby opening the Mississippi and fully accomplishing the original purpose. During this brilliant campaign General Sherman was most active, and therefore was appointed a brigadier-general in the regular army, to date 4 July, 1803. Meantime Rosecrans, having expelled the enemy from middle Tennessee, had forced him to evacuate Chattanooga, fought the bloody battle of Chickamauga, and fell back into Chattanooga, where he was in a precarious condition. On 4 October Sherman was ordered to take his corps, the 15th, from the Big Black via Memphis, with such other troops as could be spared from the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railway, toward Chattanooga. He moved, repairing the road as he went, according to the express orders of General Halleck. But on the 27th he received orders from General Grant to discontinue all work and inarch rapidly toward Bridgeport on the Tennessee. He lost no time in doing so. Sherman's 15th Corps, with other commands, by the rapid movement for Chattanooga, was now getting into position; he was preparing to cross the river from the west bank, below the mouth of the Chickamauga, with the purpose of attacking the northern end of Mission ridge, while a division of cavalry was sent to the enemy's right and rear to cut the railroad behind him. At 1 o'clock, on the morning of 24 November, Sherman crossed on pontoon bridges, and by 3 o'clock P. St. he was intrenched at the north end of Mission ridge. Thus the disposal of troops in Grant's line of battle was: Sherman on the left, in front of Tunnel Hill; Thomas in the centre, at Fort Wood and Orchard Knob: while Hooker was to come up from Wauhatchie. take Lookout mountain, and, crossing to Rossville, advance upon the ridge, to complete the organization. There was open communication between these bodies by special couriers. While preparations were making for the centre attack under Thomas, it was evident that the enemy's design was to crush Sherman. Pierce assaults were made upon him in quick succession, which he resisted, and thus performed good service in drawing the foe to his flank, while Thomas was making the main attack upon the ridge, which was successful. On the morning of the 25th Sherman pursued the enemy by the roads north of the Chickamauga, arriving at Ringgold on that day. and everywhere destroying the enemy's communications. During these operations General Burnside was besieged by Longstreet in Knoxville, Tennessee. and was in great straits. On 3 December, under orders from Grant, which another commander was slow to obey, Sherman made forced marches to Burnside's relief, and reached Knoxville not a minute too soon, and after supplying Burnside with all the assistance and re-enforcements he needed marched back to Chattanooga. Toward the end of January. 1864. he returned to Memphis and Vicksburg, whence with parts of McPherson's and Hurlburt's corps, then unemployed, he marched to Jackson and Meridian, where he broke up the Confederate combinations and destroyed their communications. On 2 March. Grant had been made lieutenant-general: on the 12th he assumed command of all the armies of the United States, with the purpose of conducting in person the campaign of the Army of the Potomac. On 12 March he assigned Sherman to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the Departments of the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Arkansas—in a word, of the entire southwestern region, with temporary headquarters at Nashville. In a letter of 4 March, 1864, Grant acknowledges to Sherman his great gratitude for the co-operation and skill which so largely contributed to his own success, and on 19 February. 1864, Sherman received the thanks of Congress for his services in the Chattanooga Campaign. On 25 March he began to prepare his command for action, to put the railroads in good condition, and protect them and to make provision for the supplies of the army in its approaching campaign. On 10 April he received his final instructions from Grant to move against Atlanta. Ordering his troops to rendezvous at Chattanooga, he made it his headquarters on 28 April. His force consisted of the armies of the Cumberland, General George H. Thomas; the Tennessee. General James B. McPherson; and the Ohio, General John M. Schofield. It was 09,000 strong, with 254 guns, while the Confederate army, under Johnston, about 41,000 strong, soon re-enforced up to 62,000 men. was prepared to resist his advance, and if Sherman had the advantage of attack, Johnston had that of fighting behind intrenchments and natural obstacles. Moving from Chattanooga, Sherman came up with him at Dalton, 14 May, and turned his position at Buzzard's Roost by sending McPherson through Snake Creek gap, when Johnston fell back to Resaca, After an assault. 15 May, Johnston retreated to Cassville and behind the Etowah on the 17th. After the turning of Allatoona pass, which he made a secondary base, and fierce battles near New Hope Church, in the neighborhood of Dallas. Johnston still further retreated to a strong position on Kenesaw mountain, having contracted and retired his flanks to cover Marietta. Sherman advanced his line with each retrograde movement of the enemy and pressed operations, continually gaining ground. Both armies habitually fought from behind log parapets until Sherman ordered an attack on the fortified lines, 27 June, but did not succeed in breaking through. He then determined to turn the position, and moved General James B. McPherson's army on 3 July toward the Chattahoochee, which compelled Johnston to retire to another intrenched position on the northwest bank of that river, whence he fell back on Atlanta as Sherman began to cross the river, threatening to strike his rear with a part of the army, while the rest lay intrenched in his front. On 17 July began the direct attack on Atlanta. General John B. Hood, who had superseded General Johnston on 17 July, made frequent sorties, and struck boldly and fiercely. There was a severe battle at Peach Tree creek on 20 July, one on the east side of the city two days later, and on the 28th one at Ezra Church, on the opposite side of Atlanta, in all of which the National forces were victorious. After an ineffective cavalry movement against the railroad. General Sherman left one corps intrenched on the Chattahoochee and moved with the other five corps on the enemy's only remaining line of railroad, twenty-six miles south of Atlanta, where he beat him at Jonesboro', occupied his line of supply, and finally, on 1 September, the enemy evacuated the place. Here Hood's presumption led to his own destruction. Leaving the south almost defenceless, he moved upon Nashville, where he was disastrously defeated by Thomas.

Sherman had sent Thomas to that city purposely to resist his advance, and with the diminished army he moved upon Savannah, threatening Augusta and Macon, but finding little to oppose him m his inarch to the sea. Sherman moved steadily forward until he reached the defensive works that covered Savannah and blocked Savannah River. These were promptly taken by assault, and communications were opened with the fleet, which furnished ample supplies to his army. Savannah thus became a marine base for future operations. Sherman announced in a brief note to President Lincoln the evacuation of the city. "I beg to present you," he writes," as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns, plenty of ammunition, and 25,000 bales of cotton." His army had marched 300 miles in twenty-four days, through the heart of Georgia, and had lived in plenty all the way. The value of this splendid achievement cannot be overestimated. On 12 August he had been appointed major-general in the U. S. army, and on 10 January he received the thanks of Congress for his "triumphal march." After the occupation of Savannah the question arose whether Sherman should come north by sea or march with his army through the Atlantic states. He preferred the latter plan. Schofield, leaving Thomas in Tennessee, was sent by rail and steamers to the coast of North Carolina with his corps (23d) to march upon Goldsboro', North Carolina, to co-operate with him. Sherman left Savannah in February, moved through the Salkehatchie swamp, flanked Charleston, compelled its evacuation, and entered Columbia on the 17th. Thence he moved on Goldsboro' by way of Winnsboro', Cheraw, and Fayetteville, opening communication by Cape Fear River with Schofield on 12 March, fighting at Averysboro and Bentonville, where the enemy resisted

Lee's surrender on the 12th, and on the 14th sent a flag of truce to Sherman to know upon what terms he would receive his surrender. "I am fully empowered," Sherman wrote to him, " to arrange with you any terms for the suspension of hostilities, and am willing to confer with you to that end. That a base of action may be had, I undertake to abide by the same conditions entered into by Generals Grant and Lee at Appomattox Court-House, Virginia, on the 9th inst." After considerable correspondence and a long interview with General Johnston, having in view an immediate and complete peace, Sherman made a memorandum or basis of agreement between the armies, which was considered by the government as at once too lenient and exceeding his powers. It included in terms of capitulation not only the army of Johnston, but all the Confederate troops remaining in the field. By the 7th article it was announced in general terms " that the war is to cease; a general amnesty so far as the executive of the United States can command, on condition of the disbandment of the Confederate army, the distribution of arms, and the resumption of peaceful pursuits by officers and men hitherto composing said armies." In order to secure himself against the assumption of power, the article is thus continued: "Not being fully empowered by our respective principals to fulfil these terms, we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain authority, and will endeavor to his advance vigorously. At Averysboro' on the 16th General Henry W. Slocum with four divisions attacked the intrenched position of General William J. Hardee, and, turning his left flank, compelled him to fall back, while the cavalry, under General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, were attacked and driven back by the Confederate Infantry of General Lafayette McLaws on the road to Bentonville. At the latter point General Johnston's force was attacked in a strongly intrenched position on the 19th by the left wing of Sherman's army, under General Slocum, whose right flank had been broken and driven back. After an obstinate combat, the Confederates withdrew in the night. Sherman and Schofield met at Goldsboro' on 23 and 24 March as originally planned. Leaving his troops there, he visited President Lincoln and General Grant at City Point, returning To Goldsboro' on the 30th. The interview on board the "Ocean Queen" is represented in the accompanying vignette copy of a painting by G. P. A. Healy, entitled " The Peacemakers," the fourth member of the group being Admiral Porter. Sherman is shown at the moment that he said to Mr. Lincoln: "If Lee will only remain in Richmond till I can reach Burkesville. we shall have him between our thumb and Angers." suiting the action to the word. He was now ready to strike the Danville road, break Lee's communications, and cut off his retreat, or to re-enforce Grant in front of Richmond for a final attack. He would be ready to move on 10 April. Johnston at Greensboro' received news of carry out the above programme." It was an honest effort on the part of a humane commander to put an end to the strife at once. Perhaps affairs were somewhat complicated by the assassination of President Lincoln on 14 April, which created great indignation and sorrow. It not only affected the terms between Johnston and Sherman, but it caused the latter to fall under the suspicion of the Secretary of War. On their arrival in Washington they were promptly and curtly disapproved by a despatch sent, not to Sherman, but to General Grant, on the morning of 24 April, directing him to go at once to North Carolina, by order of Secretary Stanton, to repudiate the terms and to negotiate the whole matter as in the case of Lee. General Sherman considered himself rebuked for his conduct. It was supposed that in the terms of agreement there was an acknowledgment of the Confederate government and a proposed re-establishment of the state authorities and that it might furnish a ground of claim for the payment of the Confederate debt in the future. Such certainly was not its purpose, nor does it now appear that such could have been its effect. Sherman was a soldier treating with soldiers, and deserved more courteous and considerate treatment from the government authorities, even if in his enthusiasm he had exceeded his powers. On 10 March. Sherman set out for Alexandria, Virginia, and arrived on the 19th. He determined then not to revisit Washington, but to await orders in camp; but he afterward, at the president's request, went to see him. He did not complain that his agreement with Johnston was disapproved. It was the publication that constituted the gravamen of the offence, its tone and style, the insinuations it contained, the false inferences it occasioned, and the offensive orders to the subordinate officers of General Sherman which succeeded the publication. These he bitterly resented at the time, but before Mr. Stanton's death they became fully reconciled. Preliminary to the disbandment of the National armies they passed in review before President Johnson and cabinet and Lieutenant-General Grant—the Army of the Potomac on 23 May. and General Sherman's army on the 24th. Sherman was particularly observed and honored. He took leave of his army in an eloquent special field order of 30 May. From 27 June, 1865, to 3 March, 1869, he was in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at St. Louis, embracing the Departments of the Ohio, Missouri, and Arkansas. Upon the appointment of Grant as general of the army on 25 July, 1806, Sherman was promoted to be lieutenant-general, and when Grant became president of the United States, 4 March, 1869, Sherman succeeded him as general, with headquarters at Washington. From 10 November, 1871, to 17 September, 1872, he made a professional tour in Europe, and was everywhere received with the honors due to his distinguished rank and service. At his own request, and in order to make Sheridan general-in-chief, he was placed on the retired list, with full pay and emoluments, on 8 February, 1884. He has received many honors, among which may be mentioned the degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth, Yale. Harvard, Princeton, and other universities, and membership in the Board of regents of the Smithsonian institution, 1871-'83. A thorough organizer, he is also prompt in execution, demanding prompt and full service from all whom he commands. He is an admirable writer, and goes at once to the very point at issue, leaving no one in doubt as to his meaning. His favorites are always those who do the best work in the truest spirit, and his written estimate of them is always in terms of high commendation. Without being a natural orator, he expresses himself clearly and forcibly in public, and as he is continually called out, he has greatly developed in that respect since the war. In personal appearance he is a typical soldier and commander, tall and erect, with auburn hair carelessly brushed and short-cropped beard, his eyes dark hazel, his head large and well-formed; the resolution and strong purpose and grim gravity exhibited by his features in repose would indicate to the stranger a lack of the softer and more humane qualities, but when he is animated in social conversation such an estimate is changed at once, and in his bright and sympathizing smile one is reminded of Richard's words:

“Grim-visaged War has smoothed his wrinkled front." His association with his friends and comrades is exceedingly cordial, and his affection for those allied to him is as tender as that of a woman. A life of General Sherman has been written by Colonel Samuel M. Bowman and Lieutenant-Colonel Richard B. Irwin (New York. 1865), and he has published " Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, by Himself" (2 vols., New York, 1875; new ed.,'1885).


Source: Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 502-506.