Sherman

[Gil R.]

Some time ago, Murat did a few bios and sent them to me privately (since this sub-forum didn't exist yet), which I'm finally getting around to. Here's Sherman. Any suggestions?


Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (b. 1820, d. 1891). Sherman graduated from West Point in 1840, serving in the Second Seminole War as a Lieutenant but being stationed in California during the Mexican War and thus not seeing combat – unlike so many of the other high commanders of the Civil War. Thanks to P.G.T. Beauregard and Braxton Bragg, he obtained the superintendent post at the Louisiana State Military Academy (now L.S.U.) in 1859. Upon being asked in January of 1861 to accept arms on behalf of the Louisiana State Militia, Sherman resigned his job and headed North stating, that he do would not do anything against the Union. His younger brother John, a U.S. Senator from Ohio during the Civil War, wrangled Sherman a Colonel's commission for the 13th US Infantry regiment on May 14, 1861. Wounded twice at 1st Bull Run two months later, Col. Sherman was made a Brigadier General by Pres. Abraham Lincoln effective May 17, 1861, and he was sent west to Louisville, Kentucky. April, 1862 saw Sherman serving under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh Meetinghouse. Sherman received the opening attack from Gen. Albert S. Johnston's Rebels on April 6, 1862, but quick thinking allowed him to organize an orderly withdrawal to new positions and averted a rout. April 7, 1862 saw Sherman wounded twice more, losing three horses and successfully counter-attacking the Rebel left and routing it. Grant gained command of the Western Theater after Shiloh and for the next two years Sherman commanded XV Corps, then called the Army of Tennessee, acting as a wing of the main Union drives at Vicksburg in mid-1863 and at Chattanooga in the Fall of that year. When Lincoln appointed Grant as Commander of the Union Armies, he turned the entire Western Theater over to the newly promoted Maj. Gen. Sherman. Their plan became known as the “Two Fortress Plan.” Grant and Sherman believed in the concept of total war: the primary goal of combatants is to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war. Grant had to destroy Gen. Robert E. Lee and the fortress of Richmond that he guarded; Sherman had to destroy Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and the fortress of Atlanta. Both men chose a war of attrition and constant engagement to push their opponents back on their respective fortresses. Sherman was given a surprise in the form of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood, who abandoned Atlanta on September 2, 1864 to Sherman in an effort to draw him out to battle. The Fall of Atlanta is generally considered to have been a crucial factor in Lincoln’s reelection that November. Hood soon launched into Tennessee, and Sherman, realizing that the Rebels were numerically inferior, sent Gen. George H. Thomas after him with part of the army. The rest of his army, numbering 62,000 men, Sherman broke into four flying columns, with which he proceeded to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war by cutting a 60-mile-wide swath of destruction from Atlanta to Savannah that is known as his “March to the Sea.” Less well known is that he then turned on South Carolina with the goal of extinguishing the flame of rebellion from the people of the state that was the first to secede from the Union. To accomplish this, Sherman burned the state capital, Columbia, to the ground, for which he is still vilified in many parts of the South to this day. While Sherman was occupied in Georgia and South Carolina, Hood had been defeated and Johnston had returned with the Rebel remnants to try to prevent Sherman from reaching Richmond. Grant reached it instead, and following Lee's surrender on April 15, 1864, Johnston asked Sherman for terms on April 26, 1865, in Durham, North Carolina. The peace terms he offered Johnston indicated a generous aspect to his nature, for he offered the most lenient terms of the war, so lenient that Lincoln overturned them. After the war, Sherman took over Grant's military duties when Grant moved up in rank and subsequently became President: on July 25, 1866, Congress created the rank of General of the Army for Grant and promoted Sherman to Lieutenant General, and when Grant became President in 1869, Sherman was appointed General of the Army, a post he held until his retirement in 1883. Sherman instituted the Command School for the U.S. Army in Leavenworth, Kansas, the forerunner to all officer training programs in the U.S. military today. It was the great misfortune of the Native American tribes that after the war Sherman would be their opponent, for he continued his philosophy of total war, wiping out the bison and burning their camps until he retired and left the job to Gen. Philip Sheridan. Offered the presidential nomination in 1884, Sherman famously stated, "If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve." Sherman died in New York City on Feb. 14, 1891, and was buried in St. Louis a week later. One of his pallbearers was his old adversary, Joseph E. Johnston.

[Gil R.]

Okay, finally got this one shortened. Can't do justice to a guy like Sherman in just 3900 characters, but this does touch on most of the key stuff.


Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (b. 1820, d. 1891). Born in Lancaster, Ohio on Feb. 8, 1920, Sherman graduated from West Point in 1840, serving in the 2nd Seminole War but missing the Mexican War. Thanks to friends P.G.T. Beauregard and Braxton Bragg, in 1859 he became the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Military Academy (now L.S.U.). Upon being asked to accept arms surrendered by the U.S. Arsenal at Baton Rouge in Jan. 1861, Sherman resigned and headed to St. Louis, telling the governor he would not act against the Union. When the Civil War broke out, his younger brother John, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, wrangled him a colonel’s commission. Wounded twice at First Bull Run and distinguishing himself while commanding a brigade, Sherman was made a brigadier general (to rank from May 17), and sent to eastern Kentucky. His erratic performance and predictions of military disaster soon led him to be reassigned to serve in Missouri under Gen. Henry W. Halleck, who sent the despondent Sherman home for a much-needed leave. Returning to duty that winter, Sherman supported Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s actions at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson before commanding a division under Grant at Shiloh in April 1862. Sherman received the opening, overwhelming attack from the enemy, but managed an orderly withdrawal to new positions, averting a rout. The following day saw Sherman wounded twice, but successfully counterattacking and routing the Confederate Left. Grant gained command of the Western Theater after Shiloh and for the next two years Sherman commanded forces under him, participating in Grant’s drives on Vicksburg and Chattanooga in 1863. When Pres. Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant general-in-chief in March 1864, Grant turned the theater over to the newly promoted Maj. Gen. Sherman, devising a plan that would employ the doctrine of total war in both theaters: just as Grant would engage in a war of attrition and constant engagement against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army and destroy its economic base while targeting Richmond, Sherman would do the same against Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee and the economic infrastructure supporting it while driving for Atlanta. In the hope of drawing Sherman into battle, Johnston’s replacement, Gen. John B. Hood, abandoned Atlanta on Sept. 1 – and unintentionally gave Lincoln’s reelection campaign a major boost. Dispatching Gen. George H. Thomas to deal with Hood, Sherman divided the rest of his army into four flying columns and proceeded to destroy the enemy’s ability to wage war by cutting a 60-mile-wide swath of destruction from Atlanta to Savannah – the famous “March to the Sea.” He then turned on South Carolina with the goal of extinguishing the flame of rebellion from the first state to secede, burning the state capital, Columbia, and earning lasting vilification among many southerners. Johnston, back in command, sought to use his battered forces to prevent Sherman from reaching Richmond. Grant did so instead and forced Lee to surrender on April 9, 1865. This led Johnston to surrender to Sherman at Durham Station, N.C., on April 26. After the war, Sherman twice succeeded Grant: on July 25, 1866, Congress created the rank of General of the Army for Grant and promoted Sherman to lieutenant general, and when Grant became President in 1869, Sherman became General of the Army, retiring in 1883. It was the great misfortune of the Native American tribes that Sherman would be their opponent, for he continued his philosophy of total war, burning their camps and wiping out the bison. Offered the presidential nomination in 1884, Sherman famously stated, “If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve.” He died in New York City on Feb. 14, 1891, and was buried in St. Louis. Among his pallbearers was Johnston, who contracted pneumonia in the cold rain and died a month later. (Bio by “Murat”)