[292] This led to the publication of several works, notably John B. Walters's Merchant of Terror: General Sherman and Total War (1973),[293] 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. According to Holden-Reid, Sherman finally "had cut his teeth as an army commander" with the Jackson Expedition. [37][38], At John Augustus Sutter Jr.s request, Sherman assisted Capt. [267] President Benjamin Harrison, who served under Sherman, sent a telegram to Sherman's family and ordered all national flags to be flown at half staff. [257] Sherman stepped down as commanding general on November 1, 1883,[258] and retired from the army on February 8, 1884. McPherson. March 03, 1576/77 in Dedham d: May 30, 1660 in Boston, MA . When comparing Sherman's scorched-earth campaigns to the actions of the British Army during the Second Boer War (18991902) another war in which civilians were targeted because of their central role in sustaining a belligerent power South African historian Hermann Giliomee claims 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". Sherman took command of the infantrymen in the local Union garrison and successfully repelled the Confederate attack. [123] When Lincoln called Grant east in the spring of 1864 to take command of all the Union armies, Grant appointed Sherman (by then known to his soldiers as "Uncle Billy") to succeed him as head of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which entailed command of Union troops in the Western Theater of the war. [107] Sherman initially expressed reservations about the wisdom of these plans, but he soon submitted to Grant's leadership and the campaign in the spring of 1863 cemented Sherman's personal ties to Grant. [297] 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[298] and in his interview for the documentary film The Fog of War (2003). Where did the Metropolitan Museum of Art get its Native American "[94], In late April a Union force of 100,000 men under Halleck's leadership, with Grant relegated to second-in-command, began advancing slowly against Corinth. Liddell Hart's claims for his own influence on the German doctrine of, Sherman wrote in a letter to Halleck, dated December 24, 1864, "that we are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies.". [132] The capture of Atlanta made Sherman a household name and was decisive in ensuring Lincoln's re-election in November. Born on February 08, 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio, USA , United States. [275], Sherman wrote to his wife in 1842: "I believe in good works rather than faith. After his father's death, the nine-year-old Sherman was raised by a Lancaster neighbor and family friend, attorney Thomas Ewing, a prominent member of the Whig Party who served as senator from Ohio and as the first Secretary of the Interior. 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. William was sent to the family of Thomas Ewing, a neighbor and friend who was a U.S. Please try again. [215] One of the most serious accusations against Sherman was that he allowed his troops to burn the city of Columbia. Includes citations for all sources. Sherman had dismissed the intelligence reports from militia officers, refusing to believe that Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston would leave his base at Corinth. "[27] Sherman was later stationed in Georgia and South Carolina. When Sherman reached the age of sixteen, Ewing secured Sherman an . On the other hand, he was adamantly opposed to the secession of the southern states. [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. General William Tecumseh Sherman Genealogy - RootsWeb 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. Sherman observed but did not join in the religious ceremonies of the Ewing household. The burning of Columbia has engendered controversy ever since, with some claiming the fires were a deliberate act of vengeance by the Union troops and others that the fires were accidental, caused in part by the burning bales of cotton that the retreating Confederates left behind them.[151]. Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891), Civil War general and commanding general of the U.S. Army.Born in Lancaster, Ohio, the sixth child of Charles R. and Mary Hoyt Sherman, Sherman was named for the Shawnee Indian leader Tecumseh. Teachinghistory.org He told Grant that, if he remained in the army, "some happy accident might restore you to favor and your true place". Emerging Civil War [247] The Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. [182], Four days later, Sherman issued his Special Field Orders, No. [76] During the fighting, Sherman was grazed by bullets in the knee and shoulder. See more Charles Taylor Sherman (Feb. 3, 1811-Jan. 1, 1879) Mary Elizabeth Sherman Reese (April 21, 1812-Aug. 1900) (General William Tecumseh Sherman descends here) 6. When William Tecumseh Sherman Harper was born on 30 June 1865, in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States, his father, James Madison Harper, was 33 and his mother, Lydia Jane Lamb, was 31. "[272] He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. [236] In 1873, Sherman wrote in a private letter that "during an assault, the soldiers can not pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age. The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. The children were parceled out to relatives and friends. According to Lewis's account, which was repeated by later authors, Sherman was baptized in the Ewing home by a Dominican priest who found the pagan name "Tecumseh" unsuitable and instead named the child "William" after the saint on whose feast day the baptism took place. Charles Taylor Sherman, Judge 1811-1879 Married 2 February 1841, Mansfield, Richland Co., OH, toEliza Jane Williams 1822-1888; Mary Elizabeth Sherman 1812-1900 Married 19 October 1829, Lancaster, Fairfield Co., OH, toWilliam James Reese 1804-1883; John Sherman, Sen. 1823-1900 Another younger brother, Hoyt Sherman, was a successful banker. Thousands of refugees, both black and white, joined Sherman's columns, which on February 20 finally withdrew towards Canton. Shermans of Dedham, Essex, England - Immigrants to New England - RootsWeb [41], On May 1, 1850, Sherman married his foster sister, Ellen Boyle Ewing, who was four years and eight months his junior. According to British military historian Brian Holden-Reid, "if Sherman had committed tactical errors during the attack, he more than compensated for these during the subsequent retreat". The Sherman's were well educated and highly cultured by Lancaster standards at this time. He was stationed in Kentucky, where his pessimism about the outlook of the war led to a breakdown that required him to be briefly put on leave. War & Affiliation Civil War / Union. [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]. [213] This made repairs extremely difficult at a time when the Confederacy lacked both iron and heavy machinery.[214]. Civil War Union Major General and later General of the United States Army. (#17258) FamousKin.com. William Tecumseh Sherman had a lot in common with Ulysses S. Grant. William T. Sherman - Biographies - The Civil War in America [83] While he 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". Sherman served for four years at Fort Moultrie in the 1840s. [188][189][190] In that essay, Sherman called upon the South to "let the negro vote, and count his vote honestly", adding that "otherwise, so sure as there is a God in Heaven, you will have another war, more cruel than the last, when the torch and dagger will take the place of the muskets of well-ordered battalions". [146], While in Savannah, Sherman learned from a newspaper that his infant son Charles Celestine had died during the Savannah campaign; the general had never seen the child. Senator Ewing secured an appointment for the 16-year-old Sherman as a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. He married Eleanor Boyle Ewing on 1 May 1850, in Washington D.C., United States. Boyd later recalled witnessing that, when news of South Carolina's secession from the United States reached them at the Seminary, "Sherman burst out crying, and began, in his nervous way, pacing the floor and deprecating the step which he feared might bring destruction on the whole country. [274] He later married his foster sister Ellen, who was also a devout Catholic. Their second-oldest daughter Mary Elizabeth Sherman (a.k.a., "Lizzie") is buried to the left. 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". [254] On April 11, 1880, he addressed a crowd of more than 10,000 in Columbus, Ohio: "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. Sherman's . In 1829, when Sherman was 9, his father died unexpectedly. [79] Sherman was then assigned to serve under Robert Anderson in the Department of the Cumberland, in Louisville, Kentucky. Nancy Studebaker 1837 - 1900. Johnston did catch a serious cold and died one month later of pneumonia. Here's how General Sherman got its name(s)", "The Religion of William Tecumseh Sherman", The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans, Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War, Works by or about William Tecumseh Sherman, Military orders of General William T. Sherman, 1861'65, William T. Sherman Family Papers: 18081959, List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials, List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic, Confederate artworks in the United States Capitol, List of Confederate monuments and memorials, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. When Sherman was nine years old his father, a successful lawyer on the Ohio Supreme court, unexpectedly died in 1829. "[283] Upon Sherman's death, his son Thomas publicly declared: "My father was baptized in the Catholic Church, married in the Catholic Church, and attended the Catholic Church until the outbreak of the civil war. [186][187] In 1888, near the end of his life, Sherman published an essay in the North American Review defending the full civil rights of black citizens in the former Confederacy. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. Although Sherman was technically the senior officer, he wrote to Grant, "I feel anxious about you as I know the great facilities [the Confederates] have of concentration by means of the River and R[ail] Road, but [I] have faith in youCommand me in any way. [113] His family traveled from Ohio to visit him at the camp near Vicksburg. American soldier, businessman, educator and author. William tecumseh sherman children. Ellen Ewing Sherman. 2022-11-22 Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, U.S. Army, stands accused of four counts of war crimes. He steadfastly refused to be drawn into party politics and in 1875 published his memoirs, which became one of the best-known first-hand accounts of the Civil War. William Tecumseh Sherman Harper (1865-1887) FamilySearch [212] One of Sherman's tactics was to destroy the railways by pulling up the rails, heating them over a bonfire, and twisting them to leave behind what came to known as "Sherman's neckties". He lived in Lancaster, Fairfield, Ohio, United States in 1860. In one amusing change to his text, Sherman dropped the assertion that, A "third edition, revised and corrected" of Sherman's memoirs was put out in 1890 by, According to Victor Davis Hanson, "In the eyes of Lewis and Liddell Hart, Sherman was a great man, who is judged on what he did and not on what he wrote: he saved lives and shortened the war; and he used military science to teach his nation what war is ultimately for. Unbeknownst to Sherman, Grant abandoned his advance, and Sherman's river expedition met more resistance than expected. [127] In July, the cautious Johnston was replaced by the more aggressive John Bell Hood, who played to Sherman's strength by challenging him to direct battles on open ground. He led Union forces in crushing campaigns through the South, marching through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864-65). . [305] Sherman is represented astride his horse Ontario and led by a winged female figure of Victory. National Archives. in Lancaster, Ohio, USA , United States, Died on February 14, 1891 His father, a lawyer and jurist, died when he was nine, leaving the family destitute. [159], Following Lee's surrender and the assassination of Lincoln, Sherman met with Johnston on April 17, 1865, at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, to negotiate a Confederate surrender. [31][32], Sherman and Ord disembarked in Monterey, California on January 28, 1847, two days before the town of Yerba Buena acquired the new name of "San Francisco". William Tecumseh Sherman Biss married Amelia Rose Slavick and had 4 children. [226] To escape from these difficulties, Sherman moved his headquarters to St. Louis in 1874. Harrison, in a message to the Senate and the House of Representatives, wrote that: He was an ideal soldier, and shared to the fullest the esprit de corps of the army, but he cherished the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and was only a soldier that these might be perpetuated in undiminished usefulness and honor. Republican Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain appealed to President Grant for military assistance. Thus, he was living in the border state of Missouri as the secession crisis reached its climax. [118], After Chattanooga, Sherman led a column to relieve Union forces under Ambrose Burnside thought to be in peril at Knoxville. Lampson Parker Sherman . "[261] Such a categorical rejection of a candidacy is now referred to as a "Shermanesque statement". 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. Sherman would eventually become one of the few high-ranking officers of the U.S. Civil War who had not fought in Mexico. [263] However, Sherman did include the views of some others in the appendices to the new edition.[j][k]. Sherman conducted the ensuing Jackson Expedition, which concluded successfully on July 25 with the re-capture of the city of Jackson. Upon hearing that Sherman's men were advancing on corduroy roads through the Salkehatchie swamps at a rate of a dozen miles per day, Johnston "made up his mind that there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar". 15", "Hard War in Virginia during the Civil War", "James M. Calhoun, Mayor, E. E. Pawson and S. C. Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta", "The complicated history of Gen. Philip Sheridan", "Timeline: A Chronology of Key Events in the Life of William T. Sherman, 18201891", "Sorrow at the Capital: Formal Announcement by the President Eulogies in the Senate", "In Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi In the Field, Savannah, Geo. In Louisiana, he became a close friend of professor David French Boyd, a native of Virginia and an enthusiastic secessionist. [86], By mid-December 1861 Sherman had recovered sufficiently to return to service under Halleck in the Department of the Missouri. [53], Sherman's San Francisco branch closed in May 1857, and he relocated to New York City on behalf of the same bank, travelling on the steamer SS Central America. [205] 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,[205][206] Sherman sent a written response in which he sought to articulate his conviction that a lasting peace would be possible only if the Union were restored, and that he was therefore prepared to do all he could do to end the rebellion: You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. 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. [197][198][f] Another World War II-era student of Liddell Hart's writings on Sherman was General George S. Patton,[199] 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". The publication of Sherman's memoirs sparked controversy and drew complaints from many quarters. [19][20] As an adult, Sherman signed all his correspondence including to his wife "W. T. The nomination was not submitted to the Senate until December. For more detailed discussion of this overall period, see Marszalek. The Death of Willie Sherman - The New York Times - Opinionator Sherman's younger brother John was, from his seat in the U.S. Congress, a prominent advocate against slavery. "[64], Sherman departed Louisiana and traveled to Washington, D.C., possibly in the hope of securing a position in the U.S. Army. Heeding, he would say, "some wise and sudden instinct not to mention retreat," he made a noncommittal remark. Username and password are case sensitive. Grave. [148][149] His army proceeded north through South Carolina against light resistance from the troops of Confederate general Johnston. HE MARRIED HIS FOSTER SISTER. [90] This success contributed greatly to raising Sherman's spirits and changing his personal outlook on the Civil War and his role in it. [9] He recovered and forged a close partnership with General Ulysses S. Grant. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. [242], Sherman's early tenure as Commanding General was marred by political difficulties, many of which stemmed from disagreements with Secretary of War Rawlins and his successor, William W. Belknap, both of whom Sherman felt had assumed too much power over the army and reduced the position of Commanding General to a sinecure. The resulting trial of Satanta and Big Tree marked the first occasion in which Native American chiefs were tried by a civilian court in the United States. This meeting was memorialized in G. P. A. Healy's painting The Peacemakers. William Tecumseh Sherman (/tkms/ tih-KUM-s;[4][5] February 8, 1820 February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. [234] Sherman's views on Indian matters were often strongly expressed. Place of Burial: Mansfield, Richland County, OH, United States. He was still Father and son, however, were reconciled when Thomas returned to the United States in August 1880, after having travelled to England for his religious instruction. "[216][217][218] Sherman himself stated that "[i]f 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"[219] Sherman's official report on the burning placed the blame on Confederate lieutenant general Wade Hampton, who Sherman said had ordered the burning of cotton in the streets. Instead of complying, he resigned his position as superintendent, declaring to the governor of Louisiana that "on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States. [124] As Grant took overall command of the armies of the United States, Sherman wrote to him outlining his strategy to bring the war to an end: "If you can whip Lee and I can march to the Atlantic I think ol' Uncle Abe [Lincoln] will give us twenty days leave to see the young folks. William was raised by family friend Thomas Ewing, who secured him an appointment to West Point.

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