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<title>Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition):
Sherman, William Tecumseh</title>
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Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition)<br>
&ldquo;Sherman, William Tecumseh&rdquo;
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<b>SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH</b> (1820-1891), American
general, was born on the 8th of February 1820, at Lancaster,
Ohio. He was descended from Edmond Sherman, who emigrated
from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. His
father, Charles R. Sherman, a judge of the Supreme Court of
Ohio, died suddenly in 1829, leaving his widow with a family
of young children. William was adopted by the Hon. Thomas
Ewing, a close friend of the father, sometime a senator of the
United States and a member of the national cabinet. In 1836
he entered West Point, and on graduating near the head of his
class he was appointed second lieutenant in the 3rd artillery
regiment. His first field service was in Florida against the
Seminole Indians. The usual changes of station and detached
duty made him acquainted with the geography of all the Southern
states, and Sherman improved the opportunity by making
topographical studies which proved of no small value to him
later. He also employed much of his time in the study of law.
When the war with Mexico began in 1846 he asked for field
duty, and was ordered to join an expedition going to California
by sea. He was made adjutant-general to Colonel Mason,
military governor, and as such was executive officer in the
administration of local government till peace came in the
autumn of 1848 and the province was ceded to the United
States. In 1847 he served on the staff of the general commanding
the division of the Pacific. In 1850 he married Ellen Boyle,
daughter of Thomas Ewing, then secretary of the interior.
Transferred in the same year to the commissariat department
as a captain, he resigned three years later and went back to
California to conduct at San Francisco a branch of an important
St Louis banking-house. He continued successfully in the
management of this business through a financial crisis incident
to a wildly speculative time, until in the spring of 1857 the house,
by his advice, withdrew from Californian affairs. Afterwards
for a short time he was engaged in business at New York and in
1858 practised law at Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1859, the state
of Louisiana proposing to establish a military college, Sherman
was appointed its superintendent. On the 1st of January 1860
the &ldquo;State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy&rdquo;
was opened, and here Sherman remained until the spring of 1861,
when it was evident that Louisiana would join the states seceding
from the Union. He thereupon resigned the superintendency
and returned to St Louis, parting with the governor of the state
and his colleagues in the school with regret and mutual esteem.
Though his brother John Sherman was a leader in the party
which had elected Lincoln, William Sherman was very conservative
on the slavery question, and his distress at what he thought
an unnecessary rupture between the states was extreme. Yet
his devotion to the national constitution was unbounded, and
he offered his services as soon as volunteers for the three years'
enlistments were called out. On the 14th of May 1861 he was
appointed colonel of the 13th U.S. Infantry, a new regiment,
and was soon assigned to command a brigade in General
McDowell's army in front of Washington. He served with it
in the first battle of Bull Run, on the 21st of July. Promoted
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brigadier-general of volunteers, Sherman was in August sent
to Kentucky to serve under General Robert Anderson. In
October he succeeded to the command of the department. On
the 26th of October he reported that 200,000 men would be
required for the Kentucky campaign. He was relieved of his
post soon afterwards in consequence, but the event justified
Sherman's view. He was soon re-employed in a minor position,
and, at the head of a division of new troops, accompanied
Grant's army to Pittsburg Landing. At the battle of Shiloh
Sherman's gallant conduct gained him promotion to major-general.
His appreciation of Grant, and his sympathy with
the chagrin he suffered after this battle, cemented the friendship
between the two. He took part in Halleck's advance on Corinth,
Mississippi, and at the close of 1862 led the Mississippi column
in the first Vicksburg campaign. He suffered defeat at Chickasaw
Bayou, but the capture of Fort Hindman, near Arkansas Post,
compensated to some extent for the Vicksburg failure. In
Grant's final Vicksburg campaign Sherman commanded the
XV. corps and the right of the investing line, and after the
surrender he was sent to oppose General Johnston in the country
about Jackson, Miss. In July he was made a brigadier-general
in the regular army. When, after Rosecrans's defeat at Chickamauga,
Grant was placed in supreme command in the west,
Sherman succeeded to the command of the Army of the Tennessee,
with which he took part in the great battle of Chattanooga (<i>q.v.</i>).
He had already prepared for a further advance by making an
expedition into the heart of Mississippi as far as Meridian,
destroying railways and making impracticable, for a season,
the transfer of military operations to that region; and on Grant
becoming general-in-chief (March 1864) he was made commander
of the military division of the Mississippi, including his Army of
the Tennessee, now under McPherson, the Army of the Cumberland,
under Thomas, and the Army of the Ohio, under Schofield.
Making detachments for garrisons and minor operations in a
theatre of war over 500 m. wide, he assembled, near Chattanooga,
his three armies, aggregating 100,000 men, and began (May
1864) the invasion of Georgia. After a brilliant and famous
campaign of careful man�uvre and heavy combats (see
<span class="sc">American Civil War</span>), Sherman finally wrested Atlanta
(<i>q.v.</i>)
from the Confederates on the 1st of September. His able
opponent Johnston had been removed from his command, and
Hood, Johnston's successor, began early in October a vigorous
movement designed to carry the war back into Tennessee.
After a devious chase of a month Hood moved across Alabama
to northern Mississippi. Sherman thereupon, leaving behind
Thomas and Schofield to deal with Hood, made the celebrated
&ldquo;March to the Sea&rdquo; from Atlanta to Savannah with 60,000
picked men. After a march of 300 m. Savannah was reached in
December. Railways and material were destroyed, the country
cleared of supplies, and the Confederate government severed
from its western states. In January 1865 Sherman marched
northwards again, once more abandoning his base, towards
Petersburg, where Grant and Lee were waging a war of giants.
Every mile of his march northwards through the Carolinas
diminished the supply region of the enemy, and desperate efforts
were made to stop his advance. General Johnston was recalled
to active service, and showed his usual skill, but his forces were
inadequate. Sherman defeated him and reached Raleigh, the
capital of North Carolina, on the 13th of April, having marched
nearly 500 m. from Savannah. Lee's position in Virginia was
now desperate. Hood had been utterly defeated by Thomas
and Schofield, and Schofield (moved 2000 m. by land and sea)
rejoined Sherman in North Carolina. With 90,000 men Sherman
drove Johnston before him, and when Lee surrendered to Grant
Johnston also gave up the struggle. There was much friction
between Sherman and the war secretary, Stanton, before the
terms were ratified, but with their signature the Civil War came
to an end.
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<p>
Sherman had the good fortune to learn the art of command
by degrees. At Bull Run his brigade was wasted in isolated
and disconnected regimental attacks, at Shiloh his division was
completely surprised owing to want of precaution; but his
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bravery and energy were beyond question, and these qualities
carried him gradually to the frontal the same time as he acquired
skill and experience. When therefore he was entrusted with an
independent command he was in every way fitted to do himself
justice. At the head of a hundred thousand men he showed,
besides the large grasp of strategy which planned the Carolinas
march, besides the patient skill in man�uvre which gained
ground day by day towards Atlanta, the strength of will which
sent his men to the hopeless assault of Kenesaw to teach them
that he was not afraid to fight, and cleared Atlanta of its civil
population in the face of a bitter popular outcry. Great as were
his responsibilities they never strained him beyond his powers.
He has every claim to be regarded as one of the greatest generals
of modern history.
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When Grant became full general in 1866 Sherman was
promoted lieutenant-general, and in 1869, when Grant became
president, he succeeded to the full rank. General Sherman
retired, after being commanding general of the army for fifteen
years, in 1884. He died at New York on the 14th of January
1891. An equestrian statue, by Saint Gaudens, was unveiled at
New York in 1903, and another at Washington in the same year.
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<p class="detail">
Sherman's <i>Memoirs</i> were published in 1875 (New York). See also
Rachel Sherman Thorndike, <i>The Sherman Letters</i> (New York, 1894) ;
<i>Home Letters of Gen. Sherman</i> (1909), edited by M. A. De Wolfe
Howe; S. M. Bowman and R. B. Irwin, <i>Sherman and his Campaigns:
a Military Biography</i> (New York, 1865); W. Fletcher Johnson, <i>Life
of William Tecumseh Sherman</i> (Philadelphia, 1891); Manning F.
Force, <i>General Sherman</i> (Great Commanders series) (New York, 1899).
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<p class="link">
<a href="index.html#sherman">Britannica Index</a><br>
<a href="../schurz/v3/chapter4.html#sherman">Reminiscences of Carl
Schurz</a><br>
Speeches of Carl Schurz:
<a href="../schurz/speech/sherman.html">General Sherman</a>
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