William Tecumseh Sherman

 William Tecumseh Sherman; born Lancaster, OH 2/8/20; foster son of Senator Thomas Ewing (Sherman’s father, an Ohio supreme court justice, died in 1829); foster brother and brother-in-law of generals Charles, Hugh, and Thomas Ewing; brother of Senator John Sherman;; Uncle of the wife of General Nelson Miles; West Point Class of 1840 (6 of 42); 2nd Lt. 3rd Arty 7/1/40; 1st Lt. 3rd Arty 11/30/41; wounded 1845 – dislocated shoulder while hunting; Bvt. Capt. to date 5/30/48 for gallant and meritorious service in California during the war with Mexico; Capt. Commissary of Subsistence 9/27/50; resigned 9/6/53; moved to San Francisco, CA, 1853; worked in banking (the bank ultimately failed); MG of California Militia 1856; moved to New York, 1857; moved to Leavenworth, KS, 1858, practiced law with 2 brothers-in-law; moved to Pineville, LA, 1859; superintendent of Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy (later LSU), 1859-1861; he resigned in January 1861 when asked to receipt a portion of the arms surrendered at the US Arsenal in Baton Rouge, telling the governor “On no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile” to the United States; moved to St. Louis, MO where for a short time he headed a street car company, the St. Louis Railroad; Col. 13th US Infantry 5/14/61; BGUSV 5/17/61 (n 8/2/61 c 8/5/61); 3rd brigade, 1st Division, Dept. of NE VA., 6/30/61 to 8/17/61; slightly wounded in knee and shoulder at Bull Run, 7/21/61; Sherman’s Brigade, Army of the Potomac, 8/17/61 to 11/9/61; Dept. of the Cumberland, 10/6/61 to 11/9/61 (first as deputy to Robert Anderson – during this period Sherman had problems with the press and his superiors over estimates of enemy strength; Paducah, KY 2/62; Dist. of Cairo, Dept. of the Missouri, 2/14/62 to 7/11/62 (offered to waive seniority to serve under Grant); 5th Div., Dist. of Memphis, Army of the Tennessee, 3/1/62 to 7/11/62; wounded in right hand at Shiloh, 4/6/62; MGUSV 5/1/62 (n 4/17/62 c 5/1/62); 5th Div., Dist. of Memphis, Army of the Tennessee (AotT), 10/26/62 to 11/25/62; Right Wing, 13th Corps, AotT, 11/27/62 to 1/4/63 and 1/12/63 to 10/29/63; 2nd Corps, Army of the Mississippi, 1/4/63 to 1/12/63; BGUSA 7/4/63 (n 12/31/63 c 2/29/64); Dept. of the Tennessee, 10/17/63 to 3/12/64; AotT, 10/24/63 to 3/26/64; received Thanks of Congress on 2/19/64 Chattanooga; Military Div. of the Mississippi, 3/18/64 to 8/6/66; mustered out of volunteers 8/12/64; MGUSA 8/12/64 (c 12/12/64 s 1/13/65); received Thanks of Congress on 1/10/65 for Atlanta and March to the Sea (the only officer to receive the thanks of Congress twice during the war); LtGUSA 7/25/66 (n 7/26/66 c 7/26/66); Military Div. of the Missouri, 8/6/66 to 3/16/69; Military Div. of the Atlantic, 2/12/68 (he did not serve); Bvt. General USA, 2/13/68 (nomination was dropped); General, USA 3/4/69; CIC USA 3/8/69 to 11/1/83; interim U. S. Secretary of War, 9/9/69 to 10/18/69; in 1874 moved his headquarters from Washington, D. C. to St. Louis, MO (returned it to Washington in 1876); established the Command School at Ft. Leavenworth, KS; retired 2/8/84; moved to New York, NY, 1886; authored General Sherman’s Official Account of His Great March through Georgia and the Carolinas, from His Departure from Chattanooga to the Surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston and the Confederate Forces Under His Command (1865), Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, Written by Himself (1875), Home Letters of General Sherman (1909, posthumous), General W. T. Sherman as College President: A Collection of Letters, Documents and Other Material, Chiefly from Private Sources, Relating to the Life and Activities of General William Tecumseh Sherman, to the Early Years of Louisiana State University, and to the Stirring Conditions Existing in the South on the Eve of the Civil War (1912, posthumous), Sherman at War(1992, posthumous), and Sherman’s Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865 (1999, posthumous); coauthored Reports of Inspection Made in the Summer of 1877 by Generals P. H. Sheridan and W. T. Sherman of Country North of the Union Pacific Railroad (1878), The Sherman Letters: Correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891(1894, posthumous), and The William Tecumseh Sherman Family Letters (1967, posthumous); died New York, NY 2/14/91; buried Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, MO. 

 

 

 

Sources:

• Eicher & Eicher, Civil War High Commands, pp 484-485, 701, 702, 705, 717, 728

• Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the U. S. Army, Vol. I p 882

• Sifakis, Who Was Who in the American Civil War, pp 590-591

• Warner, Generals in Blue, pp 441-444.

Photos:

a, b, c – www.generalsandbrevets.com; d – www.findagrave.com

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