Sherman, William Tecumseh 1820-91
US soldier

Born in Lancaster, Ohio, the brother of John Sherman, he trained at West Point. At the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65) he was commissioned as colonel (1861), and at Bull Run was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. He was sent to Kentucky, at first under Robert Anderson, but was later deprived of his command. After the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862) he was made majorgeneral. In 1863, promoted to brigadier, he drove General Joseph Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi; he joined Ulysses S Grant at Chattanooga, and soon after relieved Ambrose Burnside, besieged at Knoxville. In March 1864 he was appointed to the command of the south-west and drove Johnston to Atlanta, which was evacuated on 1 September. He then marched to the sea with 65,000 men, destroying everything in his path and finally capturing the coastal town of Savannah. In February 1865 he reached Columbia. From there he moved on Goldsboro', fighting two battles on the way. On 9 April Lee surrendered, and Johnston made terms with Sherman (which were disapproved of as too lenient by Secretary Edwin Stanton). For four years he commanded the Mississippi division and when Grant became President was made head of the army. In 1884, to make room for Philip Sheridan, he was retired on full pay.

Bibliography: Lloyd Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet (1932)