William Tecumseh Sherman was Union Civil War General. His adoption of a "total" war strategy played an enormous role in the Union victory, earning him fear and scorn from the Confederacy and an, at times, complicated legacy today. Learn about the biography of William Tecumseh Sherman and how his tactics proved decisive in breaking the Confederacy here.
Biography of William Tecumseh Sherman: Before the War
William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Ohio in 1820. His father died when he was nine, leaving him with his mother and ten siblings.
Sherman attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the Second Seminole War. Afterward, he moved on to different assignments. He was in an administrative position when the Mexican-American War began, so he did not see action.
In 1846, he did travel on a long voyage around South America.
Fig 1 - Portrait of a Young William Tecumseh Sherman.
William Tecumseh Sherman's Civilian Career
Sherman returned to San Francisco in 1847, where he inspected gold mines for a time. He married in 1850 and resigned from the military in 1853.
Fun Fact
Sherman's time in California coincided with the start of the California Gold Rush.
Here are some more facts about Sherman's civilian career:
- Worked as a banker in California and New York
- Worked in a law office in Kansas
- Became the superintendent of Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy in 1859
After Louisiana seceded, Sherman resigned from his post, refusing to aid the Confederate cause. He moved to St. Louis to work as president of a railroad company.
General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War
Despite a successful civilian career, Sherman would soon rejoin the army.
Reenlistment and Early Actions
In May 1861, after the fall of Fort Sumter, Sherman volunteered to rejoin the US Army. In July, he served his first action commanding a brigade in the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas.
When the battle was lost, Sherman executed an orderly retreat of his unit, which earned him recognition. Afterward, Sherman was sent west to fight in Kentucky.
Sherman Meets Grant
In November 1861, Sherman suffered a crisis of confidence. He went home to rest for a month before taking command of logistics and other rear-action responsibilities.
In March 1862, Sherman was placed under General Ulysses S. Grant, who prepared to attack southward in the Battle of Shiloh, where Sherman suffered a minor injury but performed effectively.
Sherman and Grant developed a close relationship by serving together. Each credited the other with helping to restore his confidence.1
Fig 2 - General William Tecumseh Sherman
Vicksburg and Chattanooga Campaigns
From December 1862 until July 1863, Sherman served under Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, capturing the city after a six-week siege. Sherman was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
In October and November 1863, they broke a siege of Union forces at Chattanooga, routing the Confederate army. These battles were crucial to Union's victory in the West.
Fig 3 - Sherman on horseback.
General Sherman's Total War
Following the Chattanooga Campaign, Sherman's forces turned to Meridian, Mississippi.
He captured the city on February 14, 1864, and destroyed railroads, trains, and bridges. Sherman believed the destruction of Confederate infrastructure would achieve two goals: break the will of the Confederates to continue the fight and make it logistically unsustainable by wreaking havoc on their supply lines.
This idea is known as total war.
Total War
Total war is the unrestricted use of weapons, including against civilian targets such as targeting infrastructure, agriculture, and urban areas. The bombing of cities during World War Two is a more recent example.
On March 2, Abraham Lincoln gave Grant command of all Union forces. Grant appointed Sherman as the overall commander in the west. Sherman then turned his attention to Georgia.
He captured the state capital of Atlanta in September 1864. He ordered the city evacuated and set fire to government and military buildings.
The capture of Atlanta is credited for providing a morale boost that contributed to Abraham Lincoln's reelection in November against a Democratic candidate that hoped to make peace with the South and end the war.2
Fig 4 - Map showing Sherman's campaigns and march to the sea.
Sherman's March to the Sea
Following the capture of Atlanta, Sherman received approval for a plan he had devised to march his army south to the coastal city of Savannah and into South Carolina, pillaging supplies and destroying infrastructure along the way.
Grant and Lincoln were initially hesitant to approve Sherman's plan, preferring him to move north to help defeat the bulk of Confederate armies. They eventually agreed, a sign of the confidence and close relationship Grant and Sherman developed earlier.
Fig 5 - Painting depicting Sherman's march to the sea.
After pursuing Confederate forces across Georgia, engaging in skirmishes and pillaging along the way, he reached Savannah on the Atlantic coast. As he prepared to lay siege to the city, the Confederate commander fled, and the mayor negotiated the city's peaceful surrender in exchange for Sherman not burning it.
Fun Fact
After Savannah's surrender on December 21, Sherman telegraphed Abraham Lincoln to present the city as a Christmas gift.
The Carolinas
After a month's rest in Savannah, Sherman marched his army northwest into South Carolina.
On February 17, 1865, he captured Columbia, South Carolina's capital, after which much of the city went up in flames.
Controversy over the Burning of Columbia
Historians debate responsibility for the burning of Columbia. Sherman denied ordering the burning, blaming it on Confederates burning bails of cotton before retreating. Some historians believe fires started accidentally during the night's celebrations by Union soldiers, and heavy winds caused them to grow. Some conclude it is a combination of these factors.
Fig 6 - Depiction of the burning of Columbia.
Marching on to North Carolina, Sherman's forces won the Battle of Bentonville in March. After this victory, he traveled to meet Lincoln and Grant before returning to his army and advancing to North Carolina's capital of Raleigh. During the march, he received news of Lee's surrender.
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the remaining forces in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to Sherman on April 26, 1865. The war was over; weeks later, Sherman and his troops marched in victory parades in Washington.
"40 Acres and a Mule"
In January 1865, Sherman issued Special Field Orders no. 15. These orders confiscated land across the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, mostly on small barrier islands, to be divided into parcels of approximately 40 acres and given to former slaves. The orders were meant to address the large numbers of runaway slaves following Sherman's company on the march.
Later, President Andrew Johnson returned the land to the white landowners, although Congress allowed some of them to keep the lands that had been granted to them by Sherman. Although there is no mention of a mule in the order, it gave rise to the expression of "40 acres and a mule," symbolizing what many former slaves felt was a betrayal and an unfulfilled promise.
William Tecumseh Sherman: Importance and Complicated Legacy
Sherman was viewed as a villain in the South, hardly surprising considering he burned several significant cities. The prevalence of "Lost Cause" mythology and romanticization of the antebellum South further contributed to his being remembered as unnecessarily cruel and destructive.
However, a more sympathetic view of Sherman acknowledges that he was a realist and that burning cities and infrastructure was another part of an already destructive war and helped end the war more quickly.
Place of William Tecumseh Sherman in Civil War Generals' Importance
Had Sherman not devastated much of the southern Confederacy, perhaps the war would have continued after Lee's surrender. Therefore, Sherman's actions could be seen as having prevented further death and destruction.
Likewise, a negotiated peace would have left the United States permanently divided and millions of people kept in slavery.
So, while it's possible to question Sherman's total war tactics, it's indisputable that Sherman's March to the Sea and March Through the Carolinas were one of the final straws that broke the camel's back for the Confederacy and played an enormous role in ending the war with Union victory, the preservation of the United States, and the ending of slavery.
Fig 7 - Portrait of Sherman around the end of the war.
Sherman's Life Postwar
After the war, Sherman spent the late 1860s and 1870s leading campaigns against Native Americans on the Western frontier. He became the Commanding General of the United States Army following Grant's election as President.
William Tecumseh Sherman retired from the army on February 8, 1884, and lived in New York until his death in 1891 at 71.
Interesting William Tecumseh Sherman Facts
Here are a few additional interesting facts about William Tecumseh Sherman:
- His middle name is in honor of a Shawnee Native American warrior chief.
- His friends called him by the nickname "Cump."
- Many historians believe he suffered a nervous breakdown during the early part of the war.
- He repeatedly turned down proposals to run for President in the 1870s and 80s.
General Sherman - Key takeaways
- William Sherman graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1840 and made a career in the military, retiring in 1853.
- Sherman returned to the military at the outset of the Civil War, fighting primarily under Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.
- After Grant was appointed to overall command of Union forces in 1864, Sherman began campaigns of destruction through the south, capturing Atlanta, Georgia, and then conducting his March to the Sea.
- Sherman's March to the Sea contributed to the strategic destruction of the Confederacy.
References
- Smith, Jean E. Grant. Simon and Schuster. New York, 2001.
- 2. Holden-Reid, Brian. The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2020.
- Fig 4 - Sherman Campaign map (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ACW_Chattanooga2Carolinas.png) by Hal Jespersen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hlj) licensed under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)
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