Individual Details

His father named him after the famous Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Since 1932, it has often been reported that, as an infant, Sherman was named simply Tecumseh. According to such accounts, Sherman acquired the name "William" only at age nine or ten, after being taken into the Thomas Ewing household.

He married Eleanor Boyle Ewing, 1 May 1850, Washington DC, in the home of Thomas Ewing, in a ceremony attended by President Zachary Taylor. they had eight children. Eleanor's parents, Thomas Ewing and Mary Wills Boyle, were neighbors of the Sherman's and had helped raise William Tecumseh after the death of his father.

Sherman was a Union general in the Civil War and the commanding general of the United States Army for 14 years. His greatest feat in the war was to march an army across Georgia, "from Atlanta to the sea" and then through South Carolina. On the way, he destroyed the South?s last economic resources.

Well known quotes:

"He stood by me when I was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk; and now sir, we stand by each other." -- William T. Sherman on his relationship with Gen. Grant, post-war interview

"War is hell." --William Tecumseh Sherman, as reported by John Keelbeck after the Battle of Vicksburg in 1861

"War is cruelty, the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over" --William Tecumseh Sherman

"If nominated, I won't run; If elected, I won't serve." --William Tecumseh Sherman, on a proposed nomination for President

Military:
Sherman attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but was not the best student officer. He excelled academically, but treated the demerit system with indifference. Upon graduation in 1840, Sherman entered the Army as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery and saw action in Florida in the Second Seminole War against the Seminole tribe. He was later stationed in Georgia and South Carolina. While many of his colleagues saw action in the Mexican-American War, Sherman performed administrative duties in the captured territory of California.

Sherman accepted a commission as a colonel in the 13th U.S. Infantry regiment, effective May 14, 1861. He was one of the few Union officers to distinguish himself at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, where he was grazed by bullets in the knee and shoulder.

After Grant was promoted to major general in command of the District of West Tennessee, Sherman served briefly as his replacement in command of the District of Cairo. He got his wish of serving under Grant when he was assigned on March 1, 1862, to the Army of West Tennessee as commander of the 5th Division. His first major test under Grant was at the Battle of Shiloh.
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought on April 6 and April 7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and came very close to defeating his army.

Sherman's military record in 1862/63 was mixed. Before the Vicksburg Campaign in the spring of 1863, Sherman expressed serious reservations about the wisdom of Grant's unorthodox strategy, but he went on to perform well in that campaign under Grant's supervision. The Vicksburg Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there. The campaign consisted of many important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives, and eleven distinct battles over the period December 26, 1862, to July 4, 1863. After the surrender of Vicksburg, Sherman was given the rank of brigadier general in the regular army in addition to his rank as a major general of volunteers.

During the Battle of Chattanooga in November, Sherman was now in command of the Army of the Tennessee. The Battle of Chattanooga (popularly known as The Battle of Chattanooga, and including the Battle of Lookout Mountain and the Battle of Missionary Ridge) was fought from November 23 to November 25, 1863. By defeating the Confederate forces of General Braxton Bragg, Union Army Major General Ulysses S. Grant eliminated the last Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South that led to the Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

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. The Atlanta Campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta, Georgia, during the summer of 1864, leading to the eventual fall of Atlanta and hastening the end of the American Civil War.

After Atlanta, Sherman began his march south, declaring that he could "make Georgia howl". The March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the "Savannah Campaign," conducted in late 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 15, 1864, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 22. Sherman then telegraphed Lincoln, offering him the city as a Christmas present.

In the spring of 1865, Grant ordered Sherman to embark his army on steamers to join him against Lee in Virginia. Instead, Sherman persuaded Grant to allow him to march north through the Carolinas, destroying everything of military value along the way, as he had done in Georgia. The Carolinas Campaign was the final campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. In January 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman advanced north from Savannah, Georgia, through the Carolinas, with the intention of linking up with Union forces in Virginia. The defeat of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at the Battle of Bentonville in March, and its surrender in April, represented the loss of the final major army of the Confederacy.

Birth	8 Feb 1820	Lancaster, Fairfield County, Connecticut
Death	14 Feb 1891	New York City, New York

Father	Charles Robert SHERMAN (1788 - 1829)
Mother	Mary Hoyt (1787 - 1852)
Sibling	Charles Taylor SHERMAN (1811 - 1879)
Sibling	John SHERMAN (1823 - 1900)
Sibling	Hoyt SHERMAN (1827 - 1904)