William
Sherman, the son of a judge, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on 8th February,
1820. He studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point and after joining the United States
Army he was sent to Florida fight in the Seminole
War. He was then transferred to California where he had a series
of administrative post.
Sherman resigned from the army in 1853 and joined a banking firm in
San Francisco. This was unsuccessful
and two of his old friends, Pierre T.
Beauregard and Braxton Bragg, helped
him to find work as a superintendent of a newly established military
academy in Louisiana.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
Sherman immediately resigned and returned to St.
Louis. With the help of his brother, Senator John
Sherman, he obtained an appointment in the Union
Army. Commissioned as a colonel under Major General Irvin
McDowell. He was with him at the disastrous Bull
Run. The Confederate troops led by Joseph
E. Johnston, Thomas Stonewall Jackson,
James Jeb Stuart, Jubal
Early and Pierre T. Beauregard
easily defeated the inexperienced Union Army.
Promoted to brigadier general he was sent as serve under General Robert
Anderson in Kentucky. He succeeded Anderson on 8th October, 1861,
but some of his comments led to the press describing him as insane.
Sherman suffered a mental breakdown and was replaced by General Don
Carlos Buell.
With the support of General Henry Halleck
Sherman was sent to serve under Ulysses S.
Grant. On 6th April, 1862, the Confederate
Army attacked Grant's army at Shiloh.
Taken by surprise, Grant's army suffered heavy losses until the arrival
of General Don Carlos Buell and reinforcements.
However, Sherman did well during the battle and as a result of this
he was promoted to the rank of major general.
Sherman fought with Ulysses S. Grant at
Vicksburg. After two failed assaults,
Grant decided to starve General John
Pemberton out. This strategy proved successful and on 4th July,
Pemberton surrendered the city. The western Confederacy was now completely
isolated from the eastern Confederacy and the Union
Army had total control of the Mississippi River.
In March, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was named
lieutenant general and the commander of the Union
Army. He now appointed Sherman as the commander of the Army of
Tennessee. After assembling an army of 100,000, Sherman entered Georgia.
Joseph E. Johnson and his army retreated
and after some brief skirmishes the two sides fought at Resaca (14th
May), Adairsvile (17th May), New Hope Church (25th May), Kennesaw
Mountain (27th June) and Marietta (2nd July).
Sherman decided to deprive the South of its resources. He cut a swathe
of destruction 60 miles wide and 40 miles wide. Sherman commented:
"If the people of Georgia raise a howl against my barbarity and
cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking."
His forces moved fast covering 450 miles in 50 days.
President Jefferson Davis was unhappy
about Johnson's withdrawal policy and on 17th July replaced him with
the more aggressive John Hood. He immediately
went on the attack and hit George H. Thomas
and his men at Peachtree Creek. Hood was badly beaten and lost 2,500
men. Two days later he took on Sherman at Atlanta
and lost another 8,000 men.
By the early weeks of 1865 the Union
Army removed all resistance in the Shenandoah
Valley. Sherman and his army moved north through South Carolina.
On 17th February, Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, was taken.
Columbia was virtually burnt to the ground and some people claimed
the damage was done by Sherman's men and others said it was carried
out by the retreating Confederate Army.
Sherman
now headed towards central Virginia to unite with General George
Meade and his Army of the Potomac east of Richmond
and with General Benjamin
Butler and his forces at Bermuda Hundred.
Sherman concluded an armistice with General Joseph
E. Johnston on 21st April. This upset Edwin
Stanton, the Secretary of War, when he realized that Sherman had
signed an agreement that recognized existing Confederate state governments,
guarantees of property rights, and a universal amnesty. There was
nothing in the surrender document that confirmed the emancipation
of the slaves or the rights of freemen.
George Boutwell, a Radical Republican,
was so angry that he called for Sherman to be court-martialed. Even
his brother, the Congressman, John Sherman,
expressed dismay at what he had done. Eventually General Ulysses
S. Grant had the job of telling Sherman that the agreement was
unacceptable to the government. He later recalled how he "was
hurt, outraged, and insulted at Mr. Stanton's public arraignment of
my motives and actions".
Some military historians consider Sherman as the most outstanding
Union Army commander in the American
Civl War. He has been described as the first modern general because
of his "total war" tactics in his march through Georgia
in 1864. As he said at the time: "If the people of Georgia raise
a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is
war, and not popularity-seeking."
In July, 1866, Sherman was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general
and in 1873 he succeeded Ulysses S. Grant
and commander in chief of the United States
Army. He served in this position until his retirement fourteen
years later. William Sherman died in New
York City on 14th February, 1891.
(1)
William Sherman, in conversation with Thomas Moore, the governor of
Louisiana about the subject of slavery
(1st January, 1860)
The domestic slaves, employed by the families, were probably better
treated than any slaves on earth; but the condition of the field-hands
was different, depending more on the temper and the disposition of
their masters and overseers than were those about the house. Were
I a citizen of Louisiana, and a member of the Legislature, I would
deem it wise to bring the legal condition of the slaves more near
the status of human beings under all Christian and civilized governments.
In the first place, in sales of slaves made by the state, I would
forbid the separation of families, letting the father, mother, and
children, be sold together to one person, instead of each to the highest
bidder.
(2)
William Sherman, letter of resignation from the military academy,
after Louisiana decided to leave the Union (18th January, 1861)
As I occupy a quasi-military position under the laws of the State,
I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when
Louisiana was a State in the Union. Recent events foreshadow a great
change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraw from
the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the Constitution
as long as a fragment of it survives; and my longer stay here would
be wrong in every sense of the word.
(3)
Henry Villard met
General William T. Sherman in 1861. In his memoirs, Villard recalled
how Sherman was extremely worried at that time about the possibility
that the Union Army would be defeated.
Sherman openly confessed, after he had
been assigned to the command of the department, that he had not wished
it and was afraid of his new responsibilities. With the vivid imagination
inherent to genius, he clearly saw how formidable were the difficulties
of the part he was expected to play in the suppression of the Rebellion.
They simply appalled him. He found himself in command of raw troops,
not exceeding twenty thousand in number. He believed that they should
be multiplied many times. He feared the rebel forces in the State
largely outnumbered his own, and he could not rid himself of the apprehension,
that, if he should be attacked, he would have no chance of success.
It was not really want of confidence in himself that brought him to
this state of mind, but, as it seemed to me, his intense patriotism
and despair of the preservation of the Union in view of the fanatical,
blood-thirsty hostility to it throughout the South. This dread took
hold of him, he literally brooded over it day and night. It made him
lapse into long, silent moods even outside his headquarters. He lived
at Galt House, occupying rooms on the ground floor. He paced by the
hour up and down the corridor leading to them, smoking and obviously
absorbed in oppressive thoughts. He did this to such an extent that
it was generally noticed and remarked upon by the guests and employees
of the hotel. His strange ways led to gossip, and it was soon whispered
about that he was suffering from mental depression.
(4)
William Sherman wrote about
the battle of Shiloh in his memoirs
published in 1875.
Probably no single battle of the war gave rise to such wild
and damaging reports. It was publicly asserted at the North that our
army was taken completely by surprise; that the rebels caught us in
our tents; bayoneted the men in their beds; that General Grant was
drunk; that Buell's opportune arrival saved the Army of the Tennessee
from utter annihilation, etc. The controversy was started and kept
up, mostly to the personal prejudice of General Grant, who as usual
maintained an imperturbable silence.
The rebel army, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnson, was, according
to their own reports and admissions, forty-five thousand strong, had
the momentum of attack, and beyond all question fought skillfully
from early morning till about 2 p.m. when their commander-in-chief
was killed by ball in the calf of his leg, which penetrated the boot
and severed the main artery. There was then a perceptible lull for
a couple of hours, when the attack was renewed, but with much less
vehemence, and continued up to dark.
Beauregard afterward reported his entire loss at 10,699. Our aggregate
loss, made up from official statements, shows 1700 killed, 7,495 wounded
and 3,022 prisoners; aggregate, 12,217, of which 2,167 were in Buell's
army, leaving for that of Grant 10,050.
(5)
Thomas W. Knox, New York Herald (18th January, 1863)
Throughout the battle the conduct of the general officers was excellent,
with a few exceptions. General Sherman was so exceedingly erratic
that the discussion of the past twelve months with respect to his
sanity, was revived with much earnestness.
All through
the long December day the wounded lay upon the hill uncared for by
either contending party. The ground was
that for which there had been so fierce a contest, and, while we could
not take possession of it, the rebels did not choose to occupy it.
Daybreak, sunrise, noon, sunset and night, and still the wounded uncared
for. What must have been their suffering!
On the
morning of Wednesday, the 31st of December the firing had been entirely
stopped, and the rebels consented to receive a flag of truce. Five
hours were allowed for burying the dead and taking away the wounded,
and at the end of the
time the work was accomplished. A few of the rebels came out and talked
freely with the bearers of the flag. They stated
that after the 1st of January they should shoot every officer captured,
and put the privates at work on fortifications, with
ball and chain, in retaliation for the emancipation proclamation of
the President. They expressed the utmost confidence in their ability
to hold Vicksburg against the force now before it. From their statements
it was inferred that Price was in command at Vicksburg, and that Tilghmans
division was to arrive there on that day. There were evidently strong
grounds for their hopes. They were well posted as to our strength,
and informed us of the exact number of our transports and gunboats,
and gave the number of men in the expedition with surprising accuracy.
All the
slightly wounded had been taken to Vicksburg as prisoners of war,
and we were allowed to bring away only those that we found on the
ground. The rain and cold combined, with fifty hours' continued exposure,
had left but few men alive. Had the flag been taken out and received
on the afternoon subsequent to the battle, there is little doubt that
many lives would have been saved. Doctors Burke and Franklin attended
as best they could to the wants of the sufferers. By some criminal
oversight there had been little preparation for battle on the part
of Sherman's medical director, and the hospitals
were but poorly supplied with many needed stores. Since the battle
General Sherman has persistently refused to allow a hospital boat
to go above, though their detention in this region is daily fatal
to many lives. The only known reason for his refusal is his fear that
a knowledge of his management will reach the people of the North.
(6)
General William Sherman, letter to his brother, John
Sherman (18th February, 1863)
We have reproached the South for arbitrary
conduct in coercing their people; at last we find we must imitate
their example. we have denounced their tyranny in filling their armies
with conscripts, and now we must follow her example. We have denounced
their tyranny in suppressing freedom of speech and the press, and
here, too, in time, we must follow their example. The longer it is
deferred the worse it becomes. Who gave notice of McDowell's movement
on Manassas and enabled Johnson so to reinforce Beauregard that our
army was defeated? The press. Who gave notice of the movement on Vicksburg?
The press. Who has prevented all secret combinations and movements
against our enemy? The press.
In the South this powerful machine was at once scotched and used by
the Rebel government, but in the North was allowed to go free. What
are the results? After arousing the passions of the people till the
two great sections hate each other with a hate hardly paralleled in
history, it now begins to stir up sedition at home, and even to encourage
mutiny in our armies.
(7)
Orders issued by William Sherman before
his March to the Sea (9th November, 1864)
The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To
this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient
foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers,
who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind,
meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by
the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten
days' provisions for his command, aiming at all times to keep in the
wagons at least ten days' provisions for his command, and three days'
forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings they may be permitted
to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in
stock in sight of their camp.
To corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills,
houses, cotton-gins, etc.; and for them the general principle is laid
down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested,
no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas
or bush-whackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn
bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then
army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less
relentless, according to the measure of such hostility. As for horses,
mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and
artillery may appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating,
however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and
industrious, usually neutral or friendly.
(8)
Henry Villard worked
for the New York Tribune
during the American Civil War. Villard
found General William T. Sherman hostile to his attempts to report
the war.
General Sherman looked upon journalists
as a nuisance and a danger at headquarters and in the field, and acted
toward them accordingly, then as throughout his great war career.
I did not, of course, agree with him at that time as to my own calling,
but candor constrains me to say that I had to admit in the end that
he was entirely right. For what I then observed, on the one hand,
of the natural eagerness of volunteer officers of all grades (of whom
so many were aspiring politicians at home) to get themselves favorably
noticed in the press, even at the cost of indiscretions, and, on the
other hand, of the publishing army news, must lead any unprejudiced
mind to the conclusion that the harm certain to be done by war correspondents
far outweighs any good they can possibly do. If I were a commanding
general I would not tolerate any of the tribe within my army lines.
Under the circumstances, it was perfectly useless to approach General
Sherman formally as a news-gatherer. I was, however, brought into
contact with him in another more satisfactory way. He appeared every
night, like myself, at about nine o'clock, in the office of Mr. Tyler,
to learn the news brought in the night Associated Press report. He
knew me from the Bull Run campaign as a correspondent of the press.
As we met on neutral ground and I asked him no questions, we were
son on very good terms. He was a great talker, and he liked nothing
better than to express his mind upon the news as it came. There he
sat, smoking a cigar (I hardly ever saw him without one), leaning
back in a chair, with his thumbs in the armholes of his vest. Or he
was pacing up and down in the room, puffing away, with his head bent
forward and his arm crossed behind his back. Every piece of military
intelligence drew some comment from him, and it was easy to lead him
into a long talk if the subject interested him
(9)
William Sherman wrote about his Atlanta Campaign
in his Memoirs published in 1875.
The skill and success of the men in collecting forage was one
of the features of this march. Each brigade commander had authority
to detail a company of foragers, usually about fifty men, with one
or two commissioned officers selected for their boldness and enterprise.
This party would be dispatched before daylight with a knowledge of
the intended day's march and camp; would proceed on foot five or six
miles from the route traveled by their brigade, and then visit every
plantation and farm within range. They would usually procure a wagon
or family carriage, load it with bacon, corn-meal, turkeys, chickens,
ducks, and every thing that could be used as food or forage, and would
then regain the main road, usually in advance of their train. No doubt,
many acts of pillage, robbery, and violence, were committed by these
parties of foragers, for I have since heard of jewelry taken from
women, and the plunder of articles that never reached the commissary;
but these acts were exceptional and incidental. I never heard of any
cases of murder or rape; and no army could have carried along sufficient
food and forage for a march of three hundred miles; so that foraging
in some shape was necessary.
(10)
Statement issued by the members of the Georgia Congress (19th November,
1864)
We have had a special conference with President Davis and the
Secretary of War, and are able to assure you that they have done and
are still doing all that can be done to meet the emergency that presses
upon you. Let every man fly to arms! Remove your negroes, horses,
cattle, and provisions from Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot
carry. Burn all bridges, and block up the roads in his route. Assail
the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him
have no rest.
(11)
Carl Schurz wrote about the relative merits
of William Sherman, Ulysses
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in his autobiography
published in 1906.
In the opinion of many competent persons, he was the ablest commander
of them all. I remember a remarkable utterance of his when we were
speaking of Grant's campaign. "There was a difference,"
Sherman said, "between Grant's and my way of looking at things.
Grant never cared a damn about what was going on behind the enemy's
lines, but it often scared me like the devil." He admitted, and
justly so, that some of Grant's successes were owing to this very
fact, but also some of his most conspicuous failures. Grant believed
in hammering - Sherman in maneuvering. It had been the habit of the
generals commanding the Army of the Potomac to cross the Rappahannock,
to get their drubbing from Lee, and then promptly to retreat and recross
the Rappahannock again in retreat. He sturdily went on, hammering
and hammering, and, with his vastly superior resources, finally hammered
Lee's army to pieces, but with a most dreadful sacrifice of life on
his own part. Now, comparing Grant's campaign for the taking of Richmond
with Sherman's campaign for the taking of Atlanta - without losing
sight of any of the differences of their respective situations - we
may well arrive at the conclusion that Sherman was the superior strategist
and the greater general.
(12)
Theodore Lyman, wrote about William Sherman after the war.
Sherman was the concentrated quintessence of Yankeedom, tall,
spare, and sinewy, with a very long neck, and a big head. He is a
very homely man, with a regular nest of wrinkles in his face, which
play and twist as he eagerly talks on each subject; but his expression
is pleasant and kindly.
(13)
Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (1959)
Sherman undertook the Atlanta Campaign. In this and the subsequent
March to the Sea and Carolinas Campaign Sherman demonstrated a military
talent that has led some historians to rank him as the top Federal
commander of the war.
(14)
Tom
P. Brady, Black Monday, a booklet published by the Association
of Citizens' Councils (1955)
Then came the bloodiest
of all wars - the most destructive to the white genius and ability
of this country - the Civil War. The negro was the fundamental cause
of this war - never forget this fact - and it is ridiculous to assume
that he played any part in it except as a servant to those unable
to fight. And then the saddest and most terrible of all American dramas
was enacted - the Reconstruction period - the pious greed of the New
England slave trader had brought the Negro to our shores and now his
insatiable hatred and envy was to be placated. Military governments
were established, the face of the Southern white soldier who had survived
the war was ground in the dust by the foot of his conqueror
with the aid of the carpetbagger from the North - the scalawag of
the South, and the Negro Yes, you are correct in assuming a small
segment of the Negro race played a part in this rapine. It was as
thorough as Sherman's "March to the Sea." In truth,
the South has not yet fully recovered from this scorched earth
policy, pillage and the bitter hatred which blazed and still smolders
against it. Let us briefly review a few significant events of
this tragic era.
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