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Union General · 1820–1891
William Tecumseh Sherman: War Is Hell
A failed banker who became the Union’s most feared general. Sherman captured Atlanta, marched 62,000 men across Georgia to the sea, and made the South feel the cost of war, then spent fourteen years as commanding general of the U.S. Army.
Major General William T. Sherman, about 1865
Quick facts
William T. Sherman at a glance
| Born | February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio | |
| Died | February 14, 1891, in New York City, aged 71 | |
| Raised by | Senator Thomas Ewing, a family friend, after his father died in 1829 | |
| Education | West Point, class of 1840, sixth of 42 | |
| Before the war | Army officer, San Francisco banker, Kansas lawyer, and first superintendent of the school that became LSU | |
| Civil War | Bull Run, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas | |
| Highest rank | General of the Army; Commanding General of the U.S. Army, 1869–1883 | |
| Wife | Ellen Ewing, his foster sister, married May 1, 1850; they had eight children | |
| Buried | Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri |
The big picture in 30 seconds
Why he matters
- His capture of Atlanta in September 1864 helped re-elect Lincoln and doomed the Confederacy.
- His March to the Sea showed the South it could not protect its own heartland.
- He took the surrender of the largest Confederate army still in the field, in April 1865.
- His Special Field Order No. 15 set aside land for freed families, the origin of “forty acres and a mule.”
- As commanding general he led the army in the wars against the Plains Indians, a harsh and lasting part of his legacy.
62,000
soldiers on the March to the Sea
~300 miles
from Atlanta to Savannah in five weeks
89,000+
Confederate soldiers surrendered to him in April 1865
14 years
as commanding general of the U.S. Army
Early years
A senator's foster son
William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8, 1820, one of eleven children. His father, an Ohio Supreme Court judge, died suddenly when “Cump” was nine, and the family was split up. He was taken in by neighbor Thomas Ewing, a powerful senator, who got him an appointment to West Point.
Sherman graduated in 1840 and served in Florida and South Carolina. During the Mexican War he was posted to California, where he saw no fighting but watched the start of the Gold Rush. In 1850 he married Ewing’s daughter Ellen.
Failure
He left the army in 1853 to run a bank in San Francisco, which closed in the Panic of 1857. He tried law in Kansas and failed again. In 1859 he became the first superintendent of a new military academy in Louisiana, today’s Louisiana State University. He loved the job but resigned when Louisiana left the Union in January 1861.
The early war
From breakdown to Grant's partner
Sherman led a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Sent to command in Kentucky, he became convinced he was hopelessly outnumbered and fell into a deep depression. Newspapers called him insane, and he was relieved of command.
Shiloh and Vicksburg
Back in the field under Ulysses S. Grant, he was surprised by the Confederate attack at Shiloh in April 1862, but fought steadily, was wounded in the hand and had three horses shot under him. He became Grant’s most trusted general through the Vicksburg campaign of 1863 and the victory at Chattanooga that November.
When Grant went east in March 1864 to command all Union armies, Sherman took over in the West with about 100,000 men.
1864–1865
Atlanta, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas
Sherman’s goal was not just to beat Confederate armies but to wreck the South’s ability and will to keep fighting.
May–Sept. 1864
The Atlanta Campaign
He flanked Joseph Johnston’s army south through north Georgia and captured Atlanta on September 2. “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won,” he wired Washington.
Nov. 15–Dec. 21, 1864
The March to the Sea
Cutting loose from his supply lines, he marched 62,000 men toward Savannah, living off the land and destroying railroads, mills and farms in a path up to 60 miles wide.
December 22, 1864
A Christmas gift
He telegraphed Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”
Feb.–Mar. 1865
The Carolinas Campaign
His army marched north through South Carolina, where secession began. Much of the capital, Columbia, burned on February 17.
January 16, 1865
Special Field Order No. 15
Set aside coastal land for freed families in plots of up to 40 acres. President Andrew Johnson later reversed it.
April 26, 1865
Bennett Place
Joseph Johnston surrendered his army and others in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida to Sherman near Durham, North Carolina, the largest surrender of the war.
“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”
William T. Sherman
Speech to Union veterans in Columbus, Ohio, August 11, 1880
After the war
Commanding general
After the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington in May 1865, Sherman took command of the vast region between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. When Grant became president in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as commanding general of the U.S. Army, a post he held until 1883.
The Plains wars
Sherman’s job included protecting the building of the transcontinental railroads and forcing Native nations of the Great Plains onto reservations. He backed harsh campaigns against the Lakota, Cheyenne and others, and supported the slaughter of the buffalo herds the Plains peoples depended on.
“I will not serve”
Republicans repeatedly urged him to run for president. In 1884 he answered with the most famous refusal in American politics. He retired to New York, where he was a popular dinner speaker, and died there in 1891.
His life at a glance
Life timeline
People
Who's who in Sherman's story
Commander and friend
The partnership of Grant and Sherman won the war. Each trusted the other completely.
Ellen Ewing Sherman
Wife
His foster sister and wife of 38 years, a devout Catholic who often lived apart from him with their children.
Thomas Ewing
Foster father
Senator and cabinet secretary who raised Sherman and launched his career.
Joseph E. Johnston
Opponent
The Confederate general who fought him from Chattanooga to Atlanta and surrendered to him in 1865.
John Bell Hood
Opponent
Replaced Johnston in July 1864 and lost Atlanta, then led his army to defeat in Tennessee.
President
Sherman’s capture of Atlanta two months before the 1864 election helped secure Lincoln’s second term.
Visit
Sherman's boyhood home and the march route
The Sherman House Museum in Lancaster, Ohio, preserves the house where he was born. In Durham, North Carolina, Bennett Place State Historic Site marks the farmhouse where Johnston surrendered to him. A gilded statue of Sherman by Augustus Saint-Gaudens stands at the corner of Central Park in New York.
Go deeper
Sources and further reading
- Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order, by John F. Marszalek (1993)
- Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (1875)
- The March to the Sea and Beyond, by Joseph T. Glatthaar (1985)