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- 6th child of Charles Sherman and Mary Hoyt. He was a General commanding the army of the United States 1869-1883.
William Tecumseh Sherman
Birth: Feb. 8, 1820
Death: Feb. 14, 1891
Civil War General, businessman, and author. General Sherman led an army of sixty-two thousand men with thirty-five thousand horses and twenty-five hundred wagons on an overland march to Savannah on a mission to punish the south for its secession from the union. He cut his army off from the union supply line allowing the troops to forage and sustain them self by feeding off the land. From Savannah, a swath of utter destruction was left by Shermans Army. The tracks of the railroad, trestles and rolling stock was destroyed. Towns, plantations and farms were burned and looted. He destroyed all the public buildings in Atlanta but heaped the most vengeance on South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union. Columbia was completely burned to the ground. The results of this march together with Grant's victories in Virginia brought the South to the surrender table. He was born in Lancaster, Ohio as William Tecumseh Sherman into a family of eleven. His father, a lawyer and jurist died when he was nine and the children were parceled out to relatives and friends. William was sent to the family of Thomas Ewing, a next door neighbor who was a U.S. senator and a cabinet member. His excellent early education was at the Lancaster academy where his outstanding scholastic record earned him an appointment to West Point at age sixteen. After graduating sixth in his class, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. Sherman served in South Carolina then Georgia, but saw very little action in the Mexican-American war. He resigned from the Army to pursue a career in banking, then a as a lawyer, but with little success. His bank failed and he accepted the position as first president of the Louisiana Military Seminary. The institution would become Louisiana State University. The Civil War brought him back to active duty and he took up the Union cause commanding a number of major battles from leading a brigade at Bull Run, a division at Shiloh and then in charge of four divisions at Vicksburg. Everlasting fame was his during the Georgia campaign and his "March to the Sea." The post Civil War...When Grant became President, Sherman became the top general in the Army and served in this high post until his retirement. He oversaw the completion of the transcontinental railroad and orchestrated the defeat of the Plains Indian tribes. An important contribution was the establishment of the Command School at Ft. Leavenworth. He wrote his memoirs, a two volume classic and it was published in 1875. Sherman retired from the army in 1884 and lived the rest of his life in New York City. He loved the theatre and was much in demand as a colorful speaker at dinners and banquets. Sherman was courted by the Democrats to became their presidential candidate spurring him to coin the famous response, "If nominated, I will not run, if elected I will not serve". He died in New York City at age seventy-one. A brief service was held at his residence with a grand procession escorting his coffin to a special waiting train poised to convey his body to St Louis for interment in the family plot. Upon arrival at the Union Depot in the Missouri city, a caisson drawn by four black horses waited to transport his remains through downtown St. Louis to Calvary Cemetery and burial beside his wife, the former Ellen Ewing, the daughter of his foster father, and two of his children. His son, Father Thomas Sherman <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=46585747&GRid=8225655&pt=Thomas%20Ewing%20Sherman>, a Jesuit priest, conducted a brief service. The Sherman legacy...Streets, schools, buildings and hundreds of books have been authored about the General. Some of the most enduring monuments...a statue of Sherman on his horse, walking behind an angel carrying an olive branch is located at Grand Army Plaza, corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in New York. It has been newly gilt from money donated by Donald Trump and was the eleven year work of Augustus Saint Gaudens. The original and well preserved Sherman House, in his hometown of Lancaster, is his birthplace as well as his famous brother Senator John Sherman
Burial: Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum St. Louis city Missouri, USA Plot: Section 17, family plot
Sherman, William T., lieutenant-general, was born at Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, Feb. 8, 1820. Left an orphan at nine years of age, he was adopted by Thomas Ewing, later secretary of the interior, and attended school at Lancaster until 1836, when he was appointed a cadet at the West Point military academy. Graduating in 1840, sixth in a class of forty-two, he was made a second lieutenant and assigned to duty in Florida where he was engaged from time to time in incursions against the hostile Seminole Indians. On Nov. 30, 1841, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and until the outbreak of the Mexican war, was stationed at various posts in the South, including St. Augustine, and Forts Pierce, Morgan and Moultrie. At one time he undertook the study of law, with no thought of making it his profession, but to be prepared "for any situation that fortune or luck might offer." In 1846 he was stationed at Pittsburg, as recruiting officer, but shortly after, in consequence of repeated applications for active service, was sent to California, where, contrary to expectation, he was uneventfully engaged as acting assistant adjutant-general of the 1Oth military department under Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, and later under Col. R. B. Mason. In 1850 he returned to the Atlantic states as bearer of despatches, and was stationed at St. Louis, Mo., as commissary of subsistence with the rank of captain. In March, 1851, he received the commission of captain by brevet, to date from May 30, 1848. On Sept. 6, 1853, he resigned from the army and became manager of the branch banking-house of Lucas, Turner & Co., at San Francisco, Cal. In 1857 he returned to New York and, his firm having suspended, opened a law office in Leavenworth, Kan., with Hugh and Thomas E. Ewing, Jr. In July, 1859, he was elected superintendent of the Louisiana military academy, with a salary of $5,000 per annum, the institution opening Jan. 1, 1860, but on the seizure of the arsenal at Baton Rouge in Jan., 1861, in anticipation of the secession of the state, he tendered his resignation. Going to Washington, he endeavored in vain to impress upon the administration the gravity of the situation which he characterized as "sleeping upon a volcano," and the president's call for volunteers for three months as "an attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirtgun." For two months he was president of the 5th street railway of St. Louis, Mo., and on May 14, 1861, was made colonel of the 13th regiment of regular infantry, commanding a brigade in the division of Gen. Tyler in the battle of Bull Run, July 21. On Aug. 3 he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from May 17, and on Oct. 7 relieved Maj.-Gen. Anderson in command of the Department of Kentucky. On Nov. 12, however, he was in turn relieved by Gen. D. C. Buell, his estimate of the number of troops required in his department, "sixty thousand men to drive the enemy out of Kentucky and 200,000 to finish the war in this section," being considered so wildly extravagant as to give rise to doubts of his sanity. It was, however, justified by later events. During the remainder of the winter he was in command of the camp of instruction at Benton barracks, near St. Louis, and when Grant moved upon Donelson, was stationed at Paducah, where he rendered effective service in forwarding supplies and reinforcements. Here, also, he organized the 5th division of the Army of the Tennessee from raw troops who had never been under fire, and with these he held the key point of Pittsburg landing and "saved the fortunes of the day" on April 6, and contributed to the glorious victory of the 7th, although severely wounded in the hand on the first day. On the second, he had three horses shot under him, but mounting a fourth he remained on the field, and it was the testimony of Gen. Grant, in recommending his promotion, that "to his individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle." On May 1 he was commissioned major-general of volunteers and on July 1 was put in charge of the Department of Memphis, which he at once proceeded to organize, restoring the civil authorities, causing a revival of business, and sternly repressing guerrilla warfare. In October he concerted with Gen. Grant at Columbus, Ky., the details of the ensuing campaign, in which Pemberton's force, 40,000 strong was dislodged from the line of the Tallahatchie and driven behind the Yalabusha in consequence of a combined movement by both generals from Jackson and Memphis, while 5,000 cavalry under Washburne threatened his communications in the rear. Falling back to Milliken's bend, Sherman resigned his command to Gen. McClernand, but shortly afterward suggested and led the attack on Fort Hindman with its garrison of 5,000 men by which the control of Arkansas river was gained, the key to the military possession of the state, with the loss of but 134 killed and 898 wounded, while of the enemy, 150 were killed and 4,791 taken prisoners. In the campaign of 1863 Sherman was in command of the expedition up Steele's bayou, abandoned on account of insuperable difficulties, though he dispersed troops sent to oppose the movement; and the demonstration against Haynes' bluff was also committed to him, though with some hesitation, by Gen. Grant, lest his reputation should suffer from report of another repulse. In the Vicksburg campaign of 109 days Gen. Sherman entitled himself, in the words of Gen. Grant, "to more credit than usually falls to the lot of one man to earn." The drawn battle of Chickamauga and the critical condition of Rosecrans at Chattanooga called next loudly for the troops resting at Vicksburg, and on Sept. 22 Sherman received orders to forward his divisions, with the exception of one which remained to guard the line of the Big Black. Meanwhile Gen. Grant, having been placed in command of the Division of the Mississippi, assigned the Department of the Tennessee to Sherman, who, on the receipt of telegraphic summons to "drop all work", and hurry eastward, pushed forward in advance of his men and reached Chattanooga on Nov. 15. It was proposed that he initiate the offensive, which he proceeded to do upon the arrival of his troops, Nov. 23. He pitched his tents along Missionary ridge and his sentinels were clearly visible, not a thousand yards away. The battle of Missionary ridge being won, the relief of Burnside on the Hiawassee was next to be contemplated and with weary troops who two weeks before had left camp with but two days' provisions and "stripped for the fight," ill supplied now and amid the privations of winter, Sherman turned to raise the siege of Knoxville. On Jan. 24, 1864, he returned to Memphis, and in preparation for the next campaign decided upon the "Meridian Raid." To the expedition of Gen. Banks up the Red river he next contributed 10,000 men for thirty days, but the force did not return to Vicksburg until more than two months had elapsed, too late to take part in the Atlanta campaign. On March 14 Gen. Grant was appointed lieutenant-general to command all the armies of the United States in the field, and Sherman succeeded to the Division of the Mississippi. On May 6 the movement toward Atlanta was started with the capture of the city as the desideratum, and such progress was made that on Aug. 12 the rank of major-general, U. S. A., was bestowed upon Gen. Sherman by the president, in anticipation of his success. After indefinite skirmishing for a month, following the fall of Atlanta, and during which the gallant defense of Allatoona pass was made by Gen. Corse with 1,944 men against a whole division of the enemy, the famous "march to the sea" was resolved upon, not alone as a means of supporting the troops, but, in Sherman's own words, "as a direct attack upon the rebel army at the rebel capital at Richmond, though a full thousand miles of hostile country intervened," and from Nov. 14 until Dec. 1O he was accordingly buried in the enemy's country, severed from all communication in the rear, and crossed the three rivers of Georgia, passing through her capital in his triumphal progress of 300 miles, during which his loss was but 567 men. On Dec. 25 he telegraphed to President Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton," in reply to which he received the assurance that to him alone the honor of his undertaking was due, as acquiescence only had been accorded him, and anxiety, if not fear, had been felt for his success. The surrender of Johnston was made at Durham station, N. C., on April 26, 1865, after a triumphal march of Sherman's army through the Carolinas, and on May 24, a year after it had started on its journey of 2,600 miles, the conquering host was reviewed at Washington, D. C. On June 27 Gen. Sherman was placed in command of the military division of the Mississippi which included the departments of Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas, and on July 25, 1866, he succeeded Gen. Grant as lieutenant-general of the army. On March 4, 1869, when Grant was inaugurated as president, Sherman became general of the army, and in 1871-72, on leave of absence, made a tour of Europe and the East. On Feb. 8, 1884 he was retired from active service, and on Feb. 14, 1891, expired at New York, the day following the demise of his friend and comrade in arms, Adm. David D. Porter. Source: The Union Army, vol. 8
1850 United States Federal Census
Name: William T Sherman
Age: 30 First Lt. U.S Artillary
Estimated birth year: abt 1820
Birth Place: Ohio
Gender: Male
Home in 1850(City,County,State): Jefferson, St Louis, Missouri (Jefferson Barrack
1880 United States Federal Census
Name: W. T. Sherman
Home in 1880: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia
Age: 60
Estimated birth year: abt 1820
Birthplace: Ohio
Relation to head-of-household: Self (Head)
Spouse's name: Eleanor E.
Father's birthplace: Connecticut
Mother's birthplace: Connecticut
Neighbors:
Occupation: Genl. U. S. Army
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
W. T. Sherman 60
Eleanor E. Sherman 55
Mary E. Sherman 27
Rachel E. Sherman 18
Phileum T. 13
Alex M. Thackara 31
Eleanor Thackara 20
Mary O'Brien 22
Ida Johnson 23
James Myers 21
Daniel Hughes 36
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1820 - 1891 (71 years)
