William Sherman: Most FEARED General of the Civil War

The man who commanded Union forces in their final destructive campaigns in the South,

rushing through Georgia and Carolinas. His troops known him as "Uncle Billy," yet for

white Southerners, the name General William Tecumseh Sherman brings up images of the worst

of mankind and the Satan incarnate. Sherman, who famously said, "War is hell," brought the

true hell of war to the South. He was one of Grant's closest friends and played a key role

in bringing the violent war to an end. However, the destruction caused by Sherman's March remains

controversial and many Southerners still hate him a lot. Let's delve more into his biography.

Sherman, one of eleven children, came from a well-known family. His father had been a member

of Ohio's Supreme Court until his unexpected death in 1829. Senator Thomas Ewing adopted William,

and when Sherman was 16, Ewing secured an appointment for him at West Point. In 1840,

he graduated sixth in his class. His early military career was far from impressive. He

saw some battles during the Second Seminole War in Florida, but unlike many of his comrades,

he did not participate in the Mexican-American War, instead being stranded as an administrative

officer somewhere in California. He married his foster sister, Ellen Ewing, in 1850. Sherman

resigned from the Army in 1853 and went to San Francisco, which was experiencing a gold rush at

the time. There, he began working as a banker, but his career was cut short by the Panic of 1857. His

old Southern buddies, Braxton Bragg and P.G.T. Beauregard, found him a job as administrator

of a recently established military academy in Louisiana. Sherman wasn't much of a critic of

slavery, but he was strongly opposed to Southern secession on this issue. He constantly cautioned

his Southern allies about the risks of competing with the wealthier, industrialized North,

but they never listened to him. He left his job in January 1861, after Louisiana seceded.

After the Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter, Sherman became worried that President

Abraham Lincoln won’t find enough troops to end the war quickly. But he overcame his fears,

and his brother John got him a commission in the United States Army. Sherman fought

in the First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, where Union troops were heavily defeated by

the Confederate Army. He performed miserably when assigned to command troops in Kentucky.

Some newspapers described him as crazy due to his constant demands for reinforcements

and general nervousness. Lincoln promoted Sherman to brigadier general of volunteers

and he also received praise for his actions. Sherman was publicly ridiculed as insane because

both the South and the North believed the war would be quick and minor conflict. Sherman was

one of the few people in the country who knew that such an aggressive war would

require at least 200,000 soldiers to crush the revolt. This number could be compared

to such cities as Boston or Baltimore. He was mocked as insane for this number,

just as if he had requested ten million men, and newspapers of the day rushed to print it as

fact before anyone could contradict it. It wasn't until the Battle of Shiloh that people understood

how brutal the war would be, and the war's events showed that Sherman's estimates were far too low.

Sherman argued with Secretary of war Cameron in Louisville in Kentucky. He laid out a map

of the country in front of Cameron, and showed that in the East, General McClellan was given

100,000 men to hold a line 100 miles across the front. In the far west, Fremont had 60,000