Origins: Ohio and the Sherman Family
William Tecumseh Sherman was born on February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio, the sixth of eleven children born to Charles Robert Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman. His father, a lawyer and Ohio Supreme Court justice, gave him the middle name Tecumseh in honor of the great Shawnee leader — a name that would follow Sherman throughout his life and that he bore with evident pride.
When Sherman was nine years old, his father died suddenly, leaving the large family in financial difficulty. Young William was taken in by the family of Thomas Ewing, a prominent Ohio attorney and later U.S. Senator, who was a neighbor and family friend. The arrangement was common for the era but formative for Sherman. He grew up in a politically connected, intellectually rigorous household — and eventually married Ewing's daughter, Eleanor "Ellen" Ewing, in 1850.
West Point and the Prewar Years
Through Thomas Ewing's influence, Sherman received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, entering in 1836. He graduated sixth in his class of 1840 — high enough to reflect genuine ability, low enough in demerits to suggest a young man of independent spirit. His classmates and fellow officers noted his restless intelligence, his prodigious memory, and a nervous energy that rarely left him.
Sherman's prewar army career was frustrating. He served capably in the Second Seminole War and during the Mexican-American War (in California, seeing no major combat), but promotion was slow, garrison life was monotonous, and the pay was meager. In 1853, he resigned his commission to pursue a career in banking in San Francisco. The venture failed. He tried law in Kansas. That failed too.
The Louisiana Military Academy
By 1859, Sherman found his footing as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy — the institution that would eventually become Louisiana State University. He was, by all accounts, an excellent administrator and educator, genuinely liked by his cadets and faculty. He cared deeply about the institution he was building.
When secession came, Sherman faced a painful choice. He had Southern friends, a Southern wife in some sense through her family's politics, and a position he valued in a Southern state. But he was unequivocally a Unionist. He wrote a remarkable farewell letter to the seminary's board that stands as one of the more eloquent statements of Unionist conviction from the secession crisis:
"You are all now in the midst of a frenzy... You people speak so lightly of war. You don't know what you are talking about. War is a terrible thing."
He returned north in February 1861.
The Early War: Struggle and Recovery
Sherman's early Civil War career was troubled. He commanded a brigade at First Bull Run in July 1861 and performed competently in the chaotic defeat. Promoted to brigadier general, he was given command in Kentucky — where his anxious, volatile temperament combined with genuine strategic insight produced a command crisis. He told a War Department official that the Union would need hundreds of thousands of men to win in the West. This accurate assessment was seen as evidence of mental instability, and he was temporarily relieved and sent on leave.
The episode haunted Sherman. Press reports called him "insane." He struggled with depression and self-doubt. It was Ulysses S. Grant — who had his own history of failure and redemption — who gave Sherman renewed confidence and command responsibility. The two formed one of the war's most consequential partnerships.
Shiloh and the Emergence of a General
At the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, Sherman commanded a division on the Union right flank. When the Confederate surprise attack struck on April 6, Sherman's line was among the first to be hit. He was wounded twice and had three horses shot under him. He did not break. His steadiness helped prevent a complete Union collapse on the first day and bought time for Grant to organize a counterattack.
Grant later wrote that after Shiloh, he knew Sherman was a general he could rely upon absolutely. Sherman, in turn, knew that Grant would never abandon him. From that foundation, the greatest Union command partnership of the war was built — a partnership that would eventually produce the March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and the end of the Confederacy.
The Character Behind the General
Understanding Sherman the man is essential to understanding Sherman the general. He was simultaneously warm and abrasive, intellectually brilliant and emotionally volatile, deeply humane in his personal relationships and ruthlessly pragmatic in war. He wrote thousands of letters — to Ellen, to Grant, to politicians, to journalists — that reveal a mind in constant, restless motion.
He distrusted politicians, despised the press (which had called him insane), and believed deeply that the soldier's duty was to end the war as swiftly as possible, even at great cost in the short term. These convictions, forged in the failures and recoveries of his early life, would define one of the most controversial and consequential military careers in American history.