General William T. Sherman, U.S.A.

General William T. Sherman was born in Ohio February 8, 1820, and graduated from the Military Academy July 1, 1840. He was promoted second lieutenant Third Artillery the same day, and first lieutenant November 30, 1841. He served in the Florida War, 1840-41; on duty in various Southern States and in Pennsylvania, 1842-46; on breaking out of war with Mexico applied for duty in the field, and was assigned to Company F, Third Artillery, then under orders for California; he was bearer of dispatches from General Smith to War Department, and, after six months leave of absence, joined Company C, Third Artillery, at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He was appointed captain and commissary of subsistence September 27, 1850, and stationed at St. Louis and New Orleans, but resigned from the army September 6, 1853, and entered upon a civil career as a banker in San Francisco and New York until 1857; was major-general of California Militia in 1856; counsellor-at-law at Leavenworth, Kansas, 1858-9; superintendent of the La. State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, 1859-61.

At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, he was reappointed in the U. S. Army, colonel of the Thirteenth Infantry, May 14, 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers May 17, 1861. He served in the defenses of Washington, and was in command of a brigade in the Army of the Potomac, in the Manassas campaign, until July 23, being engaged in the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. He was then assigned to duty in the Department of the Cumberland until November, 1861, when he was transferred for duty to the Department of the Missouri, and ordered to report to Major-General Halleck at St. Louis; on inspection duty at Sedalia, Missouri, and commanding camp of instruction at Benton Barracks, Missouri, 1861-62; at post of Paducah, Kentucky, expediting and facilitating operations in progress up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and organizing a division to be commanded by himself; bore a distinguished part in the battle of Shiloh and in the operations against Corinth; commanding District of Memphis and an expedition against Vicksburg, 1862; assigned to command of Fifteenth Army Corps in January, 1863; participated in capture of Arkansas Post; took part in operations preceding and attending siege of Vicksburg; assigned to command of Department of the Tennessee October 27, 1863; joined his forces to the army under General Grant at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and bore a conspicuous part in the battle of that name; moved with great energy to the relief of General Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee, and returned to Chattanooga, 1863; made an expedition from Vicksburg to Meridian, Mississippi, destroying much railroad and war material thereabouts, and returned to Vicksburg; assumed command of Military Division of the Mississippi March 18, 1864; captured Atlanta, Georgia, and made his march to the sea which terminated in the capture of Savannah, Georgia, December 21, 1864; marched northward from Savannah, captured Columbia, South Carolina, compelling the evacuation of Charleston; repulsed the enemy under General J. E. Johnston at Bentonville, and joined his forces with those of General Schofield at Goldsborough; moved against General Johnston, who, on April 26, 1865, surrendered his army on the same terms as had been granted General Lee.

General Sherman, after the war closed, commanded several of the most important military divisions, and was appointed lieutenant-general U. S. Army July 25, 1866. Appointed general of the army March 5, 1869, and retained that position until retired from active service Feb. 8, 1884. He died Feb. 14, 1891, at New York City.

Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.

Related Links:

• Civil War Records
• Civil War Microfilm at the National Archives
• Sherman Surname