William T Sherman: The First Modern General

welcome to biographics I'm your host Cosmic horror madman Eric Malachite and today's protagonist is William T Sherman with a script provided by Larry holsworth if Larry's provided socials they'll be right next to links to my storytelling Deep dive Channel story rant and my books with that said let's Dive Right In and take a look at the first modern General William tumsa Sherman is forever linked with his famed march to the sea in the late Autumn of 1864 in truth his subsequent March through South Carolina and part of North Carolina was far more destructive a fact Sherman acknowledged in his Memoirs he commanded a regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run a union defeat which led him to suffering a bout of depression Northern newspapers questioned his sanity with one Cincinnati newspaper openly calling him insane he served under ulses S Grant in Kentucky and Tennessee including the blood bath at Pittsburgh Landing known to history as the Battle of Shiloh he participated in the campaign of maneuver which led to the capture of Vicksburg where he worked closely with US Navy commanders operating on the Mississippi and yazu rivers but it was his capture of Atlanta the destruction of that City and his subsequent March through enemy territory to Savannah which remains his most well-known achievement as well as his most controversial Sherman's tactics have been called the first episode of total war war on civilian populations and non-military targets that assertion is incorrect Sherman is also recorded as having uttered war is hell a misquotation which appeared in a Northern newspaper his post- Civil War military career included using similar tactics which consisted of eliminating the enemy's ability to resupply themselves to make war against the Indian tribes in three major wars in the west he came from a politically influential family yet issued politics himself his brother John was the writer of the Sherman Antitrust Act while serving as a US senator he was one of the first Civil War generals to publish his Memoirs of the war to great a claim from literary critics and the public yet he is chiefly remembered for his campaign in which he dedicated his army to in his own regard make Georgia howl there is much more to his life that should be remembered Charles Robert Sherman was an associate Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court when his wife Mary gave birth to their second son in 1820 they named him for the Shaunie Warrior tumsa they resided in Lancaster Ohio a town on the skato river near where Tuma had exhorted the tribes to unite against the American settlers on the frontier Charles Sherman died unexpectedly during a typhoid epidemic in 1829 tumsa then 9 years of age was taken into the home of Thomas Ewing another prominent politician and eventually the first Secretary of the Interior in American history Sherman's foster parents had him baptized as a Catholic According to some biographers at which time he acquired the name William others dispute this account claiming Sherman had been baptized into the Presbyterian faith as an infant and was named William takuma Sherman from infancy whichever is correct he did not sign his name using either first name instead signing WT Sherman for most of his life his lifelong nickname used by friends and relatives was C the awings had a large family of their own when they took in the young Sherman whose own family consisted of his widowed mother and 10 siblings the Sherman children remained in Lancaster with their mother receiving help from friends and extended family William learned early of the need to excel at his Endeavors and the results of competition among siblings he was a quick learner in school enjoying mathematics though he hated the teasing he received from fellow students over his fiery red hair his stepfather was serving as a US senator when he acquired for Sherman an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1836 Sherman proved indifferent to military appearance and discipline at the Academy acquiring a significant number of demerits but he excelled in his classro room studies he graduated in 1840 as sixth in his class later claiming in his Memoirs that his standing would have been much higher if not for demerits he accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the artillery he saw his first action in the second seminal war in Florida a war he later considered unjust he also had posts of in South Carolina and Georgia where he viewed For the First Time The lay of the land where his later exploits gained Fame during the Mexican war Sherman unlike many of his fellow officers did not see combat instead he was assigned to Garrison Duty in California he spent 198 days at Sea sailing around Cape Horn before arriving at his duty station in Monteray in 1847 there in addition to drafting the Army reports that confirmed the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill Sherman assisted in laying out the street grid for the town of Sacramento in 1848 in May 1850 Sherman traveled to Washington where he married his stepsister Ellen Bole Ying the prominence of the Ying family made it a social event in Washington attended by President Zachary Taylor vice president Millard Filmore and other notables the Catholic wedding was conducted by the president of Georgetown College Father James Ryder Sherman consented to raising their ensuing children in the Catholic faith eventually they had eight children together four girls and four boys militarily He was ordered to St Louis to serve in the commissary Department by 1853 disgusted with a slow rate of promotion in the peacetime Army he resigned his commission and accepted work as a bank manager in San Francisco in 1857 he traveled Again by sea to New York to manage a branch of the same bank there the same year a National Economic downturn known as the Panic of 1957 led to the bank's failure in 1858 he entered a law firm owned by two of his brothers-in-law in leworth Kansas unsuccessful in the practice of law he accepted a teaching and administrative position as Superintendent at the Louisiana state Seminary of learning and Military Academy which eventually evolved into Louisiana State University he was there when Louisiana seceded from the Union in 1861 Sherman resigned and returned to St Lou Lewis he was there when Fort Sumpter was bombarded by Southern troops and offered his Services although he disagreed with Abraham Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers Sherman believed the war would be a long one and a great many more men would be needed before the South could be pacified nonetheless he accepted a commission as a colonel of Volunteers in command of an infantry regiment Sherman commanded a regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run a disastrous round of the Union Army though his own troops fought commendably he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers in the aftermath of that defeat and ordered to the Western theater in Kentucky he made his headquarters at Louisville and was visited there in October 1861 by Secretary of War Simon Cameron shortly after Cameron's visit reports disparaging Sherman's command abilities began appearing in Northern newspapers from then until the end of the war Sherman contended that war corresponden were a threat to the union war effort in November Sherman requested a leave of absence in December the theater Commander Henry hollik placed Sherman on leave due to health reasons Sherman suffered what was then called a nervous breakdown described by his wife in a private letter as Melancholy Insanity newspapers carry the story of Sherman's collapse in disparaging terms Pollock had shared quarters with Sherman during their days together in California during the Mexican war and stood by his old friend by late December Sherman felt well enough to return to duty and hollik assigned him to duties in the west by March 1862 Sherman was in command of a division under Ulisses Grant the Battle of Shiloh taking place on April 6th and 7th 1862 cemented Sherman's reputation as a capable Battlefield commander on the first day of the battle he succeeded in holding the Union right in a fighting withdrawal and the following day saying he led the successful Counterattack that led to Union victory and what was at the time the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil it was only a precursor to the massive battles which were to follow it also restored his peace of mind he wrote to grant that single battle gave me new life later in 1862 Grant began a campaign to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg Mississippi and seized control of the Mississippi River's entire length Sherman participating in the operations in command of the core which consisted of nearly half of Grant's Army the campaign was long complicated and contained several Union repulses accusations of Grant's drunkenness and Sherman's Insanity were repeated in complaining Union newspapers it took numerous dangerous Maneuvers coordinating with the Navy and a long Siege before Vicksburg surrendered to Grant's Army on July 4th 1863 it was the same day Robert E Le's Army of Northern Virginia began its Retreat from the Battle of G iburg in Pennsylvania following the Union's campaign in Eastern Tennessee where Grant's forces captured Chattanooga and defeated the Confederate forces under Braxton brag Sherman was one of Grant's most trusted subordinates in early 1864 Lincoln assigned Grant to Washington as commander of all Union forces Grant chose to accept the command but made his headquarters in the field rather then in a Washington office traveling with the army of the pomac grant assigned Sherman to succeed him as commander of the department to the Mississippi placing him in command of the entire Western theater before Sherman initiated the campaign against Atlanta he had already formulated his strategy for conducting the war in the Deep South he wrote to Grant if you can whip Lee and I can March to the Atlantic I think Old Uncle Abe will give us 20 days leave to see the Young Folks despite the disparaging reference to Abraham Lincoln Sherman later included the comment in his Memoirs it was his first known reference to a march to the sea in May 1864 as Grant moved against Lee in Virginia's Wilderness Sherman launched an invasion of Georgia unlike Grant who pushed down through Virginia in a series of bloody battles in places like Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor Sherman conducted a campaign of maneuver against first confederate general Joseph Johnston and then after Johnston was relieved against John Bell Hood only at the Battle of kensaw mountain did Sherman compel his troops to make frontal assaults throughout the summer the armies fainted skirmished and after the arrival of hood fought in major engagements the union armies moved forward gradually closing around Atlanta on September 2nd 1864 Sherman occupied Atlanta after briefly pursuing Hood's Army in tenness Sherman returned to Atlanta in mid November civilians were ordered to leave the city and Sherman ordered the destruction of all military and government buildings and property he also ordered the destruction of railroad property including Depot warehouses Rolling Stock locomotives and maintenance facilities he was ready to begin his march to the sea with the expressed intent to make Georgia howl since time IM Memorial armies had sustained themselves on the march by living off the land and seas in the produce and livestock of civilians in some instances they made some form of payment in others they simply took what they needed or simply wanted the roughly 60,000 men Sherman LED across Georgia were under strict orders not to loot private homes or harass civilians who did not display hostility toward the union troops they were to take what food stuffs they needed to sustain themselves any horses and mules and fodder then destroy anything deemed of military value this included workshops factories railroads wagons Bridges boats and anything that might conceivably be used to gain an advantage in war the March took place in three major columns Each of which were further divided according to available roads the Army cut a swath over 60 Mi wide and in some cases Spurs were set out even wider to complete destruction of railroads as the troops marched foraging parties branched out in all directions confiscating supplies to feed the Army and the growing trail of refugees that followed the troops pulled up railroad tracks built fires with the wooden ties and heated the rails and the fires until they could be bent into loops around trees or Telegraph poles the rails scattered along the Army's path became known as Sherman's neck ties ahead of Sherman's Army retreating Confederates wre their own destruction on the landscape animal carcasses were thrown into Wells and watering holes to poison the water bales of cotton and other crops were burned Confederate troops chiefly Cavalry harassed the advancing Union columns to little Avail Sherman reached Savannah on December 10th where 10,000 entrenched Confederates protected the city after making contact with the Union Navy Sherman sent a surrender demand to the Confederate commander of the defenses William Hardy on December 17th Hardy opted to escape rather than fight or Surrender and fled by crossing the Savannah River on a hastily assembled platoon bridge on December 20th the following day Sherman occupied the city his army had destroyed over 300 mil of railroads seized over 9,000 horses and mules 13,000 heads of cattle and freed more than 10,000 enslaved people in 1864 dollar Sherman estimated the economic damage to the South to have been $100 million just under $1 billion today yet Sherman was far from finished Grant had intended for Sherman to Embark his troops on Navy ships at Savannah which would convey them to join his armies besieging Lee at Richmond and Petersburg Sherman had other plans he convinced Superior to allow him to continue his March to the north through the Carolinas before joining with Grant in Virginia Grant acceded to Sherman's request and after resting in Savannah for a few weeks Sherman's Army was on the March again in South Carolina widely viewed in the north as the home of secession the Damage Done vastly exceeded that rot in Georgia as Sherman's troops marched across South Carolina the Confederates abandoned Charleston and its fortifications its Garrison retreating to the Northwest Sherman again advanced in multiple columns along roads mired by the late winter and spring mud his troops built corduroy roads crossed rivers on pontoon bridges and advanced quickly on February 17th 1865 Sherman captured Colombia where his troops encountered fires throughout the city caused by the disorganized burning of bales of cotton to deny them to the union there was rioting throughout the city whiskey flowed freely and fires spread as he had in Georgia Sherman ordered the destruction of anything deemed to be useful to the southern war effort the burning of Colombia which Sherman did not order and during which he directed firefighting operations has remained a point of controversy and dispute ever since Sherman's Army covered 425 miles in only 50 days during the campaign across the Carol caras which ended on April 18th 1865 with a surrender of the last Confederate Army in the field under General Joseph Johnston Lee had surrendered in Virginia 9 days earlier in the interim Lincoln had been assassinated Sherman was among the first Generals in history to adopt the policy of destroying an enemy's ability to make war rather than concentrate on the destruction of its armies in battle he reasoned correctly as it turned out that by destroying infrastructure Food Supplies and civilian morale support for the Army would EB and the Army itself wither away through low morale desertion starvation and sickness by the time Joseph Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman the confederate general commanded just 13,000 men his army had simply vanished Sherman began the war with no command experience no combat experience and a grave doubt in his own abilities he ended it as an acclaimed strategic in itical genius with a reputation of being a Stern disciplinarian who was nonetheless deeply concerned with the well-being of the troops he commanded he opted to remain in the Army after the war and when Grant entered the presidency in 1869 Sherman became the Commanding General of the United States Army he served in that role during the ensuing Indian Wars as the railroads pushed West following the Civil War they encroached upon lands controlled by the Western tribes worse from the Indians perspective perspective they split the migration Paths of the Bison upon which their cultures were dependent the US Army was deployed to protect the railroads the settlers that traveled West to take advantage of the Homestead Acts and the towns and cities that Rose in their wake during the Indian Wars numerous atrocities were committed by both sides though there is no evidence Sherman ever said the only good Indian is a dead Indian as he is often accused of he did advocate for total war against the tribes Andrew Jackson Philip Sheridan and Theodore Roosevelt have all been accused of uttering that sentiment as well during the Great Sue War Sherman did write to President Grant we must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sue even to their extermination men women and children as he had during the later half of the Civil War Sherman advocated destroying the enemy's ability to make war the Plains Indians and their way of life could not survive without the American Bison they used them for food to make medicines clothing shelter the bones to make tools and weapons and in religious rights Sherman became an early and Ardent advocate for the eradication of the Bison though he did not commit the Army toward that end he endorsed the railroads and other entities that organized massive bison hunts the eradication of the Bison Advanced so rapidly that Congress passed a law to protect them from over hunting in 1874 Sherman convinced his close friend president Ulisses Grant to prevent the law from becoming enforced forcible through the use of the pocket veto in the end ruthless and I'll add immoral though his means were it was the destruction of the herds that forced the PLS Indians to give up their way of life and enter the reservations established for them in 1875 Sherman published his Memoirs which focused primarily on the Civil War and his part in it along with some criticisms for his former Commander ulyses Grant when Grant read what his old friend had written he commented I found I approved every word the book was one of the earliest Civil War Memoirs sold well and Drew a claim from critics for Sherman's Pros he resigned as Commanding General in 1883 and retired from the Army in 1884 moving to New York City there he became a popular dinner guest and public speaker he famously declined to be considered for the Republican nominee for president in 1884 stating I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected he resided in New York for the rest of his life dying there in February 1891 from the effects of pneumonia Joseph Johnston his old adversary served as an honorary Paul Bearer at his funeral and stood hatless in the wintry weather refusing to cover his head and expressing his belief that had the situation been reversed Sherman would not cover his head while attending Johnston's funeral Johnston died of pneumonia a month later Sherman's body went by train to St Louis where it was interred following a Catholic service William Tuma Sherman remains a controversial figure loathed by many admired by many respected for his military talents and reviled for his scorched Earth tactics he conducted war with a Relentless determination yet when he offered peace terms they were generous so much so that he was rebuked by the Secretary of War for the terms he offered Johnston in North Carolina at the end of the Civil War he was undoubtedly a believer in the supremacy of whites over blacks and certainly over the American tribes which is kind of not surprising however he supported emancipation and was one of the initiators of schemes to bestow confiscated Southern lands to freed slaves for them to own and work on as Farmers he supported full civil rights for the blacks of the South that's what it says in the script and condemn the efforts of Southern legislators to suppress them the Lost Cause historical writers of the South made Sherman into a demon a Butcher and the polar opposite of the gentlemanly and Shick Robert E Lee yet Sherman's views on the conduct of War continue to the present day and were demonstrated through the Precision bombing of World War II the defoliation programs in Vietnam and others indeed what Sherman practiced is referred to as hard War less vicious than the total war available today according to military historians War is cruelty and you cannot refine it Sherman wrote when demanding the surrender of Atlanta yet once the peace Was Won he was magnanimous to his former enemies and won the respect of those who opposed him in the field when asked whether the national blood leing known as the Civil War had been worth it Sherman responded that because of the eradication of slavery we as a nation north and south east and west are the better for it we believe that the war was worth to us all that it cost in life and treasure whether his actions in that war increased the cost or ultimately reduced it remains a matter of debate among historians Scholars Civil War Buffs and military strategists well I certainly hope you found this video to be informative hopefully you learn something you didn't know before and if you like this video be sure to do all that algorithmic jazz and let the YouTube Gods know that we are worthy of their favor and I'll see you next time space cowboy