Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891)

Union general in the American Civil War. In 1864 he captured and burned Atlanta; continued his march eastward, to the sea, laying Georgia waste; and then drove the Confederates northward. He was US Army Chief of Staff 1869-83.

Sherman, born in Lancaster, Ohio, graduated from West Point 1840.

He served in the Mexican War and then became a banker. Early in the Civil War he served at the First Battle of Bull Run 1861 and Shiloh 1862. He replaced General Ulysses S Grant as commander of the West 1864 and launched his Georgia campaign. Despite the ruthlessness of his campaign to capture Atlanta and the widespread destruction he inflicted as he marched to the sea, he was conciliatory in victory, offering terms that had to be repudiated by President Andrew Johnson. After the war, there was a move to nominate Sherman for president, but he announced that he would not run if nominated and would not serve if elected. He succeeded Grant as commander of the army 1869.