William tecumseh sherman biography civil war captain
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Man of Fire: William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War
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Excerpt: Click HERE to read the front matter and Chapter 1!
About the Book
He has been accused of “studied and ingenious cruelty.” By turns, he has been called a savior and a barbarian, a hero and a villain, a genius and a madman. But whatever you call William Tecumseh Sherman, you must admit he is utterly fascinating.
Sherman spent a lifetime in search of who he was, striving to find a place and a calling. Informally adopted by the Ewing family of Lancaster, Ohio, when his own father died when he was just nine, the young redhead lived in a spacious mansion just up the hill from his mother. Later, as a young man, he would marry his adopted sister, Ellen.
After attending West Point, the intrepid Ohioan found that being a soldier suited him. Yet he always seemed to miss his opportunity. The second Seminole War was in its closing days before he saw action. When the Mexican-American War b
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Sherman’s Early Years
With an unusual mittpunkt name received from his father, a prominent lawyer and judge who admired the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, William Tecumseh Sherman was born February 8, , in Lancaster, Ohio.
The death of Sherman’s father when he was 9 left his mother a poor widow with 11 children. Most of the Sherman children were fostered out to live with other families.
Sherman, nicknamed “Cump,” was raised by John Ewing, a family friend who was an Ohio senator and Cabinet member. Sherman later married his foster sister, Ellen Ewing, and the couple had eight children.
Sherman was not the only successful member of his family. An elder brother became a federal judge, and younger brother John Sherman was elected to the U.S. Senate and later served as both secretary of the treasury and sekreterare of state. Several of his Ewing foster siblings also rose to prominence.
West Point and Early Military Career
When Sherman was 16, John Ewing secured him a position at the U.S. Mi
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William T. Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman, although not a career military commander before the war, would become one of "the most widely renowned of the Union’s military leaders next to U. S. Grant.”
Sherman, one of eleven children, was born into a distinguished family. His father had served on the Supreme Court of Ohio until his sudden death in , leaving Sherman and his family to stay with several friends and relatives. During this period, Sherman found himself living with Senator Thomas Ewing, who obtained an appointment for Sherman to the United States Military Academy, and he graduated sixth in the class of His early military career proved to be anything but spectacular. He saw some combat during the Second Seminole War in Florida, but unlike many of his colleagues, did not fight in the Mexican-American War, serving instead in California. As a result, he resigned his commission in He took work in the fields of banking and law brief