SHERMAN 



395 



Copyright 1892, 1897, n<t 

 1900 ID the U.S. by J. 1'.. 

 Llppincott Comptpj. 



the Trial of the Witnesses for the resurrection, &c. 

 <5 vols. 1830). 



Sherman, capital of Grayson county, Texas, 

 64 miles by rail N. of Dallas, contains a tine court- 

 house and gaol, lias foundries and mills, and is a 

 depot for grain and cotton. It was partly destroyed 

 by a tornado in May 1896. Pop. ( 1890) 7338. 



Sherman, WILLIAM TECUMSEH, eighteenth 

 general-in-chief of the United States army, was 

 born in Lancaster, Ohio, Feb. 8, 

 18:20, sixth son of Judge Sher- 

 man, who died when William 

 was nine years old. He attended school in Lan- 

 caster until 1836, then was appointed to a cadetehip 

 at West Point, and graduated in July 1840 sixth 

 in a class of forty-two. He was commissioned 

 second-lieutenant in the Third Artillery and ordered 

 to Florida, where there was some trouble with 

 the Seminole Indians, and was afterwards sta- 

 tioned at Fort Morgan and Fort Moultrie, and 

 from 1846 to 1850 in California. Seeing no prospect 

 of promotion Sherman resigned from the army in 

 1853, having previously married Miss Ellen Boyle 

 Ewing, daughter of Thomas Ewing, secretary of 

 the Interior, and entered civil life. He was a 

 banker in San Francisco for several years, and 

 at the beginning of the civil war was super- 

 intendent of the Louisiana Military Academy at 

 Alexandria, which position he immediately re- 

 signed. In May 1861 Sherman was commissioned 

 colonel of the Thirteenth Infantry, and joined his 

 regiment at Washington. In the battle of Bull 

 Run he commanded a origade, and for good conduct 

 in that engagement was promoted to brigadier- 

 eeneral of volunteers. Sherman was one of the 

 first to estimate properly the serious nature of the 

 struggle before the country. In August he was 

 sent to Kentucky, but when he asked for 200,000 

 men to put an end to the war in that section, the 

 authorities at Washington looked on his demand 

 as wildly extravagant, if not insane, and deprived 

 him of his command. But soon after he was given 

 a division in the Army of the Tennessee, and in 

 April 1862 displayed both coolness and skill in the 

 severe two days' battle of Shiloh, where he was 

 wounded, but would not leave the field. Grant 

 afterwards wrote : ' To his individual efforts I am 

 indebted for the success of that battle.' In May 

 he was made a major-general of volunteers, and 

 stationed at Memphis. 



In the various movements made by General 

 Grant against Vicksburg Sherman was most active, 

 commanding the famous Fifteenth Corps of the 

 Army of the Tennessee, and being next in rank to 

 Grant. Immediately after the surrender of that 

 Confederate stronghold, July 4, 1863 (the date of 

 his brigadiership in the regular army), he moved 

 against General .1. E. Johnston at Jackson, Missis- 

 sippi, and drove him out of that city. In Novem- 

 IXT Sherman joined Grant at Chattanooga, and 

 rendered excellent service in the great victory won 

 there on the 25th, withstanding a long series of 

 attacks intended to crush his command ; and a few 

 days later he hurried to relieve Burnside, besieged 

 at Knoxville by General Longstreet, whose forces 

 lli''l at the approach of the Northern cavalry. On 

 12th March 1864, the same day that Grant became 

 commander-in-chief, he appointed Sherman to the 

 command of the south-west, with headquarters at 

 Nashville. In April he commenced bis campaign 

 against Atlanta, his command consisting of the 

 armies of the Cumberland, Ohio, and Tennessee, 

 in all al>out 100,000 men, with 254 guns. Moving 

 from Chattanooga Sherman first encountered Gen- 

 eral Johnston at Oalton, May 14, and, by repeatedly 

 turning his position, and constantly pursuing and 

 preying him, drove him to Cassville and beyond the 



Etowah, thence to a strong position on Kenesaw 

 Mountain (where the Union army was at first 

 heavily repulsed), and finally to Atlanta, the 

 direct attack on which began on July 17. Many 

 bold sorties were made by General John B. Hood, 

 who had superseded General Johnston, and fierce 

 encounters occurred at Peach Tree Creek, Ezra 

 Church, and elsewhere, all unfavourable to the Con- 

 federates, until on 1st September they evacuated 

 the city, and Atlanta was won. 



After giving his gallant army a rest Sherman 

 moved out of Atlanta on his famous march to the 

 sea, with about 65,000 men. Passing between 

 Augusta and Macon, and meeting with little 

 serious opposition, for Hood and his army had 

 been disastrously defeated by General Thomas in 

 the battle fought near Nashville, he reached the 

 outworks of Savannah on December 10 a march 

 of 300 miles in twenty-four days, with a loss of 

 63 killed and 245 wounded. The works were soon 

 carried, and on the 20th General Hardie evacuated 

 the city, Sherman marching in on the 21st. To 

 President Lincoln he wrote : ' I beg to present you 

 as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with 150 

 guns, plenty of ammunition, and 25,000 bales of 

 cotton.' For his great services he had already 

 been made a major-general in the regular army, 

 and now he received the thanks of congress for his 

 ' triumphal march.' 



Early in February Sherman and his army left 

 Savannah for the north, and by the 17th, compelling, 

 by another flanking movement, the evacuation of 

 Charleston, he had reached Columbia, the capital of 

 South Carolina. Thence he moved on Goldsboro' 

 by way of Cheraw and Fayetteville, fighting 

 by the way severe battles at Averysboro' and 

 Bentonville in March, and aiming either to cut off 

 Lee's retreat or to join Grant before Richmond. 

 But on April 9 Lee surrendered, and word of this 

 coming to General Johnston, he made terms with 

 Sherman on the 17th, which, however, were dis- 

 approved as too lenient by Secretary Stanton and 

 repudiated : Lincoln had oeen assassinated on the 

 14th. The surrender of Johnston's army was soon 

 followed by all the other Confederate forces then 

 in the field, and the four years' war was at an end. 



Before the dishandment of Sherman's army and 

 the Army of the Potomac, they passed in review at 

 Washington before President Johnson and General 

 Grant on May 23 and 24, 1865. Sherman took 

 leave of his troops in a field order of May 30. 

 For the four years following he was in command 

 of the division of the Mississippi ; and when 

 Grant became president Sherman succeeded to 

 the head of the army with the rank of general, 

 having been previously promoted to lieutenant- 

 general. In 1872 he visited Europe, everywhere 

 receiving distinguished honours ; and in 1874, at 

 his own request, to make room for Sheridan, he 

 was retired on full pay. His remaining years were 

 spent in St Louis and in New York, wliere he died 

 February 14, 1891. He received a public funeral 

 in both these cities, and was buried by the side 

 of his wife and favourite son William in the St 

 Louis Cemetery. Many lives have been published 

 of Sherman, but much the most valuable are his 

 own Memoirs, first issued in 2 vols. in 1875, and 

 of which revised editions were published in 1885 

 and 1891. A noble equestrian statue of Sherman 

 adorns New York City. 



JOHN SHERMAN, statesman, a younger brother, 

 born at Lancaster, 10th May 1823, was for a time 

 attached as roilman to a corps of engineers, and 

 then studied law with his brother Charles, whose 

 partner he became after his admission to the bar in 

 1844. From 18.55 to 1861 he sat in congress, from 

 1859 as chairman of the committee of ways and 

 means ; and in the senate, of which he was a member 



