William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) was a U.S. Army officer and one of the Union’s leading commanders in the American Civil War. A West Point graduate, he rose to prominence in the Western Theater, serving under Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh and later commanding forces in the capture of Atlanta. In 1864 he led the “March to the Sea,” a campaign marked by large-scale destruction aimed at undermining the Confederacy’s capacity and will to fight. After the war he became Commanding General of the U.S. Army (1869–1883). He recounted his career in *Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman* (1875).