General William T. Sherman :: General Sherman Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most colorful characters of the Civil War was a General named William T. Sherman. During the period of the war (1861-1865), General Sherman went full circle from being forced to retire on trumped up charges that he was insane, to becoming a key player in bringing this bloody war to a close. He entered the annals of military history as one of the greatest and most distinguished generals of all time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William T. Sherman was born to Charles N. Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman in Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8, 1820. General Sherman can trace his family history back to England. The Sherman family first came to the New World in 1634, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. Several family members achieved notorial prominence; including Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Daniel Sherman, who sat in the Connecticut General Assembly for 30 years. In addition, Sherman’s father became a state Supreme Court Judge in Ohio. William T. Sherman was once thrown from a horse as a young child and was not expected to live. In 1829, things would once again take a turn for the worse with the Sherman Family. Sherman’s father was away on the circuit when the elder Sherman took ill and died. No doubt this caused a problem for Mrs. Sherman to have to support 10 children. Family members and friends took all but the three youngest children to raise in their homes. A family of prominence took in Young William. Senator Thomas Ewing and his wife took in young William and treated him like their own son. Senator Ewing was the first Secretary of the Interior for the United States. It was Senator Ewing’s influence that helped William get into West Point in 1836. William graduated in 1840, 6th in his class. Sherman would later marry his stepsister Ellen Ewing on May 1, 1850, in the Blair House in Washington, D.C. Sherman and his wife would eventually have several children together, including a young son who die d during the Civil War, just as President Lincoln’s young son had died. One of Sherman’s sons became a Catholic priest at the urging of his mother who was a devout Catholic. General Sherman himself converted to Catholicism but never really accepted the religion as his own. In peacetime, Sherman was unsuccessful at several business attempts just like Ulysses S. Grant. Ironically it was the Civil War that distinguished them as historical immortals.