The Most Barbarian American General: William Tecumseh Sherman

General Sherman was born into a well known family. His father served on the Ohio Supreme Court and he was related to Roger Sherman who signed the Declaration of Independence. Sherman’s philosophy was that somewhat of an elitist who believed in the “survival of the fittest”. He seemed to believe that those who were in charge were destined to be there and that the herd should follow obediently.

Sherman despised abolitionists, incongruously, and so slavery was not the issue for which he fought his war. He simply despised southerners for rebelling from the Union and his intentions were to decimate all of them for their stubbornness. He would have preferred northerners move south and supplant rebels in order to have a more perfect union after he wiped the land clear of the rebs.  He was hardly encumbered by the morals of Christianity so he was free to punish the state of Georgia in just the way he saw fit with few pangs of guilt.  Ironically, he was an honest man in his daily life.

He had complained earlier around the time of his Mississippi campaigns that when he fought battles, the rebels always seemed to outnumber him whether it was true or not. It was also around that time that a doctor told Sherman that he was so nervous that he was unfit for command. He was forced to take three weeks off from the war so that he could recover himself. His furlough settled him down and General Grant went on to utilize his services successfully for the duration of the war.

Actually, He was rarely in a battle where his units didn’t outnumber the defenders so he may not qualify for being one of the greatest generals ever. It appears that he was efficient when he had sufficient numbers to apply to the task at hand.

The campaign that built his reputation was his “march to the sea”.  He overpowered Confederate General Joseph Johnson in the Atlanta campaign whose smaller army and tactics were no match for Sherman.  The south’s famous retreating general didn’t have the strength to deny the overachieving northern general’s desire to destroy as much of Georgia as he could.  Sherman left as many smoke columns winding into the blue sky as possible and the results were devastating and demoralizing.

General Johnson was replaced by General John Bell Hood to stop Sherman with Hood’s offensive strategies but he also failed to slow Sherman. General Hood tried to go around Sherman and destroy his supply lines. That only opened the door wider for Sherman to lay waste to a 50 mile swarth of land from Atlanta to Savannah, burning everything he could and demolishing all civilian and military targets in his path. He did his best to make the war hell for Georgians as that was his specific, ruthless intention. He despised Georgia’s stubborn rebellious people and he wanted to squash totally Georgia’s ability to support the war.

He wasn’t required to be a great general to fight the southern defenders and army officers that President Jeff Davis could make available to them at that time in the war. Most of the southern armies were protecting Virginia from being over run as the south was outnumbered 5 or 6 to one in manpower.

It appears that Sherman got a lot of praise for defeating an under supplied army that was weakened by attrition and suffering from four years of war. In retrospect, it was no gigantic feat if you consider his huge well supported arm and his facing the most retreating general the undermanned southerners had to offer.  That combination made Sherman’s job much easier.