William Tecumseh Sherman

(noun)

(February 8, 1820–February 14, 1891) An American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and received recognition for outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the scorched earth policies he implemented.

Related Terms

Examples of William Tecumseh Sherman in the following topics:

  • Sherman's March

    • Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Lieutenant General Ulysses S.
    • Sherman's "March to the Sea" is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted around Georgia from November 15, 1864, to December 21, 1864, by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army.
    • Sherman was blocked from linking up with the U.S.
    • Sherman's scorched earth policies remain highly controversial, and many Southerners have long reviled Sherman's memory.
    • Assess the objectives, pros, and cons of Sherman's "March to the Sea"

  • The Confederacy's Defeat

    • William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies.
    • Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.

  • The Battles: 1863–1865

    • Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and put Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies.
    • Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.

  • Grant's Pursuit of Lee

    • Major General William Tecumseh Sherman succeeded Grant in command of most of the western armies.

  • The Freed Slaves

    • They were freed as a result of the advance of the Union armies into the territory previously controlled by the Confederacy, particularly after Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea.
    • General Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued on January 16, 1865, provided for the land, while some of its beneficiaries also received mules from the army for plowing.
    • The Special Field Orders issued by Sherman were never intended to represent an official policy of the U.S. government with regard to all former slaves.
    • Andrew Johnson, who succeeded President Lincoln after the assassination, revoked Sherman's orders and returned the land to its previous white owners.

  • The Indian Response

    • In the Old Northwest, Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnees, organized the largest pan-Indian alliance to date.
    • Red Stick leaders like William Weatherford (Red Eagle), Peter McQueen, and Menawa, were all allies of the British.
    • On August 30, 1813, Peter McQueen and William Weatherford, both of whom were Upper Creek chiefs, led an attack on Fort Mims, near Mobile, Alabama.
    • Federal forces, however, were busy fighting the British and the Northern Woodland tribes, who were being led by Tecumseh.
    • Depiction of William Weatherford surrendering to Andrew Jackson after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

  • Madison's American Indian Policy

    • East of the Mississippi River in the Indiana Territory, an intertribal confederacy led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, fought a number of engagements in the Northwest during the period of 1811 to 1812.
    • These conflicts became known as Tecumseh's War.
    • In the latter stages, Tecumseh's group allied with the British forces in the War of 1812 and was instrumental in the conquest of Detroit.
    • Many consider Governor William Henry Harrison's victory over the American Indian confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 the climax of the war.
    • However, Tecumseh's War continued into the War of 1812 and is frequently considered a part of that larger struggle.

  • Union Victories in the Western Theater

    • He also had two able subordinates: Major Generals William J.
    • William T.
    • The next major event, Sherman's Savannah Campaign , popularly known as the March to the Sea.
    • This induced him to send a message to Sherman requesting terms for surrender.
    • Map of the Savannah Campaign (Sherman's March to the Sea) of the American Civil War.

  • From Roosevelt to Taft

    • In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt persuaded the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft to run against Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan.
    • The U.S. presidential election of 1908 was between Republican Party candidate William Howard Taft and Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan.
    • On their side, the Democrats, after badly losing the 1904 election with a conservative candidate, turned to two-time nominee William Jennings Bryan, who had been defeated in 1896 and 1900 by Republican William McKinley.
    • Portrait of William Howard Taft, the Republican Party candidate in the presidential election of 1908.
    • This map showing the 1908 presidential election results uses blue to denote states won by Bryan/Kern, and red to denote those won by Taft/Sherman.

  • The War in the South

    • Red Stick leaders such as William Weatherford (Red Eagle), Peter McQueen, and Menawa were all allies of the British.
    • Before the Creek Civil War, in February of 1813, Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnees, came to the Southeast to encourage the Creek to join his movement to throw the European-Americans out of American Indian territories.
    • After the Revolutionary War, Tecumseh had united tribes in the Northwest (including Ohio and related territories) to fight against U.S. settlers.
    • Many of the Upper Creek were influenced by the prophecies of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, which, echoing those of their own spiritual leaders, predicted the extermination of the European Americans.
    • In the months that followed, warriors of Tecumseh's party began to attack the property of their enemies, burning plantations and destroying livestock.