Blazing Trails and Winning Wars

Surely, no face evokes more sentiment in the South 144 years hence than that of William Tecumseh Sherman. As the hated General of the Union Army that crushed the Confederate armies and burned its way to the sea, time has not abated the anger at this one individual soldier. His campaigns not only attacked the enemy forces, he systematically destroyed the supplies, transportation and even the will to fight as he bludgeoned his way to victory.

What most don't realize is that he was in a way an unwilling participant. Suffering from a nervous breakdown earlier in life, cursed with the tendency for excessive drinking and largely intolerant towards deliberation, he was a unique figure in the American Civil War. If faced with the unappealing prospect of waging a war, he was unsurpassed in his ruthlessness.

His past included his being a banker at a failed bank, a superintendent of a college (later becoming Louisiana State University), practicing law and of course, attending West Point. Most of his non-military career was spent during the 1850's. During his tenure as superintendent at the precursor to LSU, he easily mixed with the Southern aristocracy, having come from a well-to-do family of politicians. In the broiling climate of secession, he warned with great passion to his Southern friends the folly of their fight. He knew the capacity of the North to wage war and the inability of the South to produce much more than uniforms and agricultural products. His warnings fell of deaf ears.

Sherman was a paradoxical figure. He hated war but waged it in such a way that his tactics have been studied by such figures as Erwin Rommel, George S. Patton and military scholars for over a century. He was vicious in his strategy to eradicate the Indian nations but held out contempt for government agents and swindlers that cheated them. He was compassionate to the freed slaves but found them to be a nuisance and unfit for military service. He cruelly burned cities and crops but accepted the gift of Savannah without destroying it and in turn offered it to President Lincoln for his birthday.

W. T. Sherman concluded his career being appointed as Commanding General of the Army by U. S. Grant and then as an interim Secretary of War in 1869. He lived out his years as a lecturer, student of the arts and exhibited a fondness for Shakespeare. He passed away on February 14, 1891 in New York City.

Little remains of the fervent passions that created the Civil War. As in most conflicts, it was found by history to be largely unnecessary. The invention of the cotton gin would have eventually changed the need for slaves and made the whole issue somewhat moot. War is hell, but if one is to wage it, win it quickly and decisively. To Sherman, we owe our understanding of this awful truth.