William Tecumseh Sherman: His March To The Sea Made The South Pay

An important Union military leader during the Civil War, General Sherman was the Army commander whose successful campaign to split the Confederate Army in two was vital to victory.
Sherman was born on May 8 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio. After his education at The U.S. Military Academy he fell into an uneventful military career and actually resigned the Army in 1853 to go work at a banking firm in San Francisco. After some failure, his interest faded and by 1859 he had moved on to become president of a military college in Louisiana (now L.S.U.).
In 1861, Louisiana seceeded and Sherman offered his services to the Union. He was involved in The Battle of Bull Run, being promoted to Brigadier General in the wake of it. At the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, he again distinguished himself and was again promoted to Major General. By the end of that year he tried to take Vicksburg but failed. The following year, while fighting under General U. S. Grant, they suceeded in taking the city.
In 1864, Sherman was made Commander of the Union Armies in the west and was ordered to move on Atlanta, Georgia. After months of heavy fighting, on September 1st, he marched into the city. After ordering the burning of all military resources there he undertakes his march to the sea to capture Savannah. With about 60,000 men, he marches on the Atlantic Coast burning everything along the way in a successful effort to cut the Confederate Army in half and seperate it from its western states at Richmond, Virginia. Three months later, Confederate Commander in Chief, Robert E. Lee, surrendered his forces to General Grant on April 9th, 1865. The Confederate Army facing Sherman surrendered on April 17th.
Sherman lived for 26 more years after the end of the war, during which time he was commisioned a Lieutenant General in the regular army. When Grant became President in 1868, Sherman was appointed to full General and handed command of the entire army. He retired in 1883, after writing his memoirs. In 1886, he made his home in New york City. He died on February 14th 1891 at the age of 70. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. louis, Missouri.