This paper chronicles the life of William Tecumseh Sherman, focusing on the warfare he used in the American Civil War.
This paper begins by tracing the early life of this colonel in the federal army during the American Civil War, from his birth to his rise as one of the greatest military minds in the history of war. The paper also explores some of his war tactics and strategies, looking at why they made him into one of the most hated men in the Southern United States.
“General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Virginia, once said, “War is Hell.” Due to the aging Napoleonic style of war still in use during the American Civil War (and even throughout the First World War) and the continuously increasing development of deadly technologies, war had become even more bloody and ferocious than ever before?a sanguine exchange of soft lead. During the mid-eighteen-sixties, a time rooted in great brotherly hatred, one man took front and center in the South’s animosity. From his humble beginnings in Ohio, William Tecumseh Sherman became the most hated man in the Southern United States because of his total war tactics and his refus[al] to sentimentalize the killing and pillaging required for victory(Barney).”