What Is William Tecumseh Sherman's Legacy
General William T. Sherman’s Innovations and Legacy
“I know him well as one of the greatest purest and best of men. He is poor and always will be, but he is great and magnanimous.”
~ U.S Grant praising Sherman
Introduction It is a common belief among many historians that history is told through the eyes of the winners. Read any American history book or any world history textbook and they mainly tell you about the hero that saved the nation such as Wellington at Waterloo or General Washington in the Revolutionary War or General Patton in World War II. The case of the American Civil War is no different, especially for a man who changed the war. Ask anybody in the south, even the kindergartners and they will tell you about William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who burned everything. Ask anyone in the North and they’ll tell you how Sherman and Grant together helped the North win the war. General William Tecumseh Sherman constantly said that he disliked war yet when his time came in the Civil War he rose up from a man who was dubbed crazy to become a man who changed war into a concept of total war and would go on to become one of …show more content…
It was now 1859 and tensions between the North and the South had become more and more apparent. Living in the South, Sherman had begun to notice fears in a lot of the southerners about slave revolts, fanatical abolitionists (like John Brown), and fears of secession. However with all these fears, Sherman’s first year at the Academy went surprisingly well. In a letter he wrote to his wife at this time he predicted what a Civil War would mean to his country saying “ If attempted we will have a Civil War of the most horrible Kind.”(Flood) However this was not Sherman’s only prophecy of a Civil War. In Lloyd Lewis’ book, Sherman: Fighting Prophet he uses a letter Sherman wrote to a fellow professor the Louisiana State Seminary, David F. Boyd. The letter
“I know him well as one of the greatest purest and best of men. He is poor and always will be, but he is great and magnanimous.”
~ U.S Grant praising Sherman
Introduction It is a common belief among many historians that history is told through the eyes of the winners. Read any American history book or any world history textbook and they mainly tell you about the hero that saved the nation such as Wellington at Waterloo or General Washington in the Revolutionary War or General Patton in World War II. The case of the American Civil War is no different, especially for a man who changed the war. Ask anybody in the south, even the kindergartners and they will tell you about William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who burned everything. Ask anyone in the North and they’ll tell you how Sherman and Grant together helped the North win the war. General William Tecumseh Sherman constantly said that he disliked war yet when his time came in the Civil War he rose up from a man who was dubbed crazy to become a man who changed war into a concept of total war and would go on to become one of …show more content…
It was now 1859 and tensions between the North and the South had become more and more apparent. Living in the South, Sherman had begun to notice fears in a lot of the southerners about slave revolts, fanatical abolitionists (like John Brown), and fears of secession. However with all these fears, Sherman’s first year at the Academy went surprisingly well. In a letter he wrote to his wife at this time he predicted what a Civil War would mean to his country saying “ If attempted we will have a Civil War of the most horrible Kind.”(Flood) However this was not Sherman’s only prophecy of a Civil War. In Lloyd Lewis’ book, Sherman: Fighting Prophet he uses a letter Sherman wrote to a fellow professor the Louisiana State Seminary, David F. Boyd. The letter