But Sherman’s reign is not without controversy, and he clashes frequently with Secretaries of War John Rawlins and William Belknap. Escaping official Washington as much as his rank allows, Sherman relocates his headquarters to St. Louis.
To the modern eye, one of Sherman’s most regrettable decisions involves the obliteration of the free-roaming herds of western buffalo, the loss of which Sherman believes will force the Indian tribes to submit to government control.
He is outraged by the massacre at the Little Big Horn, and the death of George Armstrong Custer emboldens Sherman to increase the army’s aggressive violence against warring tribes. But through it all, Sherman continues to offer moderate views on the expansion of white settlers into Indian lands. It is yet another distinct contradiction that rivals the reputation he had established during the Civil War.
In 1880, Sherman addresses a public forum in Columbus, Ohio, where he states, “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell.” Thus is his most famous quote given birth.
In 1881, Sherman recognizes the need for properly trained and educated military officers, and he establishes what is now the Command and General Staff College, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
He retires in 1884, and lives out his remaining years in New York City. But he cannot escape the public eye, and is a highly regarded public speaker, so much so that he is pressed to run for national office. To those who insist on including his name as a presidential candidate in 1884, he replies, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” His negative view of politics most certainly is a reflection of the bitter conflicts he endured with official Washington, most notably Edwin Stanton, throughout the final weeks of the war.
His wife, Ellen, remains a devout Catholic, and his son Thomas seeks the priesthood, a decision Sherman angrily dismisses. The friction this causes is a stain on his family bond that is never reconciled.
Sherman dies in New York City in 1891, at age seventy-one. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
—
In 1875, Sherman’s memoir was published, which provided ample ammunition to those who supported him and those who despised him. Regardless of which side one takes (and few are in the middle), there is one indisputable fact: Through the first two years of the Civil War, the South and its generals gained advantages that could have won them the war. After the combined disasters of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, in July 1863, a Northern victory became inevitable. Though the Southern armies might have continued to fight, it was by the overwhelming superiority of Northern resources that the end came as it did. But in this author’s opinion, two men, Ulysses Grant and William T. Sherman, brought the war to an end far more quickly, and far more decisively, than any other Federal commander could have done. William T. Sherman understood that war causes pain, and that the greater pain one inflicts, the more rapidly a war can be brought to a close. In that, he succeeded brilliantly.
Dedicated to Patrick Falci and Joan McDonough, and Colonel Keith Gibson and Pat Gibson, who, throughout the entire process of researching and writing my seven books on the Civil War, were always there with support, assistance, and a kind word
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A PARTIAL LIST OF PRIMARY SOURCES
William T. Sherman, USA
Ulysses S. Grant, USA
Joseph E. Johnston, CSA
Henry M. Hitchcock, USA
Thomas D. Duncan, CSA
Cyrus F. Boyd, USA
Sam R. Watkins, CSA
John Beatty, USA
Joshua K. Callaway, CSA
William B. Hazen, USA
Ira Blanchard, USA
Dolly Sumner Lunt Burge, CSA
Thomas W. Osborn, USA
George W. Pepper, USA
Jacob Ritner, USA
George B. Guild, CSA
My most sincere thanks to the historians whose published works proved extremely helpful in the telling of this story:
John G. Barrett
Mark L. Bradley
Burke Davis
Mark H. Dunkelman
John P. Dyer
John M. Gibson
Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr.
Katharine M. Jones
Charles F. Larimer
John F. Marszalek
Samuel J. Martin
Kevin Rawlings
Craig L. Symonds
My deepest appreciation to the following, who contributed invaluable assistance and information, including unpublished, and often, previously unknown material:
John Belfrage, Pierce, Colorado
Kirk Bradley, Sanford, North Carolina
Patrick Falci, Rosedale, New York
Colonel Keith Gibson, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia
Nancie Gudmestad, Shriver House Museum, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
James Izzell, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina
Evalyn E. Kearns, Atlanta, Georgia
Emma McSherry, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
T. J. Miller, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina
Kim A. O’Connell, Arlington, Virginia
Ryan Reed, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina
William Rutledge, Jr., Fort Collins, Colorado
Stephanie Shaara, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
William G. Stanley, Aiken, South Carolina
Donny Taylor, Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site, Four Oaks, North Carolina
Edward W. Vollersten, Monticello, Florida
Matthew Watros, Newfield, New York
BY JEFF SHAARA
A Blaze of Glory
A Chain of Thunder
The Fateful Lightning
Gods and Generals
The Last Full Measure
Gone for Soldiers
Rise to Rebellion
The Glorious Cause
To the Last Man
Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields
The Rising Tide
The Steel Wave
No Less Than Victory
The Final Storm
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
credit: Olivia Cowden
JEFF SHAARA is the New York Times bestselling author of The Smoke at Dawn, A Chain of Thunder, A Blaze of Glory, The Final Storm, No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Gettysburg.
www.jeffshaara.com
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