What was the qualities that made William Sherman interesting?

Answer 1

His image is that of a grim, savage destroyer, insensitive to the sufferings of the civilians whose lives he made wretched.

Curiously, he was first identified as an incompetent officer who had moved up through social influence. He also had the bad luck to miss the Mexican War (in which he was given a desk job), so his credibility was not high at first.

On the oubreak of the Civil War, he was one of the few officers who realized that it would be a long and terrible struggle, and his warning letters to Southern friends on this point show great prescience. At the war's first battle, Bull Run, he displayed gallantry, but also suffered a bout of madness, in which he declared himself insane.

His ascendancy began in Tennessee where he formed a close partnership and friendship with the newly-promoted U.S. Grant. (Later Sherman would declare "I stood by him when he was drunk, and he stood by me when I was mad.") Sherman gave valuable support to Grant throughout the Vicksburg campaign and later at Chattanooga.

When Grant became General-in-Chief in March 1864, he made Sherman an army commander, with orders to destroy Joe Johnston's Army of Tennessee.

Sherman never succeeded in doing this, though he performed two other manoeuvres of great significance. First he liberated Atlanta (and burned down most of it), which rescued Northern morale in advance of the 1864 General Election. Next he abandoned his supply-line and all attempts to destroy the enemy, in favour of a vast punitive raid on the civilians of Georgia. This undoubtedly shortened the war, though it earned him a name for brutality.

He actually forbade all acts of violence against the person, and his troops largely conformed to this. When such acts occurred, it was usually at the hands of the reckless deserters (from both armies) who followed in Sherman's wake. It is true however that his burning-down of Columbia, state capital of South Carolina, might be classed as wanton vandalism.

Sherman has been dubbed the father of total war, however favourably or otherwise you may interpret this. He was certainly a most effective commander, who rendered great service to the USA, and his memoirs show considerable insight into military and political issues.