High school history books and even modern pop culture tend to focus on one key aspect of Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s life: The fact that he led the 1864 March to the Sea that resulted in Atlanta losing around 40 percent of its infrastructure to fire. A T-shirt sold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics even featured Sherman’s image against flames and the message: “Atlanta’s Original Torchbearer.”
However, Sherman was a complex character with manifold personal interests, according to history professor Robert L. O’Connell in his book “Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman.”
Published 10 years ago, the book presents a child beset by tragedy. Sherman lost his father at age 9 and became the foster child of a family friend, since his mother was financially unable to care for him and his 10 siblings. For the next seven years, he was raised in the home of prominent Whig politician Thomas Ewing, then was sent to West Point at age 16.
Mr. O’Connell exposes the foundations of Sherman’s talents that emerged while he was at the military academy. They eventually enabled Sherman to become a genius tactician. He revealed an innate adeptness at “capturing images,” which allowed him to see a town or a landscape once and draw it expertly. “This probably reflected an eidetic or photographic memory, especially for terrain, which proved to be one of Sherman’s core military talents,” wrote Mr. O’Connell.
Young cadet Sherman was also a serious reader, a detailed letter writer, and a painter. These pursuits enabled him to fight boredom and malaise when stationed to sedate locations early in his career, such as Fort Moultrie in South Carolina.
Sherman became fascinated with geography, especially the Mississippi River. While on a mission to find deserters, he traveled by riverboat on the great waterway. “Lieutenant Sherman instinctively knew he was someplace important, furiously scribbling notes on everything he saw: the sights and sounds of the water traffic, the lay of the land along the banks, and the towns and cities—New Orleans, Memphis, Vicksburg, and especially St. Louis,” wrote Mr. O’Connell.
He added: “Sherman was a prodigy of geography. During the Civil War, no matter how befuddling the swamp or forest or mountain range, if Sherman had been there, he remembered it exactly.”
At one point, the book’s author speaks directly to the reader, offering the analogy of military strategy being akin to riding a wave. But then Mr. O'Connell clarifies that “the challenge of wave riding pales in comparison with that of a military strategy” and further explains Sherman’s distinct abilities. “Consider a hypothetical Sherman plunging down the same giant wave—only instead of merely riding it, he reaches out, manipulates it, and gradually bends it in a direction cunningly designed to smash the maximum number of the enemy’s sand casualties line up on the beach.”
Varied aspects of Sherman’s personality are brought forth within the pages of “Fierce Patriot” to show that although he was primarily known in history books for his scorched earth war tactics and his “War is hell!” proclamation, he was so much more. “It’s hard to imagine a more American man than Sherman,” wrote Mr. O’Connell at the close of the 432-page biography.
