William Tecumseh Sherman
 

With all the hype surrounding the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, I saw a recent documentary on Sherman's "March to the Sea". Wow! Now here's a commander I want on my side! He really kicked the South's ass big time. The whole "scorched earth" policy and living off the spoils of war. What a bad-ass. Much like Hannibal.

Not a Grant type, but certainly a "role player".

He was Grant's protege and very good friend.

He was also one of the few on either side early on who saw the war was to be a very long and bloody affair.

Just finished a book on Shermans march through Georgia and the Carolina's.
To believe that after Lincoln was assasinated Stanton accused Sherman of everything from
aiding Jeff Davis's escape to claiming that Sherman was going to march on Washington and
install himself as dictator is mind boggling.

The book is a good read and is called "Shermans March" by Burke Davis

The thing that also stood out was that after he left Atlanta his troops only fought in 1 pitched battle.
Lots of skirmishing and smaller affairs though the whole way.

the brilliance of Sherman
 

He coined one of my favorite sayings " on the horns of a dilemma"

My great, great, great grandfather served in an Indiana infantry regiment that fought with Sherman through that entire campaign. We have his diary - pretty neat stuff. Sherman was a bad @ss.