The West Point Boys - William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman was born on February 8, 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio. His father died when he was young. Widowed and unable to care for the family, his mother sent his brother off to be raised by an aunt and William became a foster child to Thomas Ewing, a family friend. He later married the daughter of Thomas Ewing. Educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he graduated in 1840. During the Mexican War, Sherman was posted in San Francisco. He resigned his military commission in 1853 to become a banker.On May 8, 1861, Sherman wrote to the Secretary of War, offering his services for three years. On June 20, 1861 he accepted the position of Colonel in the Thirteenth Regular Infantry. He assumed command of a brigade in the First Division of McDowell's army under the command of Brigadier General Daniel Tyler. His brigade was stationed at a stone bridge during the battle of First Manassas - Bull Run, and was routed by devastating Confederate cannon fire.In August, 1861, he was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned to the Department of the Cumberland under the command of Brigadier General Robert Anderson. Anderson was in command of Fort Sumter when P.T. Beauregard opened fire upon it, beginning the Civil War.In October, 1861, Sherman relieved Anderson. Sherman then told Secretary of War Cameron that if he had 60,000 men, he would drive the enemy out of the State of Kentucky, and if he had 200,000 men, he would finish the war in that region. Cameron returned to Washington and reported that Sherman required 200,000 men. The report leaked out to newspapers and the story grew to Sherman must be mad. The public accepted as validation that Sherman had always been crazy. On November 12, 1861, Brigadier General Buell relieved Sherman of his command, and Sherman was assigned to St. Louis, Missouri under Major General Halleck. Newspapers in the west continued to harass him by printing reports of insanity and that he was not fit to command. From all this harassment he fell into a grave state of depression but he was at no time insane.