“some of the very families in whose houses I used to spend some happy days”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American businessman, author, and United States Army general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a general he earned recognition for his command of military strategy but criticism for the harshness of his scorched-earth policies, which he implemented in his military campaign against the Confederate States.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · United States Army general (1820–1891) · military officer · lawyer · banker · writer · military personnel · also William Tecumseh Sherman, William T. Sherman, General Sherman, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Sherman
Born 8 February 1820 · Died 14 February 1891 · Q188936
77 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
14 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 12 entries
“will have to wait on herself or buy a nigger. What will you think of that — our buying niggers?”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
“Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson went there too.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“In my official report of this conflagration, I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and confess I did so pointedly, to shake the faith of his people in him, for he was in my opinion boastful, and professed to be the special champion of South Carolina.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“If you can whip Lee and I can march to the Atlantic I think ol”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I feel anxious about you as I know the great facilities [the Confederates] have of concentration by means of the River and R[ail] Road, but [I] have faith in you—Command me in any way.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“some wise and sudden instinct not to mention retreat,”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“some happy accident might restore you to favor and your true place”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I still think it is to be a long war—very long—much longer than any Politician thinks.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“a population less than should make a good State”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I can handle a hundred thousand men in battle, and take the City of the Sun, but am afraid to manage a lot in the swamp of San Francisco.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
insider.si.edu: William Tecumseh Sherman
- #news
- #headline
2019· 1 entry
Moviefone: William Tecumseh Sherman Beyond the March to the Sea (2019) - Where to Watch
- #news
- #headline
2005· 1 entry
“The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations”
Text from Wikiquote, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1984· 1 entry
That Sherman had planted the "seed for the Agent Orange and Agent Blue programs of food deprivation in Vietnam"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1893· 1 entry
A little more than two years after his death, on Washington's birthday
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1891· 7 entries
Died 1891-02-14.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“If forced to choose between the penitentiary and White House for four years, like old Professor Molinard, 1 would say the penitentiary, thank you”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“I notice in our country, one class of people make war and leave others to fight it out.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is the sooner it will be over.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”
Text from Wikiquote, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:pt
- #multi-edition
“Military fame is — to be killed on the field of battle and have our names spelled wrong in the newspapers.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
1888· 3 entries
Near the end of his life, Sherman published an essay in the North American Review defending the full civil rights of black citizens in the former Confederacy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“my immediate family are strongly Catholic. I am not and cannot be.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Sherman wrote publicly that "my immediate family are strongly Catholic
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1886· 1 entry
After the publication of Grant's memoirs, Sherman produced a "second edition, revised and corrected" of his own memoirs
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1883· 1 entry
And retired from the army on February 8, 1884, at the then-mandatory retirement age of 64
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1881· 1 entry
“. By June 1881 it had become mainstream that General Sherman had said”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1880· 2 entries
Addressed a crowd of more than 10,000 in Columbus, Ohio: "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Sherman organized and accompanied President Rutherford B
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1879· 1 entry
Sherman delivered a wholly inspirational address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, in which he did not use the word hell, nor mention the horrors of war
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1878· 2 entries
Career landmark: board member (1878–1885).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
To join the Jesuits and prepare for the Catholic priesthood caused Sherman profound distress, and he referred to it as a "great calamity"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1876· 1 entry
When the new Secretary of War, Alphonso Taft, promised him greater authority
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1875· 2 entries
Ten years after the end of the Civil War, Sherman became one of the first Civil War generals to publish his memoirs
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Published his memoirs, which became one of the best-known first-hand accounts of the Civil War
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1874· 1 entry
To protect the bison from over-hunting, Sherman helped convince President Grant to use a pocket veto to prevent it from coming into force
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1873· 2 entries
At the height of the Modoc War conflict, Sherman wrote in a private letter that "during an assault, the soldiers can not pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“during an assault, the soldiers can not pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age. As long as resistance is made, death must be meted out, but the moment all resistance ceases, the firing will stop and all survivors turned over to the proper Indian agent”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1871· 2 entries
Career landmark: board member (1871–1874).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Sherman ordered that the leaders of the Warren Wagon Train raid, an attack by a Kiowa and Comanche war party from which Sherman himself had narrowly escaped, be tried for murder in Jacksboro, Texas
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1869· 1 entry
Sherman was appointed Commanding General of the United States Army and promoted to the rank of full general
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1868· 1 entry
Sherman authorized his subordinate in Missouri, Major General Philip Sheridan, to lead the winter campaign of 1868–1869, which included the Battle of Washita River
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1867· 4 entries
“we are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“[i]f I had made up my mind to burn Columbia I would have burnt it with no more feeling than I would a common prairie dog village; but I did not do it”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
That "It is useless to deny that our troops burnt Columbia, for I saw them in the act
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wrote to Grant that "we are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress" of the railroads
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1865· 4 entries
Formally surrendered his army and all the Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Sherman met with Johnston on April 17 at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, to negotiate a Confederate surrender
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
To Thomas, his eldest surviving son, General Sherman said "I don't want you to be a soldier or a priest, but a good useful man", and complained that Thomas's mother Ellen "thinks religion is so important that everything
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“As a rule don't borrow. 'Tis more honest to steal,”
Text from Wikiquote, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1864· 4 entries
With the capture of the city, which Hood had been forced to abandon
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Sherman ordered the city's immediate evacuation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
When Grant went east to serve as the General-in-Chief of the Union Armies, Sherman succeeded him as the commander in the Western Theater
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Took up temporary residence in South Bend, Indiana, in order to have her young family educated at the University of Notre Dame and St
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1863· 1 entry
After a prolonged siege, the Union had achieved a major strategic victory, putting navigation along the Mississippi River entirely under Union control and effectively cutting off the western half of the Confederacy from
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1862· 2 entries
To the Army of West Tennessee as commander of the 5th Division
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And 1863 in the Battle of Fort Henry and the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, the campaigns that led to the fall of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, and the Chattanooga camp
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1861· 1 entry
And then was transferred to the Western Theater
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1860· 1 entry
“Two such races cannot live in harmony save as master and slave.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
1859· 2 entries
Became superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, now Louisiana State University, but resigned when Louisiana seceded from the Union
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Sherman accepted a job as the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy in Pineville, Louisiana, a position he sought at the suggestion of Major Don Carlos Buell and obtained thr
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1858· 1 entry
Moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he worked as the office manager of the law firm established by his brothers-in-law Hugh Ewing and Thomas Ewing Jr
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1856· 1 entry
During the vigilante period, he served briefly as a major general of the California militia
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1853· 2 entries
And entered civilian life as manager of the San Francisco branch of the Bank of Lucas, Turner & Co
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Interrupted his military career to pursue private business ventures, without much success
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1850· 1 entry
Sherman married his foster sister, Ellen Boyle Ewing, who was four years and eight months his junior
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1849· 1 entry
While his army salary was only $70 a month
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1848· 1 entry
For his "meritorious service", his lack of combat experience and relatively slow advancement within the army discouraged him
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1847· 1 entry
Two days before the town of Yerba Buena acquired the new name of "San Francisco"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1842· 1 entry
“I believe in good works rather than faith.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1840· 2 entries
Sherman entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
From the United States Military Academy at West Point
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1820· 3 entries
Born 1820-02-08.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
“[citation needed] This was changed to”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
In Lancaster, Ohio, near the banks of the Hocking River
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event