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Born in Lancaster, Ohio, Sherman graduated from West Point in 1840. He was involved in the Seminole War in Florida and was stationed in California as an aide to Stephen Watts Kearney during the Mexican War. During the Civil War, he became famous for the "March to the Sea" burning and destroying a sixty-mile wide front.
As commander of the Division of the Missouri after the Civil War, he promoted the building of the railroad as a solution to the Indian troubles. Sherman wandered through the west with minimal enforcement. Although he never encountered any "hostiles", there were three occasions when trouble was very close. On a trip to Fort Richardson a few hours after he had passed an area Satanta attacked a wagon train, he narrowly missed the fleeing Nez Perce on a trip through Yellowstone and on a journey through Arizona, he unknowingly skirted past fleeing Chiricahuas Apaches.
As a member of the Peace Commission, Sherman signed a number of treaties:
- Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
- Crow Treaty of 1868
- Cheyenne and Arapaho Treaty of 1868
- Navajo Treaty of 1868
- Shoshoni-Bannock Treaty of 1868
When Ulysses Grant was elected President, Sherman was appointed commander-in-chief of the army.
William T. Sherman had a profound effect on western expansion. He was an advocate of total war in suppressing hostilities and his blunt manner often projected a racial prejudice. Sherman was anti-hostile not racist. He died of pneumonia in New York City.
William Tecumseh Sherman is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. The Sons of Union Veterans recently restored the gravesite and painted a nearby flagpole.
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