and lived for a time in New York as agent for the St. Louis firm. In 1858-'9 he was a counsellor-at-law in Leavenworth, Kan., and in the next year became superintendent of the State military academy at Alexandria, La., where he did good work; but when that state seceded from the Union he promptly resigned and returned to St. Louis, where he was for a short time president of the Fifth street railroad.
Of the civil war he took what were then considered extreme views. He regarded President Lincoln's call for 75,000 three-months' men in April, 1861, as trifling with a serious matter, declaring that the rising of the secessionists was not a mob to be put down by the posse comitatus, but a war to be fought out by armies. On 13 May he was commissioned colonel of the 13th infantry, with instructions to report to Gen. Scott at Washington. That officer had matured a plan of campaign, and was about to put it into execution. Sherman was put in command of a brigade in Tyler's division of the army that marched to Bull Run. His brigade comprised the 13th, 69th, and 70th New York and the 2d Wisconsin regiments. The enemy's left had been fairly turned, and Sherman's brigade was hotly engaged, when the Confederates were re-enforced; the National troops made fatal delays, and, struck by panic, the army was soon in full retreat. Sherman's brigade had lost 111 killed, 205 wounded, and 293 missing. On 3 Aug., 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from 17 May, and on 28 Aug. he was sent from the Army of the Potomac to be second in command to Gen. Robert Anderson in Kentucky. Few persons were prepared for the curious problem of Kentucky politics. What has been called the “secession juggle” was at least partially successful. On account of broken health, Gen. Anderson soon asked to be relieved from the command, and he was succeeded by Sherman on 17 Oct. It was expected by the government that the men, to keep Kentucky in the Union, could be recruited in that state, and that the numbers required would be but few; but this expectation was doomed to be disappointed. Sherman looked for a great war, and declared that 60,000 men would be required to drive the enemy out of the state and 200,000 to put an end to the struggle in that region. Most men looked upon this prophetic sagacity as craziness. He was relieved from his command by Gen. Buell on 12 Nov. and ordered to report to Gen. Halleck, commanding the Department of the West. He was placed in command of Benton Barracks. At this time Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was in command of the force to move on Forts Henry and Donelson in February, 1862, and just after the capture of these strongholds Sherman was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. It consisted of six divisions, of which Sherman was in command of the 5th. In the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, 6 and 7 April (see Grant, Ulysses S.), Sherman's men were posted at Shiloh church, and the enemy were so strong that all the detachments were hotly engaged, and Sherman served as a pivot. When the Army of the Ohio came up, during the night, Grant had already ordered Sherman to advance, and when the combined forces moved, the enemy retreated rapidly upon Corinth. The loss in Sherman's division was 2,034. He was wounded in the hand, but did not leave the field, and he richly deserved the praise of Gen. Grant in his official report: “I feel it a duty to a gallant and able officer, Brig.-Gen. W. T. Sherman, to make mention. He was not only with his command during the entire two days of the action, but displayed great judgment and skill in the manage- ment of his men. Although severely wounded in the hand on the first day, his place was never vacant.” And again: “To his individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle.” Gen. Halleck declared that “Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th.” After the battle Gen. Halleck assumed command of all the armies, and advanced slowly upon Corinth, acting rather with the caution of an engineer than with the promptness of a strategist. In the new movement Gen. Sherman was conspicuous for judgment and dash. He was employed constantly where promptness and energy were needed. Two miles in advance of the army, as it was ranged around Corinth, he captured and fortified Russell's house, which is only a mile and a half from Corinth. Deceiving Halleck, the enemy were permitted to evacuate the town and destroy its defences. Sherman was made a major-general of volunteers, to date from 1 May, 1862. On 9 June he was ordered to Grand Junction, a strategic point, where the Memphis and Charleston and the Mississippi Central railroads meet. Memphis was to be a new base. He was to repair the former road, and to guard them both and keep them in running order. Gen. Halleck having been made general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, Grant was, on 15 July, appointed to command the Department of the Tennessee, and he at once ordered Sherman to Memphis, which had been captured by the National flotilla, 6 June, with instructions to put it in a state of defence. Sherman, to secure himself against the machinations of the rebellious inhabitants, directed all who adhered to the Confederate cause to leave the city. He allowed them no trade in cotton, would not permit the use of Confederate money, allowed no force or intimidation to be used to oblige negroes, who had left their masters, to return to them, but made them work for their support. He also effectually suppressed guerilla warfare.
The western armies having advanced to the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, the next step was to capture Vicksburg and thereby open to navigation the Mississippi river. Vicksburg was strongly fortified and garrisoned and was covered by an army commanded by Gen. Pemberton posted behind the Tallahatchie. Grant moved direct from Grand Junction via Holly Springs, McPherson his left from Corinth, and Sherman his right from Memphis to Wyatt, turning Pemberton's left, who retreated to Grenada behind the Yalabusha. Then Grant detached Sherman with one of his brigades back to Memphis to organize a sufficient force out of the new troops there and a division at Helena to move in boats escorted by Admiral Porter's gun-boat fleet to Vicksburg to capture the place while he, Grant, held Pemberton at Grenada. The expedition failed from natural obstacles and the capture of Holly Springs by the enemy, and at the same moment Gen. McClernand arrived to assume command of the expedition by orders of President Lincoln, and the Army of the Tennessee was divided into the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th corps, of which Sherman had the 15th. To clear the flank, the expeditionary force before Vicksburg under McClernand returned in their boats to the mouth of the Arkansas, ascended that river a hundred miles, and carried by assault Fort Hindman, capturing its stores and five thousand prisoners, thereby making the Mississippi safe from molestation. In this movement Sherman bore a conspicuous part. The expedition then returned to the Mississippi river, and Gen. Grant came in person from Memphis to give direction to the operations
