William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Born in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1820, he trained at West Point and served in the U.S. Army before the Civil War. His career ranged widely: he fought in the Mexican-American War, spent time in business, and briefly led the military school that later became Louisiana State University.

During the Civil War, he became one of the Union’s most important commanders and worked closely with Ulysses S. Grant. He was central to major campaigns in the western theater and is best remembered for the capture of Atlanta and the March to the Sea, operations that helped break Confederate resistance and made him one of the most discussed military figures in American history.

After the war, he served as Commanding General of the U.S. Army and later published memoirs that remain widely read. Admired by some for strategic clarity and criticized by others for the destruction associated with his campaigns, he remains a major figure in the story of the United States in the nineteenth century.