Studying Sherman's life might shed some light on whether or not he was a slave owner.
Sherman was born in 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio. His father was a lawyer and sat on the Ohio Supreme Court. In 1829, his father passed away and 9 yr old Sherman was sent to live with the Ewing family in town, Mr. Ewing was a lawyer. I get the impression that Mrs. Sherman could not raise all the children by herself.
Sherman graduated 6th in his class at West Point in 1840.
He served in Georgia and South Carolina, and in the Mexican-American war. But his lack of a combat assignment discouraged him and may have led to his decision to leave the army in 1853.
In 1850 he married Eleanor "Ellen" Boyle Ewing, a daughter of the family that raised him.
They had 8 kids.
After leaving the army in 1853, Sherman went to work in a St. Louis branch of a bank in San Fransisco. This branch closed in 1857 and he relocated to New York, same bank. The bank failed in 1857, so he turned to the practice of law in Leavensworth, Ks. Again, not successfully.
Sherman was named president of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning in 1859, a military college. We know this college as Louisiana State University. (LSU)
In January 1861, Sherman was required to accept receipt of arms surrendered to the State Militia by the U.S. Arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Instead of complying, he resigned, telling the gov. of Louisiana, "On no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile...to the.. United States."
He went to D.C., probably in hopes of securing a position in the army. President Lincoln was unresponsive to Sherman's concerns of the North's poor state of preparedness for the upcoming war.
Therefore, Sherman became president of the St. Louis Railroad, a streetcar company. This job lasted only a few months, as he was living in a border state as seccesion crisis came to a climax.
In April 1861 Sherman declined an offer from the Lincoln administration to take a position in the war Department that might have resulted in his becoming the Secretary of War.
He offered himself for service in the regular army in May 1861. On June 7th, he was called to Washington D.C.
After the war, July 1865, Sherman was put in charge of the Military Division of the Missouri, which included every territory west of the Mississippi. His main concern was to protect the construction and operation of the railroads from attack by Indians, by any means possible.
In 1866, Sherman was promoted to lieutenant general of the army. When Grant became president of the U.S. in 1869, Sherman was promoted to Commanding General of the United States Army.
Sherman moved his headquarters to St. Louis, Missouri from 1874 to 1876 in order to escape political difficulties.
During his tenure, he established the Command School, now known as the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth.
In 1875, Sherman published his memoirs in two volumes.
Sherman stepped down as commanding general on November 1, 1883, and retired from the army in 1884.
He lived most of the rest of his life in New York City.
Sherman was proposed as a Republican canditate for the presidential election of 1884, but declined, saying, "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve." Such a catagorical rejection of a candidacy is now referred to as a Shermanesque statement. ( I recall President Lyndon B. Johnson saying words to that effect)
Sherman died February 14th, 1891 in New York City. It was at Sherman's funeral that Joseph E. Johnston, serving as pallbearer on that bitterly cold day, refused to wear a hat, became ill and one month later died of pneumonia.
Sherman's body was transported to St. Louis, Missouri where another funeral service was conductedon February 21, 1891, presided over by his son, Thomas Ewing Sherman, a Jesuit priest.
Sherman is buried in Calvary Cemetary in St. Louis.
Did Sherman own slaves? Didn't seem like he had alot of time or money to do so.
--BBF