I’ve written about William Tecumseh Sherman before. However, I inspired to share a little more about him as I am partway through Robert L. O’Connell’s wonderful, and relatively short, biography of the American warrior.

Here are 5 facts interesting facts about Mr. Sherman.

  1. His middle name comes from the great Shawnee warrior Tecumseh who fought against the Americans in the War of 1812. This was something I was familiar with because Tecumseh comes up in my APUSH curriculum.

  2. Sherman had 10 other siblings and his father died when he was young, so he and several of his siblings were orphaned out to family and friends. In Sherman’s case, he was adopted by a wealthy, good friend of his father’s named Thomas Ewing. The Ewings also took in William’s brother John, who would go on to become a congressman and the author of the famous (if ineffectual) Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890.

  3. Sherman was one of the first government officials to verify the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in what is now Sacramento. He had been stationed a bit south along the California coast during the Mexican War (he was bummed not to be near where the fighting was). Nevertheless, he visited Sutter, saw what had been discovered, and mailed gold dust with confirmation to Washington, helping to start the California Gold Rush.

  4. Sherman married his foster sister, a woman named Ellen Ewing. They weren’t blood siblings, but to the modern eye it still seems a bit off. And it was a bit off then, too. But they got married anyway in 1850.

  5. Because his foster dad/father-in-law was a very well connected politician from Ohio, many powerful politicians from that era attended their wedding in Washington DC. Their wedding guests included the current president, Zachary Taylor (a military man, like Sherman), members of the cabinet, and congressional giants Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. It was definitely a Whig wedding.

William Tecumseh Sherman was clearly an interesting dude.

And yes, the Sherman tank was named after him.