William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Ohio. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1840 and became the head of the Louisiana Academy. After the secession of South Carolina, he visited his brother, Senator John Sherman of Ohio and told him "You [politicians] have got things in a hell of a fix, and you may get them out as best you can....I am going to St. Louis to take care of my family and will have no more to do with it."(6) That position didn't last long, though; as soon as the war began, he enlisted, accepting a position as a colonel to avoid becoming a "political general."(7) As the war was taking its first steps, Sherman warned "You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt-gun. I think this is to be a long war--very long--much longer than any politician thinks."(8)

At the battle of Bull Run, his command fought with the most discipline and as a result, he was awarded a rank of Union commander in Kentucky. In November of 1861, he was ordered to invade Eastern Tennessee. He refused to do so on the basis that he did not have enough men, claiming that he would need at least 200,000 men. During this time, he showed aside of himself prone to temperaments and anxiety fits.(10) By the end of the year, he was home with his wife, considering suicide.