Military career before and after the civil war. This talk is part of the university of Mary Washington great lives lecture series. [applause] good evening and welcome to the great lives lecture, one of the most controversial figures in civil war history, williams tecumseh sherman. This was helped in part by our good friends. Speaking this evening, mr. Oconnell, who received his degrees from the university of virginia, which is where i first met bob as a fellow graduate student. Obviously, many years ago. [laughter] in fact, Lyndon Johnson was president of the united state. Let me emphasize to these students that this was Lyndon Johnson, not andrew johnson. [laughter] [applause] in any case, bob has fashioned a very distinguished career, including 30 years with the intelligence community, where he held significant assignments, including arms control and a member of the delegation on the disarmament, and he has also taught to 2004. He was in monterey, california. A prolific scholar and writer, the author of several works, one novel and histories. The last of those, fierce patriot the tangled lives of William Tecumseh sherman, a New York Times bestseller. And it was also the recipient of a 2015 award for excellence in civil war biography. At the time of its publication, he received widespread praise. It was called, a remarkable and remarkably original work on one of the people that truly defined america. The National Review asserted that, it is hard to imagine any other biography capturing sherman in such an enlightening fashion. The wall street journal called a sharply drawn and compulsive march through shermans psyche. And evan thomas claimed it as , andprising, wise, clever powerful book. It is a pleasure to welcome one of the foremost military historians, Professor Robert oconnell. [applause] mr. Oconnell thank you for coming. This is a Wonderful Program and the great lives series, it is something that seems to be as much for the community as it is for the academic community, and that is a wonderful thing. I have known bill for 50 years. We were both graduate students at the university of virginia. Before i get into sherman, i just want to, in the spirit of biography i want to talk about my past a bit and my relationship with bill. When i first met bill, he struck me as a very focused guy and he was in biography. He fell into a much beloved figure in his product was the to vrecreate fire these of Virginia Governor biographies of Virginia Governors. I was more interested in conceptual history, the idea of studying concepts and ideas. And basically a boiled down to American Intellectual history. I should have known that there may have been a problem. It was the second iraq war, this is sounded stuff sounded good, but falling asleep reading it. I should have known something was wrong there. Bill thrived and stayed at the academy and because i was foolish enough to study military history, there was not much in universities for that. I ended up finding a job in the intelligence community. A 30 year career in the intelligence community, honestly i do not think i will be telling you any classified information, for me was like a perpetual life in high school. Most intelligence agencies looked like my high school, which is scary. Anyway, i had extra time. Unlike most jobs, if you take your work home from the intelligence community, they will arrest you. I continued to write and get interested in writing history. I was published, but it was conceptual stuff, a history of weapons and the idea behind weapons. I wrote a book on the origins of war. Which i think is important because i discovered contacts with Edward Wilson at harvard with really, ants invented war. I have a whole chapter on ants. You can imagine how well it sold. [laughter] most of these books did not sell at all and gradually as the industry got tougher, it became more important to try to get some kind of sales out of these books. At which point, i discovered biography. And i really thought that this really made a lot of sense. One of the problems, one of the central problems with history as a discipline is how few people read it. Academic historians wander through the last century, wondering if they were crusaders for social justice, and have narrowed the field accordingly. This is reflected by the hated the oracle sophisticated historical analogies and have you how few historians are noted in decisions. Where are the daniel boorstins, or Henry Kissinger . One fashion of history remains, biography. Why . I think because, in the ultimate sense, it is a tory. Story. We are storytelling animals. Because, when you think about it , we have been around for years. How do you remember stuff people have told you . We are natural storytellers and he can fit those stories into some sort of cognitive set that will allow you to recall stuff. Story is important in the way that the mind works, i cannot prove that, but it is my story and i am sticking to it. I think probably, one of the reasons biography continues to work is that it basically helps things in ways, vivid ways, and in ways that make sense to people. I think it is significant that the list synonym for biography is life story. Every life has a beginning and end, they have crises that people can relate to. And when you finish a biography, it leaves you with a feeling that you have gotten to know a person. It holds together and helps you remember. That is always a problem for me as a historian. Hopefully i will leave you with a little bit of that tonight. Rather than approach our topic in many facets of its existence, because he really lived a lollapalooza of a life, to do this i had to divide the book into three separate stories. His military career, and his personal life, but i cannot do that tonight. I had to come up with something. I do not want to tell you just a little bit about sherman. His whole life is interesting. I needed to come up with a motive that would hold this together. I thought i would do it like my life as a manic depressive. Up and down. But i do not think that sherman was really crazy. He was extremely ambitious. And because he was ambitious, when his career took a down fall, nosedive, he got very depressed. It took longer for him to succeed. You can raise the question, was it his jumpy personality that caused his crazy life, or his crazy life that cause his personality . It is a question and egg it is a chicken and egg question, we may never know. So i started thinking about, his life as a roller coaster. It made sense. It is true, the invention of roller coasters was contemporaneous with shermans existence, and it may be possible that he rode a roller coaster, but i cannot prove that. He lived a life on a roller coaster. I remember, we went out to bush gardens and my kids wanted to ride this ride and after about five times i was done for the day. I was ruined. You can imagine what William Tecumseh shermans life was like, up and down. It begins in ohio, but he comes from a very good connecticut family. His great uncle was roger sherman, who was the only person i believe to sign the declaration of independence and articles of confederation, and the u. S. Constitution. His father, Charles Sherman and mary sherman, literally walked from connecticut to lancaster, ohio where they ended up. But he was already, he had studied at you yale. And he had a law degree, said he was like a happy a yuppy pioneer. They came to lancaster. They had originally got to the fire lands of ohio, the land of the state of connecticut was granted in ohio for citizens who had suffered because the british burned so much of coastal connecticut, but there were too many indians out there, so they went to lancaster. This is on the foothills of the appalachians, south of columbus. We went there this year, i did a similar talk at shermans birthplace. It is a nice place and he probably had a good life there. He did well. Charles shermans law practice derived thrived, and he went to the ohio supreme court, but he had to read ride circuit. But when he was riding circuit, he got sick and died and left his wife with 11 children and no means of support. What was she supposed to do . Live in a shoe . [applause] [laughter] there were big problems. And what happened, this is probably that something that many of you do not remember, that people farmed out. If there was an unexpected death in the family and eventually, more prosperous people came and helped. The germans lived just down the hill shermans lived just down the hill from charless best friend. He would become an important politician a huge man that they. A huge man that theycalled the salt boiler. He showed up and said, i am willing to take a child. And he asked, who should i take . And one daughter said, take tec, he is the brightest. The family he leaves was a remarkable family. 11 children, you have john sherman, the author of the antitrust act and future chairman of the treasury. And a founder of equitable life. And finally, William Tecumseh sherman, who ended up living with the ewing family. They were very bright people. Thomas was extremely religious and extremely catholic. They basically lay down the law is William Tecumseh sherman comes here to live, he needs to be baptized. And there being no saint tecumseh, he needed a name that would coincide with a site saint. Incidentally, mary sherman did not go to the baptism. At any rate measurement has a good existence. The ewings are nice people. They were very religious. The only toys they got were rosary beads. But they had a very nice existing and it was an interesting one, because william starts living with them when he is nine years old. Among the children was allen, she is five years old. She is destined to be shermans lifetime companion. Usually it is not a good career move to mary your sister. Put it worked out for sure. That williamme turns 16, it is apparent that ellen is becoming more interested in him. She is around 12. They could have simply thrown him out of the house, but what they did, in typical fashion, he optimized the situation by giving him an appointment to west point. He got him out of the house, and to a place where he would not be coming home a lot. Anyway, sherman loved it. He was a good cadet, very bright. And because the ewings were who they were, they shared opportunities with sherman that they were sharing with their own children. He arrived and there was really no problem academically. On the other hand, he was not like robert e. Lee, a spotless cadet. I think an audience there is a friend of mine, and he used to run down the regal me with tales of his days at west point when he was always skating on the edge of getting thrown out, and never did. He also taught me that you should fall asleep with your eyes wide open, a good trick at west point, apparently. Anyway, sherman got through west point and things began to rise. He goes to war, does not have combat experience with it, but it turns out well. It was the bloodiest indian war we ever fought. But sherman does well and he is liked by superiors and because thomas ewing is getting more important, sherman is appointed to lieutenant. He moves to South Carolina where he is at formal greek fort mouldry, which is actually still there. And he spends a lot of time reading, painting, and he socializes with the local aristocracy who likes military officers because they come in nice uniforms and brighten up the party. Sherman is cynical about the aristocracy, but he does not really say much that indicates that he does not like slavery. In fact, he basically says, that the slaves are better behaved than he thought they would be. At this point though, the roller coaster goes down. This is 1845. The mexican war starts, and sherman cannot find a combat role. He is a recruiter for some time. He finally work a deal where he can go to california and then there is an epic journey where he goes to south america, a group of americans, officers arriving in california. One of his traveling companions is a guy destined for the army. They are quite competitive. And there is a tiny number of these people and if you have been to california, it is big, so there was a lot of trouble asserting themselves. But an interesting thing happened as sherman was the paymaster. One day his Commanding Officer calls him and says, sherman, you are a civil engineer. I want you to find out something. He said this gentleman has , brought a bag of yellow rocks, he thinks they may be gold. Is it gold . Sherman says, i will tell you, get me a hammer. He hit it and it did not shatter. It is gold. So sherman suggests that a sound the rocks send the rocks east. They arrived in the senate. Interesting yellow rocks and this sets off the gold rush. Within a year, 50,000 americans find their way to california and they take over. Not the u. S. Army. Most troops desert to go to the gold fields. And inflation is so bad, that they can barely survived, so they have to go out and contract themselves out. Sherman contracted himself out as a surveyor. He is getting depressed about the army. He has been writing back and forth with ellen. He is getting older and he is out in california. She is miserable. And very suddenly, he gets his Commanding Officer, he says, go back to washington. So he goes back and by this point thomas ewing is secretary of the interior. Alan ellen is apparently feeding her parity parakeet, and this is the moment, if it was a movie elvis would be singing, it is now or never. So, sherman comes and they get married. The ceremony is great. The president , Zachary Taylor, shows up with all of his cabinet. Ellen gets so excited that she kisses the president , which is not protocol. And things look great, except a month later Zachary Taylor goes to the dedication of the washington monument, the beginning of it, and he has milk and sickens and dies. Ewing is out of the cabin and shermans career is going downhill. He has no combat experience. He started the gold rush, but nobody will give him credit for that. So things go from bad to worse, to the point where he finally quits the army and he becomes, wherever he goes and he has always loved st. Louis, he impresses. Louis bankers are impressed with these two st. Louis bankers are impressed with him, you have gone to california, lets open a bank. So he goes to san francisco. Meanwhile, his brother is doing great. He opens a firm. I think it is called hallock and billings. He is doing well. But, sherman does not do so well in the banking industry. By this time, the gold rush is petering out. Fortunately, sherman is known militarily as a risk taker, but he is a tactical risk taker. He is able to keep the bank afloat. But he was caught in 1857, in 1857 crash, and soon he finds himself trying to be a lawyer in kansas. He was a terrible lawyer. He met the chief justice of the Kansas State Supreme Court and to the guy said, you seem like a smart guy, you are in. That was it. He is helpless as a lawyer and gradually he gets to the point where he is taking care of property for thomas ewing. Again, he reached a low point in his career. But, never without purpose. In the process of going back and forth to california, both he and ellen had been shipwrecked three times. It is not surprising that sherman wrote an extensive paper on what a good idea it would be to have a transcontinental railroad. He sent it to john who has risen an amazingly in politics, and he is a u. S. Representative. Again, sherman is not happy. One day he is out riding and runs into in army unit and a guy that he knew invited him to join them and go camping. He realizes that he wants to be back in the army. He does everything he can to get in, but he cannot. However, he goes through braxton, a confederate general, who gets him a job to be the first head of something called the Louisiana Seminary learning and military academy. Sherman, as i read his letters from leavenworth, it was as if the issue of slavery did not exist. This is bleeding kansas and he did not notice it. He never asked himself, i wonder why louisiana would be starting a military academy righthe just right now. He just went down and set it up. The kids loved him. By the end of the time, he is telling stories of the front ier, california, and has everything running well. There is a problem. He completely missed his session. The night that he learned that South Carolina had seceded, he is with his friend and fellow teacher, and one of the subordinates, david french this Louisiana Institute grew into Louisiana State university. David boyd was the first chancellor of lsu, but uncle Billy Sherman started the place, which is something louisiana does not admit to too much. [laughter] this is how boyd described sherman. Sherman was such a nationalist that he had to block out the image of slavery and its dangers to the nation. He cannot face the fact that it might tear the country apart. Boyd said he burst out crying like a child, basing his room in a nervous way. He returned and said, boyd, you people in the south dont know what you are doing. You think you can tear to pieces this great union without war . There will be bloodshed. The north can make a locomotive or railroad car. Hardly a yard of cloth or shoe can you make the review are bound to fail. Only your spirit of determination knows that you are prepared for war. That was depressing considering how clueless he was about slavery. He goes north. He cannot find the right command. He is a valuable commodity, suddenly, because the union needs trained military officers. John, who is becoming more significant as a politician, gets him an appointment with abe lincoln. They go to the white house. Lincoln is in a room full of people, Office Keepers of one sort or another finally wanders over to john and sherman and sits down within. John says, this is my brother from louisiana. He might be able to tell you something about what they are doing. Lincoln says, how were they getting along . Sherman replies, they think they are getting along swimmingly. They are preparing for war. To which lincoln smiles and says, i guess we managed. This shocks sherman. When they leave without any offer of command, sherman goes ballistic on william,