Tag: Sherman (Thomas W.)

Wikipedia says: Thomas West Sherman (March 26, 1813 – December 31, 1879) was a United States Army officer with service during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. While some contemporaries mistakenly identified him as the brother of the more famous General William T. Sherman, modern scholarship notes that the two were not closely related.

…At the start of the Civil War, Sherman was serving as a major in the 3rd Artillery when President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the grade of brigadier general of volunteers on August 6, 1861, to rank from May 17, 1861. Sherman’s nomination to the grade of brigadier general of volunteers was sent by President Abraham Lincoln to the United States Senate on July 31, 1861 and the Senate confirmed the appointment on August 3, 1861. He assumed command of the ground forces in the Port Royal Expedition. Sherman and the naval force under Flag Officer Samuel F. du Pont captured Port Royal in a combined Army/Navy operation.

After briefly commanding the Department of the South, Sherman was sent to the Western Theater. He took command of Major General George H. Thomas’s division during the Siege of Corinth when the latter assumed command of the Right Wing of Major General Henry W. Halleck’s army group. After that he commanded the Defenses of New Orleans before taking command of a division in Major General Nathaniel P. Banks’s army, which he led into action at the Siege of Port Hudson.

During the May 27, 1863 attack on Port Hudson, Sherman was severely wounded, which led to the amputation of his right leg. His injuries were so severe that he was not expected to live, and the newspaper in his hometown of Newport, Rhode Island, printed an extensive obituary for him. For the rest of the war he held administrative commands in Louisiana. Sherman was mustered out of the volunteers on April 30, 1866.

In recognition of his heroism and services, President Andrew Johnson nominated Sherman for appointment to the grade of brevet major general of volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865 and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866. On June 30, 1866, President Johnson nominated Sherman to be appointed to the rank of brevet major general of the United States Army (i.e. Regular Army), to rank from March 13, 1865, and the Senate confirmed the appointment on July 25, 1866.