Probably the second best known of the Union Generals, William Tecumseh Sherman earned a reputation as an eccentric but tough fighter and ruthless leader in the prosecution of total warfare as practiced in the latter stages of the war. Having been born in Ohio, Sherman graduated from West Point with the class of 1840. He served in California during the Mexican War but resigned as a captain in 1853 because of the low pay and poor prospects for promotion endemic in United States Army service at that time. His business enterprises not being entirely successful, Southern secession found him in...