Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject History - America, grade: 1, University of Alaska Anchorage, course: HIST 478, language: English, abstract: Controversial was General William T. Sherman already during his life time. In the North admired and loved, in the South feared and hated, General Sherman sought to end the Civil War fast through the destruction of the support system of the Confederates. He recognized early on that modern warfare had to include the civilian population as his ‘March to the Sea’ showed and in many aspects it was very successful. General Sherman plays an important and outstanding role in the military leadership of the Civil War on both sides. The character-forming years of childhood and adolescence of the “red-haired, impulsive Ohioan named William Tecumseh "Cump" Sherman” gives us a rare glimpse into the very private yet public persona.