Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O’Connell (review)

If you want to read a biography of William Tecumseh Sherman that mimics the experience of sitting next to a chatty, albeit well-read, Civil War enthusiast, you could do worse than to read Fierce Patriot. If this sounds like a criticism, it isn’t meant to be one. O’Connell writes in a vivid, conversational, almost irreverent voice, and the result is a readable, if somewhat offbeat, volume that would appeal to the general reader. Whether it breaks new scholarly ground is more debatable.

O’Connell organizes his book into three sections, not chronologically but instead thematically. The first, and by far the longest, is “The Military Strategist,” followed by “The General and His Armies,” and finally “The Man and His Families.” The result is that Sherman’s life unfolds and refolds; we don’t learn about his childhood, for example, until the third section, and at times the book can get repetitive. Too, this lack of clear chronology makes this a book that might be best read by someone already familiar with the basic outlines of Sherman’s life.

O’Connell’s Sherman is a man of deep theatricality, always aware of how his actions appear to others. Sometimes he’s the fatherless Cump; sometimes the powerful Uncle Billy, sometimes he’s prickly; sometimes he’s charismatic. Sherman was “our only true celebrity general” and his self-creation was an act of will, determination, and pragmatism (xii). At the same time, O’Connell characterizes Sherman as a born number two, “a classic wingman,” who was happiest and most productive when reporting to, or collaborating with, someone else (82).

Sherman’s military career, and indeed, his guiding worldview, began with his years at West Point, and many of the friendships and rivalries that defined his life began on the banks of the Hudson. From there we crisscross the United States during the 1840s and 1850s along with the young army officer and later banker—Florida, California, back to the East, back to California, then to New York, St. Louis, and finally Louisiana. This period of few successes and many business reversals weighed heavily on Sherman as he sought to make his way in the world. O’Connell reminds us that Sherman’s professional struggles were mirrored by (and sometimes a result of) his complicated home life.

In many ways, according to O’Connell, the most powerful relationship in Sherman’s life was with Thomas Ewing, his foster father turned father-in-law. Sherman’s peripatetic early career seemed a constant battle for Ewing’s approval; his need to check in with superiors could stem from his relationship with Ewing as patron; and the ever-present tensions in his marriage with Ellen originated in her desire to live close to home, and his initial inability to live up to her father.

O’Connell seems to struggle with addressing Sherman’s feelings about slavery. After all, his move to Louisiana in late 1859 to helm the Louisiana Military Academy seems surprising in light of the pervasive sectionalism of the time. Rather than characterize Sherman as a typical moderate midwesterner on this issue, O’Connell paints him as in a sort of denial about the looming crisis over slavery, pushing it to the sidelines of his ambition and desire to make a name for himself.

The strongest sections of Fierce Patriot are those that describe Sherman’s Civil War years. Here we are witness to Sherman’s two great acts of creation: himself as Uncle Billy, and (in the book’s second section) an Army uniquely suited to the democratic United States. We see Sherman begin the war as “an incomplete military package,” filled with hesitation and self-doubt,” his downward spiral in Kentucky and then finally his pairing with Ulysses S. Grant. Their strengths and weaknesses complemented each other; O’Connell goes so far as to call Grant Sherman’s “soul...