Ohio’s Sherman House Museum displays humanity, artistry of fearsome Civil War general
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman lives on as a larger-than-life determine within the oft-told annals of American army historical past.
The most intimate and unknown particulars of the person behind the legend are uncovered on the Sherman House Museum in Lancaster, Ohio.
It opens for the season at this time, Wednesday, April 10.
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“Sometimes we turn these heroes, like we’ve done with George Washington, almost into gods. I think that does a disservice to them,” Michael Johnson, director of the Sherman House Museum, instructed Fox News Digital.
“I think it needs to be presented that these were ordinary people who did extraordinary things when the moment came, and that’s what set them apart.”
Gen. William T. Sherman was born on this dwelling in Lancaster, Ohio on Feb. 8, 1820. It’s now the Sherman House Museum and opens for the season this yr on April 10, 2024. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Sherman was born within the dwelling in 1820 and lived there till his father died when the longer term West Point cadet and U.S. Army legend, one of 11 youngsters, was simply 9 years outdated.
The general has lengthy been remembered as a fearsome army commander, which included a infamous status within the American south.
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But the legend of the warrior overshadows the considerate artist found on the Sherman House Museum: patron of the theater, Renaissance man and beloved outdated commander known as “Uncle Billy” by his males lengthy after the conflict.
The museum displays a replica of Sherman’s sensible illustration, “Death of Centaur,” which he drew whereas a cadet on the United States Military Academy.
General William Tecumseh Sherman on horseback through the American Civil War, circa 1864. (Buyenlarge/Getty Images)
The authentic nonetheless hangs at West Point at this time.
“Artistry ran through the Sherman family,” mentioned Johnson. “He loved the theater and he loved the arts. He finished top of his class at West Point in art.”
“Artistry ran through the Sherman family. He loved the theater and he loved the arts.”
The museum displays needlepoint by the soldier’s mom, Mary Hoyt Sherman, and 4 chairs carved with scenes from Shakespeare’s performs.
Sherman had the chairs made after the conflict when he lived in New York City, the place he grew to become a distinguished supporter of its well-known theater scene.
“Death of a Centaur,” an illustration by West Point cadet William Tecumseh Sherman. The authentic drawing by the longer term general hangs on the U.S. Military Academy and a replica is discovered on the Sherman House Museum in Lancaster, Ohio. (Michael Johnson/Sherman House Museum photograph of licensed copy from USMA at West Point)
Among different little-known contributions to American historical past: Sherman, whereas residing in New York, personally chosen Ellis Island as the situation to position the Statue of Liberty, gifted by the individuals of France.
The life of the person identified on the Sherman House Museum contrasts sharply with the fearsome wartime chief.
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Sherman led the Union power that overran and burned the little crossroads metropolis of Atlanta to the bottom in November 1864.
It was a cultural watershed occasion in American historical past. Among different issues, the burning of Atlanta impressed the beloved Civil War fictional epic “Gone With the Wind.”
General William T. Sherman was a gifted artist who supported theater. Chairs on the Sherman House Museum in Lancaster, Ohio, embrace depictions of Shakespearean drama the general had made after the Civil War. This chair gives a scene from “Macbeth.” (Michael Johnson/Sherman House Museum)
He then led his troops on a conquest of Georgia all the best way to Savannah. It’s gone down in historical past as Gen. Sherman’s notorious “March to the Sea.”
It’s thought of a harbinger of the “total war” to observe within the 20th century.
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American GIs in World War II marched to victory throughout Europe and Asia supported by some 50,000 Sherman tanks, including to the legend of his title.
Sherman lived an enchanting life earlier than the Civil War, too, mentioned Johnson.
Wiliam T. Sherman was born in 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio. His birthplace is now the Sherman House Museum. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital; Apic/Bridgeman by way of Getty Images)
He graduated from West Point in 1840 and retired from the Army for the primary time in 1853.
In 1859, the person later infamous for ravaging the South took a job as the primary superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy.
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He returned to service for the Union when Louisiana seceded from the Union in January 1861.
The southern establishment the Ohio native helped set up is thought at this time as Louisiana State University.
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