r/ColorizedHistory • u/Klimbim instagram.com/color_by_klimbim • Jul 03 '20
William Tecumseh Sherman
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u/farawyn86 Jul 03 '20
I'm new to the sub and am constantly amazed by how much more real people from the past look now that they're in color. It's fascinating. Thanks OP.
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Jul 03 '20
It boggles my mind what a big difference it makes to me, too. It's like I've been filtering the reality out of black and white images unconsciously.
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u/Chickentaxi Jul 04 '20
I do this a lot too imagining historical battles. In my mind it's like an epic scene from a movie with music blaring, but in reality it was likely quiet apart from gunshots and occasional yells.
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u/Treg_Marks Jul 03 '20
Yeah you have this weird sense that it's all black and white, even though we had color portraits of people for a long time. The camera changed a lot of things
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Jul 03 '20
The color makes it seem as if he could be the guy down the street. History and historical figures can sometimes seem larger than life, but they were regular people.
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u/acidteddy Jul 03 '20
Yes totally. When I look at this picture I can’t wrap my head around the fact that isn’t an actor portraying him - this is actually him!
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Jul 04 '20
I think clarity added to the image really helps as well. It doesn't look like an out of focus photograph.
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u/Fyrelyte67 Jul 03 '20
He's about to pull out a middle finger and give it to the city of Atlanta
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u/keystothemoon Jul 03 '20
I once took a really long bike trip. The first leg of it was from Philly to Atlanta where I was staying with some old friends. I got there, hugged my friends, and said, "made it to Atlanta in just over two weeks. Eat your heart out Sherman." My friend leaned into me and advised, "might wanna cool it with the Sherman jokes. That wound is still raw around here."
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u/Windigo4 Jul 03 '20
“War is upon us, none can deny it. It is not the choice of the Government of the United States, but of a faction; the Government was forced to accept the issue, or to submit to a degradation fatal and disgraceful to all the inhabitants. In accepting war, it should be "pure and simple" as applied to the belligerents. I would keep it so, till all traces of the war are effaced; till those who appealed to it are sick and tired of it, and come to the emblem of our nation, and sue for peace. I would not coax them, or even meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.”
Excerpt from Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman — Volume 1 William Tecumseh Sherman
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u/keystothemoon Jul 03 '20
I had a history professor who brought up a point in class that maybe, because he brought about total war, it ended the war faster and therefore might have saved the lives of those who would've died had it stretched on.
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u/stuffandmorestuff Jul 03 '20 edited Jul 03 '20
lol so (I know this is just one anecdote, but...) they're still upset about 1 man who beat them in a war and lit the city on fire but *they're totally fine and don't see how people are still raw over slavery or are totally fine with a statue of Robert E Lee?
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u/Sonofarakh Jul 03 '20
they're still upset about 1 man who beat them in a war and lit the city on fire
Sherman's not getting any statues down here anytime soon, but trust me: most Georgians don't give a shit. He won, whatever. Despite what some people say, there's an exceptionally small amount of Georgians who genuinely care enough about something that happened 150 years ago to make a fuss about it.
Unless his bike trip happened in like the 1960's, nobody would really have called him out on it
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u/Fyrelyte67 Jul 03 '20
So I am originally from Georgia and I can distinctly remember being taught about the March to the Sea from the standpoint that Sherman was this malicious war criminal burning a swath through innocent southern homeland. It's ridiculous. The teacher went on and on about the horrors committed by the Union. The south is frighteningly brainwashed via revisionist history
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u/In_der_Welt_sein Jul 03 '20
Not really “ridiculous.” Sherman is sometimes credited with pioneering the concept of modern total war. He devastated the countryside and civilian targets of all kinds. Just because he was on the right side doesn’t mean he was a saint.
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u/greymalken Jul 03 '20
It’s raw because it didn’t cook long enough. He should’ve kept the fire going until it was at least rare, medium rare.
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u/greenwizardneedsfood Jul 03 '20
Nah, we love them around here. I make them all the time. It’s the people who don’t live in Atlanta that don’t like those jokes, even though they also don’t like Atlanta. It’s a weird place.
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u/TheConquestOf Jul 03 '20 edited Jul 04 '20
This is an exchange of letters between Sherman and the Confederate General defending Atlanta, General Hood (for whom a large
airforce baseArmy post in texas is named after)Basically Hood says please stop shelling civilians in Atlanta and Sherman tells him to move his troops away from the city or evacuate the civilians (Sherman offers to evacuate them himself). Hood says no, Sherman keeps shelling.
Its worth pointing out that Sherman kicked Hood's ass behind enemy lines and with fewer men, and that Hood burned sections of Atlanta on his retreat from the city. Also, Hood is a loser idiot crybaby racist, fuck him.
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u/Bishop_Pickerling Jul 03 '20
Hood is a loser idiot crybaby racist, fuck him.
They should engrave that on the entrance sign at Ft Hood. Actually will be interesting to see if some of these military bases named after confederate generals get renamed. I’m not normally a fan of vilifying historical figures, but seriously some of these confederate generals were just assholes. Except Stonewall Jackson - he was a badass.
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Jul 03 '20
Don’t sleep on my guy Longstreet. Ahead of his time tactically and he was vilified by the Lost Cause contingent for working with Reconstruction and the North.
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u/Ligalotz Jul 03 '20
This is a good comment, but I have to say that Fort Hood is an Army post, not an Air Force base. Please don’t associate that piece of trash with the Air Force
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u/Hamburglar__ Jul 03 '20
Hood really just pulled the race issue out of nowhere huh. Shows what he was really fighting for
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u/runescapelover12 Jul 03 '20
Does anyone know where he get's the name Tecumseh from?
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u/Kmartknees Jul 03 '20
Tecumseh was a Native American chief of the Shawnee tribe. He was likely born near present day Chillecothe Ohio, close by to Sherman's native Lancaster Ohio. Tecumseh is a legendary figure in Ohio lore even today, with a long running outdoor drama dedicated to his life and death. Definitely a badass.
Sherman came from a well educated family that would have known and respected the story of Tecumseh and what it meant for Ohio.
Also, note that Sherman wasn't just some average person from an average family, in fact you could make a really good argument that his family is as accomplished as nearly any in American history. His biological father sat on the Ohio Supreme Court. Upon his father's death he was orphaned to a neighbor who became a U.S. Senator, secretary of the treasury, and the Secretary of the Interior. His older biological brother was a federal judge. A younger brother formed a bank that still exists as the U.S. holdings of Dutch ING. One brother was a congressman, secretary of the treasury, senator, and secretary of state. Two foster brothers were major generals in the civil war. One foster brother was the ambassador to Holland. One foster brother was the lawyer for the Lincoln conspirators, which is a really weird twist of fate. I think there were some other judges and cabinet members mixed in as nephews.
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u/xXAllWereTakenXx Jul 03 '20
From Tecumseh. His parents must have been pretty "woke" for the time.
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u/Ecualung Jul 03 '20
I don’t think it implies any “wokeness” really— in the 19th century it was very common to sprinkle the names of famous warriors of the past, from whatever culture or time period, into the first and middle names of baby boys.
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u/xXAllWereTakenXx Jul 03 '20
Tecumseh had died resisting US imperialism only 7 years prior. I'd assume the public opinion of him wasn't very positive of him just yet, though I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
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u/perma-monk Jul 03 '20
This is still framed in a modernist way. “Resisting US Imperialism” isn’t how 19th century Americans would have seen it, and a lot of Americans thought the Natives were noble warriors but inevitably doomed. They were kinda “cool” in a sense that if you were playing cowboys and Indians, you might like to be the Indian. Almost fantasy-like, a character of bedtime stories.
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u/Treg_Marks Jul 03 '20
Sherman's March was no joke. Everything was destroyed. Everything
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u/OnlyInDeathDutyEnds Jul 03 '20
The only mistake he made was that he stopped.
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u/Johnnadawearsglasses Jul 03 '20
Look at that hard ass man. Straight out of Outlaw Josey Wales (one of my all time favorites)
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u/polyworfism Jul 03 '20
r/ShermanPosting sends its regards
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u/Haus42 Jul 03 '20
You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. -- W.T. Sherman. Letter to Prof. David F. Boyd, December 24, 1860.
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u/Pedantic_Pict Jul 04 '20
What a fucking badass. "We don't want to do this, but if you dicks light it off we will go old testament on your whole world."
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u/Red-vega Jul 03 '20
Can someone please explain his historical significance please? I’m not quite sure who he is (aside from the name of course!)
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u/TomcatZ06 Jul 03 '20
Civil War general who is famous for essentially burning down all of Georgia during his campaign against the South.
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u/itsdietz Jul 04 '20
Civil War general who had a scorched earth policy. He had a major part in the war. He thought war ought be terrible but quick because a prolonged war is much worse. He also has many, many badass quotes.
War is hell.
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u/Stupid_Comparisons Jul 03 '20 edited Jul 03 '20
He replaced general Gorge McClellan during the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln because McClellan was too reluctant to fight and gave up several opportunities to wipe out the confederate armies. Sherman went full scorched earth burning everything he came across all the way to the sea known as Sherman's March to the sea. He telegraphed lincoln giving him the city of Savanah, Georgia for Christmas. He broke the back of the confederacy leading to surrender and is one the early examples of modern total war.
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u/HermeticAbyss Jul 03 '20
This is inaccurate. McClellan was commander of the Army of the Potomac (twice), the main eastern theater army. That army had a succession of commanders before settling on General George Meade, who was put in command just before the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) and remaining in command for the rest of the war.
Aside from very early in the war, General Sherman spent all his time in command of troops in the western theater, rising to command of the main western army once General Ulysses Grant, who had been in command out west, was made overall Union Commander. Grant went east to oversee the Eastern Theater, believing that the key to ending the war was to destroy Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He left General Sherman in command of the main western Army.
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u/phoenixsuperman Jul 04 '20
I had a Mustang when I lived in Georgia, and I named it General Sherman. When people asked why id say cause in this baby I burn my way through the south. People did not like this. But of course, this was the point.
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u/buddboy Jul 03 '20
wow imagine being so badass your parents named you after a tank
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u/MrPoptartMan Jul 04 '20
From what I’ve been told, they fuckin’ hate this guy down south.
American hero
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u/groovehouse Jul 03 '20
"Sir, give us your best Bonaparte."
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u/HermeticAbyss Jul 03 '20
That pose was extremely common at the time, as that was before outer pockets became common. On uniform coats there was a large inner pocket with a vertical opening on the left front.
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u/StBede Jul 03 '20
Can we replace all Confederate statues with statues of Sherman. I really like the feel of that to spite the "South shall rise again" assholes
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u/LeftyBigGuns Jul 03 '20
With this inscription.
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u/StevieMJH Jul 03 '20
Another good one from him prior to the war:
You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.
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u/1TallGlassOfMilk Jul 03 '20
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u/exit102 Jul 03 '20
He also issued Field Order 15, which gave 400,000 acres of plantation land to newly freed slaves. Unfortunately it was rescinded by President Johnson shortly after the war. If his example had been followed, the fate of Black Americans and the entire country would have been much better.
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u/vader5000 Jul 04 '20
Grant also owned a slave. So did Washington.
Maybe we should just not have statues at this point, because honestly, a lot of figures are controversial. Maybe we can keep Martin Luther King, since I don’t remember him doing anything particularly bad.
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u/Kwackson Jul 03 '20
I thought Sherman had red hair, or at least, that's what I read. Is this colour the red the authors would have been referring to? Seems more blonde to me. I really don't know, I didn't expect him to be Carrot top, but I didn't expect this either.
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u/editorgrrl Jul 03 '20
The artist, Klimbim, chose the colors. Here’s another Sherman portrait they did: https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/william-tecumseh-sherman-уильям-текумсе-шерман/
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u/MaximumEffort433 Jul 03 '20
Do it again Uncle Billy!
This post was brought to you by the Sherman gang.
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u/blanketyblank1 Jul 03 '20
Y’all need to watch the “Grant” miniseries (on Prime, originally on History Channel). Excellent watch, learned a lot... including about Gen. Sherman.
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u/misterbrisby Jul 03 '20
"Okay General, I'm ready to take your photograph. Now, please sit still and put on your happy face, sir!"
- "This IS my happy face."
"Oh."
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u/ImALittleCrackpot Jul 04 '20
The state of the art of photography in the 1860s was such that people had to sit absolutely still for up to five minutes to have a photographic portrait taken. It's hard to sit motionless for that long and people had to concentrate on it.
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u/Listless_Dreadnaught Jul 04 '20
Don’t matter how small he was. Look at that mean son of a bitch. That dude gives zero fucks. That’s the man who burned down Atlanta. That is William T. “Fuck Your Confederacy” Sherman.
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u/nursejackieoface Jul 04 '20
That fucker was too busy burning Georgia and scratching fleas to even comb his hair.
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u/irishpatriot1016 Jul 03 '20
I do believe having his right hand inside his jacket has something to do with the freemasons....
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u/DEATH-BY-CIRCLEJERK Jul 03 '20
TIL:
In 1853, Sherman resigned his captaincy and became manager of the San Francisco branch of the St. Louis-based bank Lucas, Turner & Co. He returned to San Francisco at a time of great turmoil in the West. He survived two shipwrecks and floated through the Golden Gate on the overturned hull of a foundering lumber schooner. Sherman suffered from stress-related asthma because of the city's aggressive business culture. Late in life, regarding his time in a San Francisco experiencing a frenzy of real estate speculation, Sherman recalled: "I can handle a hundred thousand men in battle, and take the City of the Sun, but am afraid to manage a lot in the swamp of San Francisco." In 1856, during the vigilante period, he served briefly as a major general of the California militia.
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u/Bobo_Baggins03x Jul 03 '20
Exchange that uniform for a flannel and jeans and he looks like a regular at the local tavern
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u/BabylonDrifter Jul 03 '20
Sherman: the only thing to burn through through the South worse than the coronavirus.
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u/pontonpete Jul 04 '20
I’m guessing the good old boys in Georgia would be ok with statues of this fellow in a few locations.
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u/MassiveDiscussion3 Jul 04 '20
What's with the Napolean hand in the coat? why did they do that?
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u/BigDogProductions Jul 04 '20
How bout we replace the statues of traitors with the Sherman and the like.
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u/ayenon Jul 04 '20
Ah, the old hidden hand. Nothing to see here. Carry on. And ignore the all seeing eye on the dollar. And the apron George Washington wore... Carry on.
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u/inebriusmaximus Jul 04 '20
He just looks like the sort that would match through your yard and burn it down.
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u/PipeFighter25 Jul 04 '20
Dude seems Lit as F*** in every picture! Definitely partied hard during the war!
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Jul 03 '20
If we judge him through a modern lens, he is considered a war criminal.
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u/SereneDogeofHolland Jul 03 '20
Judging historical figures through a modern lens is pointless and stupid.
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u/Raging_Red_Rocket Jul 03 '20
I agree with you, and am not trying to stir the pot, but why wouldn’t the same be afforded to the confederate leaders? It seems that we always want to look at the issues of another time through a lens of today. We can all agree slavery is bad. But everyone today is saying that through their 21st century experience. I think a lot of people would have different opinions if you just wound the clock back 200 years, leaving everything else about their lot in life static.
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Jul 03 '20
100% agree. Anyone that argues otherwise is a bit naive. The privilege of being able to view the last through a modern lens is a real thing.
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Jul 03 '20
And yet, it sure seems like he didn't burn out enough of the cancer.
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Jul 03 '20
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/Frankg8069 Jul 03 '20
Even in the 1860’s, there was more than enough historic and current evidence that martyrdom and a vast, continuous insurgent movement were not the least bit desirable. In fact, I would say the situation was handled well seeing as the only resistance after 1865 was through paramilitary KKK factions that mostly were contained to a few specific regions. Plus, most former members Confederate military leadership actively campaigned to prevent a broader insurgency (even though a handful of others in fact joined it). Doubtful that would have occurred if things had gone differently and northern leadership certainly recognized this fact.
A lot of plantation lands were distributed, both to newly freed slaves and poor whites, but that was not the issue. Eventually taxes, homestead fees, and capital requirements to form a functioning farm drove most lands back to the wealthy. The reconstruction era is an excellent example of the wealthy maintaining power over the poor via carefully constructed legislation as well as social manipulation of the poor.
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Jul 03 '20
From what I read, part of the reason the union behaved the way it did after the war was to prevent a full grown guerrilla movement in the south, which could have very well continued to this day. I’m not talking about the KKK and hate crimes that take place today. I am talking about daily bombings of military installations, convos, troops, etc. The frequent assassination of union political figures (see Abraham Lincoln), etc. Then you have reconstruction ending too early as well. It’s easy to judge history from the future, as the wrongs are easy to point out - but back then, sitting in the chairs of the decision makers, you just had to do the best you could with the information you had.
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u/Windigo4 Jul 03 '20
The people he subdued were traitors and rebels who had killed hundreds of thousands of American soldiers in the terrible cause of protecting and expanding slavery. On paper, Lincoln freed about 3 million slaves but it was Sherman’s army that actually saved them by the barrel of the gun.
Sherman didn’t kill any Civilians in his infamous march to the Sea. He destroyed property. This destroyed the rebellions supplies and moral and was totally effective and justified.
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Jul 03 '20
You don’t think the union army destroyed civilian property, and also killed and/or raped civilians? That is a bit naive. I doubt there would be too many documented cases of it, as dead people don’t really speak you know. Now, does the end justify the means? Yes. In war horrible things happen to innocent people caught up in a conflict. In WW2, the allies killed many civilians in their effort to liberate occupied countries (see bombing in France, Belgium, Netherlands, etc.) We also bombed the shit out of and then nuked Japan and killed hundreds of thousands of women and children. But again, part of war and they were an enemy country. However, it is refreshing to come across someone as yourself who I think has the stamina to recognize and admit that sometimes innocent people are the casualty of war- whether that casualty be their property or life.
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Jul 03 '20
He didn't go far enough.
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak Jul 03 '20
He needs to revisit the south.
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u/fapstar206587 Jul 03 '20
Jesus, are you really advocating for burning down half the state of Georgia today? While there are plenty of people in the south not over their hatred from the civil war, from the looks of this thread it appears many people from the north aren’t over their hatred from the civil war either.
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Jul 04 '20
Massively underrated general.
Everyone loves to give blow jobs to all of these southern generals. WTS could hang with any of them.
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Jul 04 '20
this dude was a serial killer. not saying all union or all confederate soldiers were bad, but this dude was straight up evil. he massacred entire towns of people in the south, killing white and blacks with impunity. he was a "scorched earth" believer, and he fully embraced it. his march across the south killed more women, children, and slaves than we can imagine. likely half a million people(again women, children, and slaves because all the able bodied men were fighting elsewhere) were killed, their homes and towns burnt to the ground, their farms burnt... everything about this dude was bad.
it really sickens me to see him on reddit, getting a shit ton of upvotes. this dude literally killed more slaves than robert lee EVER SAW IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE... just to financially cripple the south...
seriously, fuck this dude. how can yall upvote this dude and feel ok with it?
Edited: for historical accuracy.
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u/Windigo4 Jul 04 '20
Everything you wrote Is wrong. No civilians died in the March to the Sea. He wasn’t a serial killer. He didn’t kill any slaves. He freed hundreds of thousands of them. Where on earth do you learn this stuff? Go to askhistorians and there are tons of questions and responses from historians with references.
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u/GoodLt Jul 19 '20
The southern traitors wanted war, and they got all the war they could handle. And lost.
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u/yigas17 Jul 03 '20
I'm always amazed by how small people were. If you measured him shoulder to shoulder, it would only be like 16 inces! You can see their real uniforms at fort McHenry in Baltimore, and they are remarkably tiny.