Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/534

502 cause of some legislative restriction. Thomas Jef- ferson spoke of him as " a man who never said a foolish thing"; and Nathaniel Macon declared that " he had more common sense than any man I have ever known." In early life he united with the Congregational church in Stonington, and through his long career he remained a devout and practical Christian. Mr. Sherman was twice married, and among his descendants are Senators William 51. Evarts and George P. Hoar. His nephew. Roger Minot, lawyer, b. in Woburn. Max.. 2-3 May. 1773: d. in Fail-field, Conn.. 30 Dec., 1844, was graduated at Yale in 1792. and served as tutor there during 1795. He was ad- mitted to the bar at Fairfield in 1796, was a member of the general assembly in 1798 and of the state senate in 1814-'18, and of the Hartford convention of 1814. He was judge of the superior court and the supreme court of errors in 1840-'2. liou'cr's grandson. John, clergyman, b. in New Haven, Conn., in 1772; d. in Trenton Falls. N. Y., 2 Aug.. I*-.'*', was graduated at Yale in 1793. be- came pa-ior of the 1st church at Mansfield. Conn.. in K'.IT, and remained in this relation until iso.~>, when he withdrew from it because of his adoption of Unitarian views. He was for a short time pastor of a Unitarian church at Trenton Falls, the first of that denomination that was organized in the state of New York. At this place he established and fur several years conducted a flourishing academy. He was the author of a work entitled " One God in One Person Only," which is said to hare been the first elaborate defence of Unitarian- i-in that appeared in New England (1805); also of "The Philosophy of Language' Illustrated " iis2(i>: "Description of Trenton FalN " (1827): and of various minor publications.

SHERMAN, Thomas West, soldier, b. in New- port, R. I, 26 March, isi:!; d. there, Hi March. 1879. He was graduated at the U S. military academy in 1836, assigned to the 3d artillery, served in the Florida war until 1842, became 1st lieutenant on 14 March, 1838, and subsequently was employed in recruiting and garrison service until 1846. He became captain on 28 May, 1846, engaged in the war with 5Iexico, and was brevetted major for gallant and meritorious conduct at Bu- ena Vista, 23 Feb., 1847. He served again on gar- rison and frontier duty from 1848 till 1861, during which time he engaged in quelling the Kansas bor- der disturbances, and commanded an expedition to Kettle lake, Dakota. On 27 April, 1861, he became major, and until 10 5Iay. 1861, commanded a bat- tery of U. S. artillery and a battalion of Pennsyl- vania volunteers at Elkton, Md. From 21 May till 28 June he was chief of light artillery in the defence of Washington, D. C., having been made lieutenant-colonel, 5th artillery, on 14 May, and brigadier-general, U. S. volunteers, on 17 May, 1861. He organized an expedition for seizing and holding Bull's bay, S. C., and Fernandina, Fla., for the use of the blockading fleet on the southern coast, com- manded the land forces of the Port Royal expedi- tion from 21 Oct.. 1861, till HI March,' 1862, and led a division of the Army of the Tennessee from 30 April till 1 June, 1862. ' He participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss., commanded a division in the Department of the Gulf from IS Sept.. INI'.'.'. till 9 Jan., 1863, and in the defences of New Or- leans from 9 Jan. till 19 May, 1863, when he joined the expedition to Port Hudson, La., commanding the 2d division of the 19th army corps, wliirh formed the left wingof the besieging arm v. While leading a column to the assault on '.'7 May he lost his right leg, in consequence of which he wn< mi leave of absence until 15 Feb.. 1864. He was made colonel of the 3d artillery on 1 June, 1863. On his return to duty he was in command of a reserve brigade of artillery in the Department of the Gulf, of the defences of New Orleans, and of the southern and eastern districts of Louisiana. On 13 March, 1865. he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. army, for gallant services at the capture of Port Hudson, and also major-general of volunteers and major-general, U. S. army, for gallant and meritori- ous services during the war. After the war he commanded the 3d artillery at Fort Adams, R. I., the Department of the East, and the post of Key West, Fla. He was retired from active service as major-general on 31 Dec., 1870. for disability.

SHERMAN, William Tecumseh, soldier, b. in Lancaster, Ohio, 8 Feb., 1820; d. in New York City, 14 Feb., 1891. His branch of the family is traced to one who came to this country in 1634 with his brother, the Rev. John Sherman, and his cousin, Capt. John Sherman. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, traces his lineage to the captain, and Gen. Sherman to that of the Rev. John, whose family settled in Woodbury and Norwalk. Conn., whence some of them removed to Lancaster, Fairfield co., Ohio, in 1810. The father of Gen. Sherman was a lawyer, and for five years before his death in 1829 judge of the supreme court. His mother, who was married in 1810, was Mary Hoyt. They had eleven children, of whom William was the sixth and John the eighth. William was adopted by Thomas Ewing, and attended school in Lancaster till 1836. In July of that year he was sent as a cadet to West Point, where he was graduated in 1840 sixth in a class of forty-two members. Among his classmates was George H. Thomas. As a cadet, he is remembered as an earnest, high-spirited, honorable, and outspoken youth, deeply impressed, according to one of his early letters, with the grave responsibility properly attaching to &ldquo;serving the country.&rdquo; He also at that time expressed a wish to go to the far west, out of civilization. He was commissioned as a 2d lieutenant in the 3d artillery, 1 July, 1840, and sent to Florida, where the embers of the Indian war were still smouldering. On 30 Nov., 1841, he was made a 1st lieutenant, and commanded a small detachment at Picolata. In 1842 he was at Fort Morgan, Mobile Point, Ala., and later at Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, where he indulged in hunting and society, the immediate vicinity of the fort being a summer resort for the people of Charleston. In 1843, on his return from a short leave, he began the study of law, not to make it a profession, but to render himself a more intelligent soldier. When the Mexican war began in 1846 he was sent with troops around Cape Horn to California, where he acted as adjutant-general to Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, Col. Mason, and Gen. Persifer F. Smith. Returning in 1850, on 1 May he married Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, at Washington, her father, his old friend, then being secretary of the interior. He was appointed a captain in the commissary department, 2 Sept., 1850, and sent to St. Louis and New Orleans. He had already received a brevet of captain for service in California, to date from 30 May, 1848. Seeing little prospect of promotion and small opportunity for his talents in the army in times of peace, he resigned his commission, 6 Sept., 1853, the few graduates of West Point being at that period in demand in many walks of civil life. He was immediately appointed (1853) manager of the branch bank of Lucas, Turner and Co., San Francisco, Cal. When the affairs of that establishment were wound up in 1857 he returned to St. Louis,