Before his spectacular career as general of the Union forces, William Tecumseh Sherman experienced decades of failure and depression. He witnessed firsthand many of the critical events of early-nineteenth-century America- the Mexican War, the California gold rush, the banking panics, and the battles with the Plains Indians. Sherman’s place in American history was still in doubt at the outbreak of the Civil War, when he reluctantly led a Union brigade to a humiliating defeat at Bull Run. It was not until his victory at Shilog in 1862 that he asserted his brilliance as a military commander. After he sacked Atlanta in 1864, Sherman’s strategy of attacking his opponent forever changed the nature of warfare. Sherman’s Memoirs records the life and opinions of one of the most controversial figures in American military history, and colorfully depicts the turbulent times that transformed the nation into a world power.