GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH 03/21/1888 - HFSID 294843

WILLIAM T. SHERMAN
Giant 16½x21 portrait photo of a seated Sherman in uniform, taken in 1888 by famed photograph Napoleon Sarony of New York. An extremely rare oversized photo of the legendary general!
Photograph signed: "W. T. Sherman/General/New York/March 21, 1888/born Feb. 8 1820". Sepia, 16½x21.  William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), a West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran, served as a corps commander under General U. S. Grant in successful Union campaigns down the Mississippi and in Tennessee, then took command of the western armies when Grant was reassigned to the Virginia theatre of war. His capture of Atlanta and subsequent "march to the sea" through Georgia, followed by a swift campaign north through the Carolinas to force the surrender of the last major Confederate army, are praised for their military skill but condemned to this day for their "scorched earth" approach to occupied territory. After the war, Sherman applied similarly harsh but effective methods in campaigns against Amerindian tribes of the Great Plains. As commanding general of the U. S. Army (1869-1883), he established the Command School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sherman, who personally shunned politics ("If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve."), was the brother of U. S. Senator, Cabinet member and presidential candidate John Sherman. Sherman retired in 1884 and moved to New York in 1886, where he was much in demand as a speaker and dinner guest. In 1888, he sat for Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896), the City's undisputed king of celebrity photos. While Sarony profited greatly from cabinet-sized and carte-de-visite photos of prominent people, the extra effort and expense incurred in production of photos in the very large format offered here limited their use to "art" photograph and special orders made for presentations. Light surface damage. Worn. Soiled (Heavily at edges). Otherwise, fine condition.