Portraits Of Blue & Grey: The Biographical Civil War Podcast

Part 2 of our look at the life of William Tecumseh Sherman begins with Col. Sherman commanding NY volunteers at Manassas.  The battle goes poorly for the Union, but Sherman shows strong, earning a promotion to Brigadier and a transfer to Kentucky to serve as second in command to Gen. Robert Anderson.  Anderson's health problems leave Sherman in charge in Kentucky, and the resulting stress leads to mental health struggles for Sherman.  The press, which Sherman already detests, piles on, and Sherman reaches his lowest point in the war.  After a brief leave of absence, Sherman is assigned to serve under soon-to-be rising star Ulysses Grant, beginning a mutually rewarding friendship.  After taking Forts Henry and Donelson, Grant and Sherman move to confront the newly consolidated rebel western forces near Corinth, Mississippi.  A surprise counter-offensive climaxes in the bloody battle of Shiloh, which redeems Sherman's reputation as a soldier but also foretells the brutality that will come to define the Civil Wa