Biography paints complex picture of controversial General Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman might be the most divisive figure of the Civil War. The general who ordered the burning of Atlanta and orchestrated the “March to the Sea” that essentially ended the war has a reputation in the North as a master military strategist and in the South as a mass murderer.

Robert L. O’Connell’s lively biography of Sherman, Fierce Patriot, leans toward the opinion of the North.

His Sherman has some peccadilloes, notably a “motormouth” and a taste for ladies other than his wife.

But “Uncle Billy,” as his soldiers fondly referred to him, comes across as having more strengths than weaknesses.

O’Connell, a military historian, pays particular attention to what made Sherman a good soldier and a superlative “wingman” for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

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Sherman was not only flexible and creative but also had an astonishing ability to memorize the layout of terrain after viewing it only once — which served him well as he guided troops through swamps and forests.

The structure of Fierce Patriot is unusual, allowing for straightforward storytelling but also a certain amount of repetition.

The book is divided into three parts. The first, and longest, tracks Sherman’s professional life, from his work as a banker in San Francisco to his career guiding the building of the transcontinental railroads.

The bulk of this section is understandably given to Sherman’s role in the Civil War. Although it will especially appeal to battle buffs, it is so clearly written that even those who can’t remember the difference between Shiloh and Bull Run will be able to understand how the war developed.

The second section, fascinating enough to override the objection that it doesn’t quite belong in this biography, is devoted to the men of Sherman’s “Army of the West,” largely drawn from the states in what would now be called the Midwest.

The third part is devoted to the psychodrama of Sherman’s personal life, to which O’Connell applies an oddly appropriate military lens. Sherman’s father died when the boy was 9, and he was raised in the Lancaster, Ohio, home of Thomas Ewing, a lawyer who would go on to become an influential senator.

Sherman married Ewing’s daughter, Ellen, which intensified the struggle between the two strong-willed men. Thomas Ewing was as doggedly determined to haul Sherman home to head up the Ewing salt works in Chauncey, Ohio, as Sherman was to avoid this fate.

Ellen, “every bit as intelligent and determined as Sherman and religious to the point of loopyness,” was no doormat in the conflict.

Despite the “veritable volcano of verbiage” that Sherman produced, O’Connell relies more on his actions in creating a portrait of a man more complex than either his supporters or enemies would be willing to admit.

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