William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 –1891) was one of the most prominent of the Union's Civil War generals and for many years thereafter Commanding General of the Army. He is known for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. He steadfastly refused to be drawn into politics and in 1875 published his Memoirs, one of the best-known first-hand accounts of the Civil War. This collection includes family, professional, and political correspondence; diaries; and drafts of military reports, articles, and speeches (1808–91) of General Sherman; the papers of his wife, Ellen Ewing Sherman; and those of his father, Charles R. Sherman.