Sherman was a leading Union general in the American Civil War and commanding general of the United States Army. During the Civil War, he became famous for his "marches" across Georgia and the Carolinas. On these marches, Sherman's troops stripped barns, fields, and houses, tore up railroad tracks and burned vast stretches of farmland. The intent was to devastate soldiers' and civilians' lives alike -- shortening the war and restoring the nation. Sherman would bring the same military philosophy to the conflicts in the West.

As commander of the Missouri district, Sherman directed a policy designed to ensure Army control over Indian affairs. His strategy included the extermination of the buffalo, animals that were central to the religion, culture and sustenance of the Plains Indians. For Sherman, the buffalo, like the native people themselves, were impediments to building the transcontinental railroad. He invited all the sportsmen of England and America to participate in a Great Buffalo Hunt and "make a grand sweep of them all." In 1867, Sherman was appointed to the Indian Peace Commission, where he took part in the negotiations with Indian leaders that produced the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Sherman retired from the army in 1884, leaving behind a double legacy: some remember him for the ruthless treachery he brought to the South and to the tribes of the Great Plains; others remember him as a great patriot, one of America's most important military figures.