William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65), for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy and criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies. Military historian Basil Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general." After the Civil War, Sherman became Commanding General of the Army (1869-83). As such, he was responsible for the conduct of the Indian Wars in the western United States. Sherman was distantly related to the politically influential Baldwin, Hoar & Sherman family and grew to admire American founding father Roger Sherman. Though he came to disapprove of slavery, Sherman was not an abolitionist before the war, and like many of his time and background, he did not believe in "Negro equality." His military campaigns of 1864 and 1865 freed many slaves, who greeted him "as a second Moses or Aaron."