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ADMIRAL FREDERICK CARL SHERMAN (1888-1957)

[Frederick Ward 10, Loren 9, Albert 8, Judson 7, Matthew 6, David 5, Samuel 4, John 3, Hon. Samuel 2, Edmund 1.]

The career of Admiral Fredrick C. SHERMAN, 3 times winner of the Navy Cross - famous combat commander in 2 World Wars, distinguished submariner and naval aviator - takes its place beside the intrepid acts of earlier Americans, such as Commodore Perry and John Paul Jones.

Adm. Sherman was born May 27, 1888, Pt. Huron, Mich., the son of Frederick Ward and Charlotte (WOLFE) SHERMAN.

After graduation from the Naval Academy, in 1910 he saw duty on the USS Montana, Maryland and Ohio, followed by under-seas service in 1914. His first Navy Cross was awarded for service in command of the 0-7 in WW1. After the armistice he was Navigator of the USS Minnesota, then served in the Bureau of Eng., Wash. D.C. until 1921 when he was commanding officer, Submarine Div. Nine, San Pedro and Pearl Harbor.

When he was a gunnery officer, USS W. Virginia, his men won the gunnery trophy and fleet battle efficiency pennant and achieved a score for long range marksmanship which stood for years. In 1933 he commanded a destroyer div.; 1934/35 was Aide to 11th Naval Dist. Commandant, Rear Adm. Tarrant. In 1936, after completing flight training - entered at the age of 47 - he was executive officer of the USS Saratoga. After duty at U.S. Naval Station, San Diego, in 1939, now Captain, he commanded Patrol Wing in Panama. Following a Senior Course, War College, he commanded the Lexington.

Besides taking part in strategic planning in World War II Adm. Sherman had more active duty than any other flag officer in the U.S. Navy. He won another Navy Cross for skill in warding off an enemy raid of horizontal bombers near Bougainville.

As Air Commander he commanded the first 2-carrier strike (Lexington, Yorktown and attached air groups) in history on Salamaua and Lae, Mar. 10, 1942. The battle of the Coral Sea followed - the first duel between carriers - with the Japanese thwarted from invading the Australian area. Promotion to Rear Admiral followed the battle.

After three months duty on the staff of Adm. King he again commanded a carrier task group, leading many first strikes at the enemy strongholds including Salamaua-Lae, Rabaul, Buka - Bonis, Kavieng, Nauru, Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Truk, Mindanao, Visayas, Manila, Formosa, Tokyo, Okinawa, Kyushu, the Pecadores Islands; S. China raids at Saigon, Kamranh Bay, Hong Kong, Hainan, Amoy, and aided other captures. His strikes at Tinian and Saipan won him his second Navy Cross.

During the Layte Gulf Battle he commanded the Ninth Carrier Group in fierce fighting accounting for 167 of 200 enemy planes, and joining in sinking the Musashi and other ships. His forces destroyed 15,000 troops at Ormoc Bay, Nov. 11, 1944.

As Vice Adm. (July 13, 1945) he commanded Fast Carrier Task Force. He was present at the Surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri.

In Jan. 1946 he commanded the 5th Fleet. He struck his flag on the Vicksburg, Sep. 3, 1946; was retired Mar. 1, 1947 as Admiral. Promotion followed commendation by Sec'y of the Navy for actual combat with the enemy in time of war.

In addition to his 3 Navy Crosses he has many campaign and other medals including 3 Distinguished Service medals, Presidential Unit Citation with 2 Bronze Stars, Legion of Merit with Combat V; the Honorable Appointment as Cdr. Military Div., Order of the British Empire.

Resolute in war, he has been industrious in peace - for 2 years, was a feature writer on naval subjects for the Chicago Tribune; was author of Combat Command and lectured.

Active in political life, he was a member of the San Diego County Republican Central Committee; was a delegate to the 1948 Republican National Convention; a Director, San Diego Chamber of Commerce; Chairman, Board of Trustees, Balboa University.

He was Regional Coordinator, Civil Defense, Region 10, California. He was a member of All Souls' Episodical Church, and a 32nd degree Mason.

On Nov. 22, 1915 he married Fanny JESSOP of San Diego. They had one son, John Jessop SHERMAN, and 3 grandchildren, Jill, John South SHERMAN and Joanne.

Mrs. Sherman is author of "Admiral Wags," the story of the shipboard life of the Admiral's dog.

Captain Sherman came with his parents to Ash Grove, Fairfax Co., Virginia in 1850. At the age of 14 he went to Peekskill, New York where his elder brother John Dempster SHERMAN was a Public School Superintendent and attended school. For a time he read law with the Honorable William Nelson in Peekskill; but decided not to enter that profession.

In the summer of 1863 he joined the 10th Michigan Cavalry during its organization. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in October then 1st Lieutenant in November 1863 when he mustered in. He was captured at Thorn Hill Gap, Tennessee 28 Nov 1864. He escaped from prison at Wytheville, Virginia and regained the Union lines 14 Dec 1864 at Louisa Courthouse, Kentucky. In Jan 1865 he was commissioned Adjutant and in September 1865, Captain. He was mustered out of the service the following November.

In March 1869 he was appointed Military Sheriff of Fairfax Co., Virginia by General Stoneman, the Military Governor of the state. In the spring of 1870 he was offered the same post by the civil Judge, and in the fall of that year was elected to the office on the Republican ticket; the only Republican elected in northern Virginia. Resigning the office of Sheriff in the spring of 1871, he qualified in June as Supervisor of Providence Township, serving two successive terms until 1873.

He was a member of the School Board of Fairfax Co. for thirty years and served as Chairman of the Providence District Board from its first organization.

He was for many years the representative of the London Mutual Insurance Company in Fairfax and Alexandria Counties.

Writing of his experience as a "Yankee" sheriff he says, "My good luck at the start was largely due to the fact that I was my father's son."

In the ten years of his residence here (Ash Grove) before the war he was truly highly respected and greatly liked. He came into the county with three letters of credit, the best a man could bring at the time, (1850); he was a Democrat, a Methodist, and a Free Mason.

Every man of any account or standing at the Court House was his friend, and I think in spite of all the hot feeling, was willing to be one to me; and a few weeks acquaintance made them all friend, or at least they seemed so."

In the fall of 1870 he was elected Sheriff on the Republican ticket. After serving a year he resigned because "his convictions of right and duty would not permit him to continue to hold an office in which he might be required, in person or by deputy, to flog any human being as a judicial."

...was born 23 July 1805, the son of Micah and Susanna (DENNISON-FROST) SHERMAN in Marlboro, Massachusetts. His parents died when he was young. He left Marlboro at the age of 16 to attend school in Concord, living with an aunt in a historic home still standing (1954). After a short clerkship in Boston and a business venture in New York, he went to Ohio. His business ability became evident and after moving to Newport, Kentucky he established the first cotton bagging plant in America. He also had the first sheet lead plant west of the Alleghenies. He also had time to be captain of a company of Kentucky volunteer militia.

Successful at the age of 30, he married Catherine COX, daughter of Jacob and Marie (FENWICK) COX of Frankfort, Kentucky - a descendant of the third Lord Baltimore of Maryland.

He had long been interested in the struggle of the Texans seeking fulfillment of the pledges made to them in the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Santa Ana, who had overthrown the legal Mexican government, was determined to kill or drive out the Americans.

Sherman set out to support the Texans, converting all he had into a large sum of money. He paid for arms, ammunition, and uniforms for a volunteer group of fifty men who received rigid military training. Love of freedom also fired the Kentucky ladies of Newport who made a heavy white, gold-fringed silk flag, with the Goddess of Liberty printed in the center. It waved proudly over San Jacinto and later was given to Mrs. Sherman as a testimonial of the gallant conduct of Colonel Sherman. This treasured memento rests in a conspicuous spot behind the speaker's stand in the Texas House of Representatives.

It was Sherman who had first raised the immortal battle cry, "Remember the Alamo, Goliad and the Alamo," 21 April 1836 when he led a cavalry charge throwing Santa Ana's veterans into confusion and defeat. Upon this site stands the loftiest monument on American soil.

With peace partially restored, Colonel Sherman tendered his resignation. Instead of accepting it, the President of the Texas Republic commissioned him a general in the regular army (of Texas) giving him a diplomatic mission - to return to the United States to seek aid for the Texans.

By January 1837 General Sherman had built a home at San Jacinto Bay, having purchased 2,000 acres between there and Galveston. He was father and founder of the world-renowned Texas Rangers, for as a Representative in the 7th Congress of the Republic, he introduced the bill calling for the border protection.

He was selected as Major General, the second to serve, and remained in that post until the Republic became a state in the Union.

In 1846, when state affairs were less pressing, he, with two others, laid out a new town of Harrisburg, establishing his family in a beautiful residence there. He and his associates built the first sawmill in Texas. He became founder and first president of the Brazos & Colorado R.R. - the nucleus of the Southern Pacific. Begun in 1850 this was the first railroad west of the Mississippi. He had succeeded in getting eastern capital as well as putting everything he had in the project to develop the new country. Land given him by a grateful Republic was sacrificed to build the roadbed, etc.

Soon after the railroad was built a series of tragic incendiary fires destroyed his office, warehouse, sawmill, and fine residence. Some dastardly coward wished the obliteration of Sherman's correspondence, documents, civil and military papers --- the history of Texas as a Republic and Colony. He also sought to wreak havoc on Sherman. Around this time he had a survey made, and began the work which foresaw the present Houston Ship Channel.

During later years he lived in Galveston. In 1863 he was in charge of preparations for its defense. In the Battle of Galveston 1 January 1863 his son Lieutenant Sidney Sherman, Jr. died in command of a shore battery, felled by a shot from the Harriet Lane, a Federal gunboat. His last words, "Break this gently to my mother and tell my father I fell beside my gun."

In 1860, General Sherman, seeking to make up for financial reverses, had embarked on the hotel business.

He died 1 August 1873 at his daughter's (Mrs. J.M.O. Menard) home in Galveston. First buried in Magnolia Cemetery, his body was later buried in Lakeview cemetery together with that of his compatriot, David Burnet. A monument, erected by the Sidney Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the Republic, enshrines them. Other tributes include a county and county seat named for him; heroic monuments in Galveston and San Jacinto.

Besides his son, who died without issue, he had four daughters: Caroline, (whose son W.K. Menard, sent the above data); Beth, who married W.E. Kendall; Lucy, who married L.W. Craig; and Lena, who married John T. Brady.

Excerpted from Bertha Stratton’s "New Light on Henry Sherman --- ", 1954 – and reprinted from SOY NL, Sep 1996.

He was a Methodist minister on the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania circuit in 1824 and in Wilkes-Barre in 1829. About 1829 a dispute arose between the Presbyterians and the Methodist Episcopals respecting the occupancy of the church in Wilkes-Barre, the former asserting their exclusive right and the latter declaring it was a Union Church toward the construction of which they had liberally contributed. The Presbyterians held the keys and the doors were locked against the invading Methodists. Committees were appointed by the outs but the ins refused to confer.

At length the followers of Wesley assembled at the courthouse and resolved to enter the church at all hazards. They accordingly, with the approval of their pastor the Rev. Morgan Sherman, appointed a committee to storm the disputed church. This was done. The Rev. Sherman then approached the sacred desk and commenced religious worship by giving out the hymn commencing, "Equip me for the war and teach my hands to fight." In his opening prayer the minister thanked the Lord for many things but particularly that they could worship under their own vine and fig tree, few daring to molest and none to make them afraid. At the close of this discourse Rev. Sherman said, "With the permission of Divine Province I will preach in this house again in two weeks from today."

In 1838 he was living in Cayuga County, New York and about this time he moved with his family to Missouri, where he engaged in farming and stock raising on an extensive scale, and accumulated a comfortable fortune.

He served in the Navy in the Revolution. He enlisted at Boston, Massachusetts in 1777, at which time he was a resident of Douglas, Massachusetts. He was a private in Captain Parris' Company of Marines on board the ship "Boston" then commanded by Samuel Tucker.

In December 1777 they sailed for Bordeaux with the Honorable John Adams, U.S. Minister to France; cruised to L'Orient and Brest and returned to Boston in November 1778. He applied for a pension 16 August 1819 when 63 years of age. His claim was allowed.

In 1820 he was a resident of Burrillville, Rhode Island and referred to his wife as 73 years of age, his daughter as 30 years of age, and to his daughter's two children.

Admiral Sherman was born 30 October 1896 in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a year before entering the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1917.

He served on the Murray and the Nashville in European waters during 1917-1919, receiving temporary promotion to lieutenant and becoming permanent in the grade in 1920. He commanded the Barry in the Atlantic Fleet in 1921. He completed flight training at Pensacola, Florida, Naval Air Station in 1922, and in 1923-1924 he was attached to Fighting Plane Squadron 2 aboard the Aroostook.

He was on the training staff at Pensacola in 1924-1926, and after graduating from the Naval War College in 1927 he served tours on the carriers Lexington and Saratoga.

In 1930-1931 he was an instructor at the Naval Academy, returning to the Saratoga in 1931 and assuming command of Fighting Squadron 1 in 1932. He commanded the Fighting Wing in 1932-1933.

After three years as Chief of Aviation Ordnance in the Bureau of Ordnance he was assigned to the Ranger in 1936, and in 1937, promoted to commander. He was made Fleet Aviation Officer on the Staff of the Commander of the U.S. Fleet. Early in 1940 he was assigned to the Office of the Chief Naval Operations.

In May 1942, by then a captain, he took command of the carrier Wasp of Admiral Frank J. Fletcher's carrier force. On September 15^th, the Wasp was sunk by Japanese torpedoes during the Guadalcanal campaign. Sherman then became Aide and Chief of Staff to the commander of the Pacific Fleet Air Force, Admiral John H. Towers. He was promoted to rear admiral in April 1943. In November he became Deputy Chief of Staff under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

He took command of Carrier Division 1 in October 1945 and two months later was named Deputy Chief of Naval Operations with the rank of vice admiral. In this post he played a major role in the negotiations preceding the unification of the armed services and in the establishment of the postwar network of U.S. naval bases around the world.

He and General Lauris Norstad were the principal authors of the National Security Act of 1947. In January 1948 he was put in command of U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean which was reorganized in June as the Sixth Fleet; and in November 1949 he became Chief of Naval Operations with the rank of admiral.

He was still in that post when he died on July 22, 1951, in Naples, Italy, during a round of discussions on European defense.

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, on March 26, 1813, he won appointment to West Point by personal appeal to President Andrew Jackson. He graduated in 1836, was commissioned in the artillery, and served until 1838 in the Seminole War in Florida. Promoted to first lieutenant in March 1838, he was then ordered to duty in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) for a time, after which he was again in Florida. In May 1846 he advanced to captain. During the Mexican War he served under General Zachary Taylor, winning a brevet to major at Buena Vista, 22-23 February 1847. From 1848 to 1853 he was stationed at Fort Thrumbull, Connecticut, and then at Fort Adams, Rhode Island; from 1853 to 1861 he was on the frontier, seeing garrison duty and action against Indians in Minnesota and helping suppress the Kansas border disturbances.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was called to Washington, D.C.; he received promotions to major in April 1861 and to lieutenant colonel in May and was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the latter month. After commanding artillery units in the defenses of Washington and of Baltimore, he commanded a force of nearly 13,000 army troops in the expedition to Port Royal, South Carolina, by Flag-Officer Samuel F. Du Pont's squadron in November 1861. After the reduction of most Confederate strongholds by naval gunfire, Sherman' troops took possession of Fort Walker on Hilton Head, Fort Beauregard on Bay Point opposite, and other points. Subsequently troops of that force also occupied Bull's Bay, South Carolina, and Fort Clinch at Fernandina, Florida. In April 1862 Sherman was given command of a division of the Army of the Tennessee, then engaged in the Corinth campaign.

From September 1862 to January 1863 he commanded a division in the Department of the Gulf, and from January to May he was engaged in the defense of New Orleans. He took part in General Nathaniel P. Banks' unsuccessful expedition against Port Hudson, Louisiana, in May and in the second assault, on 27 May, received a wound that necessitated the amputation of his right leg.

In February 1864 he returned to duty in command of a reserve brigade of artillery at Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip below New Orleans. From June 1864 to February 1865 he commanded the Division of New Orleans. In March 1865 he was brevetted brigadier general of regulars for Port Hudson and major general of volunteers for his war services.

Mustered out of volunteer service in 1866, he served as colonel of the 3rd Artillery at Fort Adams, Rhode Island, and elsewhere until November 1870. He was retired for disability in December 1870 under his brevet commission of major general, and he died in Newport, Rhode Island 16 March 1879.