According to Walter L. Fleming in his book General Sherman as College President, The leader of all matters relating to the Seminary from 1846 to 1860 was General George Mason Graham, and it was largely through his influence that William Tecumseh Sherman was elected superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning.
Sherman was born in Ohio in 1820 and graduated from West Point in 1840. After several years of service in Southern posts, he was on staff service in California under General Roger B. Mason, a half-brother of General G. Mason Graham of Louisiana. He resigned from the Army in 1853 and was for several years a banker in California and New York. At the time of his election to the position with the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning, he was practicing law in Leavenworth, Kansas.
It was considered William Tecumseh Sherman’s greatest act as the newly appointed first president of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning. He visited the Louisiana state legislature and gained passage of Act 98 of 1860, giving military status to the school and adding “Military Academy” to its name. With this single stroke, the future of LSU, the Ole War Skule, ( the nickname that, according to LSU lore, was given to LSU by Sherman ) was committed to the principles of tradition, honor and service—the same principles that guide the University’s military programs today.
As the first president of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, Sherman also served as instructor of engineering and military tactics for 125 cadets. His annual salary was $3,500. During the summer vacation period, Sherman procured 200 cadet muskets, powder and equipment, uniforms, books and other supplies. He returned to the school in October for the second term.
In 1861, the Civil War and Sherman’s letter of resignation to Governor Thomas Overton Moore brought an end to his position at the school, but not to his lifelong interest in the institution. Sherman’s passion for LSU exhibited a singular focus, vision and strategy for success. He demonstrated unusual compassion when, as his Union troops were marching through the state, he ordered the campus in Pineville to be spared from destruction. He also gave Governor Moore an unconditional pardon and rendered aide to several cadets and professors of the Ole War Skule who were captured in 1864 – among them was David Boyd.
Sherman visited Louisiana and LSU several times during the 1880s and arranged for the donation of the Pentagon property as a new campus for the school (now the Louisiana State Capitol grounds). He was always deeply interested in the Ole War Skule, and on one of his visits after the Civil War, he referred to it as “our school.”
General Sherman died of pneumonia in New York City on February 14, 1891 and was buried in St. Louis, Missouri.