William Tecumseh SHERMAN (1820-91), b. Ohio. Became superintendant of a military school in Louisiana (1859). His career is rather like a reverse of Robert E. Lee's. Lee was offered command of the Union armies, but resigned, returned to Virginia, and became the best-known commander of the Confederacy.

"When the Civil War broke out, Sherman - despite his years of service in the South - rejected a commission in the Confederate army and in May 1861 accepted an appointment as a colonel of the infantry in the Federal Army."

Later, "Accused of being unstable, practically removed from command, Sherman at one point considered suicide, but he regained his balance and in March 1862 he was given a new chance as commander of the 5th Division, Army of the Tennessee." Was responsible with Grant for reducing Vicksburg, the last of the Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi. Later responsible for the epic march (1864) through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea at Savannah. (Cut the Confederacy in half.) After the American Civil War succeeded Grant as commander-in-chief (1869) of the U.S. Army. Retired 1883.

Famous for remark, "War is hell" (1880)
The Civil War Almanac dates Sherman's "War is hell" speech as 1880; The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations (ed. Cohen & Cohen) says it was given on 19 June 1879 at the Michigan Military Academy
"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. . . War is hell."

Nigel sent this through for us...
Source: The Civil War Almanac, ed. John S. Bowman(New York: Bison Books, 1983)

Dr. Jamison is professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and coauthor of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness.

Any time a celebrity comes out of the bipolar closet, this has to be regarded as major news. In late December on ABC's Prime Time, Carrie Fischer of Star Wars fame and author of Postcards From the Edge, told Diane Sawyer: "I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple - just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully. And I was that. But it turns out that I am severely manic depressive."

It took Carrie some 20 years of denial and a mental breakdown before she came to accept her illness and talk about it: "The world of manic depression is a world of bad judgment calls. Just every kind of bad judgement because it all seems like a good idea at the time. A great idea … So if it’s talking, if it’s shopping, if it’s - the weirdest one for me is sex. That’s only happened twice. But then it’s wow, who are you?"

Today, thanks to therapy and medications, Carrie is back on track. She has written a TV Movie, These Old Broads, starring Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds with Shirley McLaine, Joan Collins, and - of all people - Elizabeth Taylor, the woman who stole her father, Eddie Fischer.

Thanks to John McManamy's Bi-Polar Weekly

Spike Milligan is a comic legend and is very open about having manic depressive illness.

Born in Ireland in 1918, Spike Milligan was recently awarded a knighthood for his services to entertainment. He served in Italy and Africa during World War II, suffering from what was then called shell-shock, then experienced numerous breakdowns throughout his career.

In the 1950s, he teamed up with Peter Sellers and others in the classic Goons. His book, Badjelly the Witch, has been a longtime staple of every child in the British Commonwealth. Because of his Irish nationality, he cannot use the title Sir