William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman was a Civil War Unionist general who became the 20th President of the United States of America, from 1881-1889. Staunchly against the Confederate States, he was promoted to the military high command after the war ended, and helped oversee military revitalisation. Before becoming President, he was part of President Horatio Seymour's high command during the 1873 US Migrant Crisis. He strongly opposed potentially starting a war with the United Kingdom, given the Union's fragile position. Shortly afterwards, he was made an envoy to the United Kingdom and personally spoke several times with Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who held strong sympathies for the North.

Sherman resigned from the post as diplomatic envoy in order to run for the Democratic nomination in 1880. With the left wing of American parties still scrambled and in small coalitions, Sherman knew that whoever won the nomination would become President. He promoted extensive diplomacy with Britain in order to resurface the Union's position, as well as continuing economic reform to save the Union. These promises, alongside his role in the Civil War and as a member of the high command won Sherman the nomination.

His two terms as President oversaw several drastic changes in the South: notably, the Sherman administration along with internal protests pushed the UK Prime Minister, William Gladstone, to sever ties with the Confederates in the 1883 Cotton Diplomacy Crisis, eventually resulting in the 1884 Anti-Slavery Charter and the abolition of widespread slavery in the South. Sherman's position in the crisis won him an easy second term in 1884, which he spent as a humble President, negotiating with former rival and new Confederate President Stonewall Jackson over a potential détente between the two nations.

In 1889, Sherman transitioned power to his successor, Grover Cleveland. He lived two more years before he passed away peacefully.