Was General Sherman Catholic?

He was baptized a Catholic, he married a Catholic, his children were raised Catholic (one became a Jesuit), and he’s buried in a Catholic cemetery in St. Louis. (Here he’s seen in the front pew of St. Aloysius Church, Washington, D.C., at his daughter Minnie’s wedding in 1874.) But he never considered himself Catholic. The story told by Sherman biographer John Marzalek is that when William was born Tecumseh Sherman in 1820. When his father died, at age nine he went to live with his neighbors, the Ewings, who were Catholic. Mrs. Ewing insisted on his being baptized Catholic, and she got a priest to baptized him on the Feast day of St. William. Hence the name, William Tecumseh Sherman. But he never took it seriously and he was not at all religious. Ellen Ewing, his wife (and foster sister), was an extremely devout woman involved in a myriad of Church causes, much to her husband’s chagrin. When his son Tom decided to join the Jesuits, he was disappointed. He wanted Tom to become a lawyer, and he never reconciled himself to his son’s decision. Yet he did have a Catholic funeral and was buried in St. Louis’ Calvary Cemetery. Begrudgingly, one thinks.