William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), receiving both recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy, and criticism for the harshness of his " scorched earth" policies while conducting total war against the enemy. Military historian Basil Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general". In 1864, Sherman became the Union commander in the western theater of the war. He proceeded to lead his troops to the capture of Atlanta. His subsequent march through Georgia and the Carolinas further undermined the Confederacy's ability to continue fighting. He accepted the surrender of all the Confederate armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida in April 1865. After the Civil War, Sherman became Commanding General of the U.S. Army (1869–83). As such, he was responsible for the conduct of the Indian Wars in the western United States. In 1875, he published his Memoirs, one of the best-known firsthand accounts of the Civil War.