Explanation: The American general Sherman was the scourge of the slavers of the South during the US Civil War, and, eventually, an ardent supporter of total legal and social equality for Black Americans. How wholesome (even if it took him half a decade after the war to get there)!

HOWEVER

General Sherman was also assigned to the prosecution of post-Civil War conflicts with Native Americans, where his skill and ruthlessness were applied against much less deserving foes.

In this, I must note, there is an element of complexity, even if none of it absolves Sherman of his actions or attitudes.

On the ‘positive’ end, Sherman repeatedly complained of the rapacity and lawlessness of the white settlers, and frequently (correctly) laid the blame on them for starting conflicts and breaking treaties. For another, Sherman was an ardent supporter of maintaining any treaties made with Native American polities, even ones he disagreed with, as he believed that a government should keep its word, as agreements so made were law. There are also numerous occasions in which Sherman, when empowered to do so, opted for negotiation with Native polities over resorting to the bullet, even in situations wherein even modern audiences would question the validity of the actions of the Native polities, and in general extended the ‘respectful’ behavior of a well-raised son of the upper-middle-class to Native American leaders.

On the negative end, Sherman not only considered it his duty to uphold the orders of the civilian government, no matter how horrendous, but also believed that the conflict between Native Americans and the US government was a ‘clash of civilizations’ in which one side or the other would have to be totally destroyed or subsumed, and made numerous statements to that effect. Though in military actions he issued clear orders to spare civilians and surrendered foes, he made extremely concerning, outright genocidal statements about particular tribes in private; whether these were genuine or expressions of fury and frustration (which Sherman, by his own admission an unstable man, was certainly inclined towards) does not really absolve them either way. And his general creed that “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it” resulted directly in his issuing of the order to exterminate buffalo herds to starve out and force Native peoples onto reservations where they would engage in sedentary farming instead of hunting (ignoring that the land was often only marginally fertile), one of the greatest crimes of the Indian Wars that reverberates to this day.