During the monument's design phase, artist Carl Rohl-Smith died, and his memorial was finished by a number of other sculptors.

[3] On July 5, 1892, Congress enacted legislation establishing the Sherman Monument Commission.

It specified an equestrian statue, and limited the competition to American artists (living at home or abroad).

These included Paul Wayland Bartlett (plinth with deeply cut bas-relief of Sherman, War, and Study),[6] Henry Jackson Ellicott and William Bruce Gray (an Ionic pedestal), Adrian Jones of New York (equestrian statue), Fernando Miranda (an elliptical Greek Revival temple), L. Mullgardt (a park with four columns), Charles Henry Niehaus (pedestal with exedra), Victor Olsa (pedestal with bas relief panels), William Ordway Partridge (equestrian statue), and J. Massey Rhind (a monumental pyramid).

[8] The National Sculpture Society (NSS) judging committee consisted of Daniel Chester French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Olin Levi Warner and John Quincy Adams Ward.

The committee narrowed the submissions down to a short list of four: Bartlett, Niehaus, Partridge, and Rhind.

[10] On May 27, the memorial commission of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee overruled the NSS judging committee and chose the Carl Rohl-Smith design.

The New York Times called the decision "one of the most discreditable events ever in the annals of the public art of the United States".

Mrs. Rohl-Smith asked sculptors Theo Kitson, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, and Jens Ferdinand Willumsen to help with the statue's completion.

But upon review, the postures and sizes of the two figures were found not to harmonize with the rest of the monument.

This area is where Sherman, along with President Andrew Johnson and General Ulysses Grant, reviewed the Army of the Potomac on May 23, 1865.

[21] On February 18, 1904, Congress legislatively gave the name "Sherman Plaza" to the area where the monument stands.

The memorial is also a contributing element to President's Park South, an area which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

[27] The pilings had to be sunk 35 feet (11 m) lower than anticipated due to the existence of groundwater at the site.

[28] Rohl-Smith designed the equestrian statue of Sherman so that it depicted him on the day he rode up Pennsylvania Avenue at the head of the Army of the Tennessee on May 24, 1865.

The eastern group depicts Peace as a young woman naked from the waist up, the flowering branch of a fruit tree in her left hand.

[32] The mosaic contains the names of the battles Sherman fought in:[33] The inscription around the monument reads:[35]

1903Access to the monument is currently restricted due to the United States Secret Service having expanded the security perimeter around the White House [36]