While some contemporaries mistakenly identified him as the brother of the more famous General William T. Sherman, modern scholarship notes that the two were not closely related.

His desire to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point was so strong that he walked from Newport to Washington, D.C. to secure a Congressional appointment.

His early career included service in the Florida Wars against the Seminoles from 1836‑38 and in the Cherokee Nation in 1838 while transferring the Native Americans to the West.

He was involved in quelling the Kansas Border Disturbances in 1857 to 1858 and the Artillery School for Practice at Fort Ridgely, Minnesota from 1858 to 1861, except while in command of the expedition to Kettle Lake, Dakota in 1859.

At the start of the Civil War, Sherman was serving as a major in the 3rd Artillery when President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the grade of brigadier general of volunteers on August 6, 1861, to rank from May 17, 1861.

[3] On June 30, 1866, President Johnson nominated Sherman to be appointed to the rank of brevet major general of the United States Army (i.e.

[4] On February 5, 1868, Sherman was elected as a First Class Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and was assigned insignia number 643.

After Sherman was mustered out of volunteer service on April 30, 1866, he reverted to his Regular Army grade of colonel and was placed in command of the 3rd Artillery Regiment.

In 2017, Major General Thomas West Sherman Camp 1 was chartered by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW).