Then, there is the tragic account of the death of his young son Willey, a boy who was unable to adjust to the heat and unsanitary conditions of Mississippi and Memphis. Shortly after this personal loss, General Sherman was ordered east to deal with the problems at Chattanooga. The rest of the book is his account of how this was accomplished, and the subsequent mission to the relief of General Burnside at Knoxville.
The photographs used to illustrate this volume were taken by myself, my photographer Bruce Wilkey, and various period photographers. In fact many of the photos were taken by General Sherman's Photographer and this is the first account with both the pictures and the text in the same volume.
E. Raymond Evans
River City Research Group
Both of the armies that fought in the American Civil War produced some outstanding heroes. Nevertheless, when being considered from a purely military standpoint, the one man who did more than all the others to determine the outcome of the war was General William Tecumseh Sherman. “Cump” Sherman, as he was know to his friends was a vicious fighter who adapted the concept of total war and coined the philosophy that “War is Hell.” He could be as hard on his own men as on the enemy, and always told them that in his army there were no non-combatants. His decisive nature and sense of orderliness led him to the most extreme action against perceived foes, and to great kindness to open friends. His keen favor for Union law and order led him into direct conflict with the Seccesionists who he saw as a clear challenges to his sense of authority and order. His career led the well known military historian Basil Liddell Hart to declare that Sherman was “the first modern general.”
Sherman served under General Ulysses S. Grant in 1862 and 1863 during the campaigns that led to the fall of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River and culminated with the routing of the Confederate armies in the state of Tennessee. In 1864, Sherman succeeded Grant as the Federal commander in the western theater of the war. He proceeded to lead his troops to the capture of the city of Atlanta, a military success that contributed to the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln. Sherman's 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. In spite of his harsh treatment of the Confederates during the war, he gave them such liberal terms at the surrender that his enemies in Congress accused him of taking bribes from the defeated rebels.
In the following pages, written in General Sherman’s own words and taken from his Memoirs, originally written in 1875, ten years after the end of the Civil War, you will read his account of his coming east to help break the siege of Chattanooga. This was his first step toward victory that led to independent command and the Atlanta campaign—a campaign that changed history and in many ways made the country that we have today. The material is taken from Sherman’s Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. By Himself, published by D. Appleton & Co., in two volumes, began with the year 1846 (when the Mexican War began) and ended with a chapter about the “military lessons of the [civil] war”
This volume begins with the successful completion of the Vicksburg campaign and opens with a long letter written at the request of General H. W. Halleck, Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Army at Washington, D. C. General Sherman had spent more time in the South than any other senior officer in the U.S. Army. He had been stationed in Georgia after completing West Point and receiving his commission. After the Mexican War, he became the head master of a military school in Louisiana. These experiences gave him considerable insight into the mind of the southerners, and General Halleck wanted to use this valuable data in future planning the course of the war.
Manufacturer: N/A
SKU: by General W. T. Sherman
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