In 1929, British military historian and theorist B.H. Liddell Hart published Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American. This groundbreaking work would be his only exploration of the American Civil War. Hart, who would ultimately be knighted for his 26 books on military history, had seen firsthand the futility of frontal assaults in the First World War, an he saw in General Sherman one of the earliest proponents of indirect warfare. Sherman was the master of directing large armies to feint in one direction and fla the Confederates in the opposite direction. Hart went on to argue an even larger point that, by hav ing the foresight to aggressively destroy the Southern means of economic production, Sherman
destroyed the resolve of the Southern people, and ultimately the Southern nation itself. Now, nearly a century later, an other respected British military historian, Brian Holden Reid,
has written The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh
Civil War. He is closely associat ed with the British armed forces, having spent ten years as residen
historian at the Department of War Studies to the Staff College, Camberley. Reid was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize by the Society for Military
eneral Sherman History in 2019 for his contributions to the field. Much like Liddell Hart, Brian Reid has strong opinions and insights about General Sherman and nineteenth century warfare in general. Certainly, William T. Sherman shares the stage with Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant as the three principal architects of Northern victory in the Civil War. General Sherman served from First Bull Run to the end of the war and the author rec ognizes Sherman’s maturation as a military leader and strategist. Professor Reid points out that as early as 1861, Sherman was telling all who would listen that the “Real War” would be fought for control of the Mississippi basin. Reid believes that, as Military Commander of the Memphis District in the summer of 1862, Sherman reached the conclusion that the South could not be reconciled, and that to win the war, the North must conduct “a harsher, more punitive style of milita campaigning.” Writing his brother, Senator John Sherman, in the spring of 1863, the general declared, “We are forced to invade – we must keep the War South till they are not only ruined, exhaust ed, but humbled in pride and spirit.” This would be Sherman’s guiding philosophy as his responsibilities in the Union command structure rose with each promotion. The Southern people, in his mind, had brought this “Scourge of War” down upon themselves. Reid’s new biography follows Sherman from his 1820 birth in Ohio, until his 1891 death in New York City. “Cump’s” formative years were driven by the early death of his father, Charle Sherman, and his subsequent
adoption by Thomas and Maria Ewing. A powerful U.S. Senator from Ohio, Ewing secured Sherman’s appointment to West Point in 1836. Popular with his fellow cadets for his flashes of
wit and loquacious personality, Sherman also dressed careless-
be checkered after his 1853 resignation from the army, Reid believes that the articulate Sherma
was “the best-read ex-officer in civil life,” with a sophisticated taste for theater as well as Brit history and literature. Brian Reid notes Sherman’s
personal bravery at Shiloh, but also acknowledges that on a tactical level—the actual fighting of battles—the general did not excel. His frontal assaults at First Bull Run, Chickasaw Bayou, Tunnel Hill, and Kennesaw Mountain were all repulsed. Reid believes that the unexpected death of his son, Willy, contribut ed to a despondent Sherman not doing the painstaking reconnaissance at Chattanooga for which he was renowned. Reid also faults Sherman for missing an opportunity on the second day of the Battle of Jonesboro to destroy and capture William Hardee’s Corps. Where Professor Reid sees exceptional brilliance in Sherman is at both the operational and strate gic level. The general’s superb lo gistical understanding and preparation allowed him, in the 90-day Atlanta Campaign, to “consistently outthink and outmaneuver Joseph Johnston.” After capturing Atlanta and ensuring the re-election of Presiden Lincoln, Sherman boldly set out for Savannah in his famous March to the Sea. Both Liddell Hart and Brian Reid praise Sherman for paring his army back to his 62,000 fittest soldier creating a mobile fighting force that lived primarily off the country. Reid also puts a spotlight on Sherman’s expert use of pontoon trains to ensure that his columns were never held up by large rivers in Georgia or the Carolinas. From a strategic perspective, Reid notes that Sherman understood, more than any other military leader, the psychological destruction he was inflicting on the South’s international prestige and internal self-respect. Foreign
governments could never recognize a Southern nation while a Northern army was moving rapidly and unchecked through its hinterland. This point leads naturally to Reid’s most controversial
assertion that Sherman’s wanton plunder and burning of civil and
vation set in after the departure Federal troops. Sherman’s orders “to spare nothing” was directed
primarily at the property of prominent slaveholders who, in the mind of the general, had led the Southern people to a false rebellion. Reid writes that it was the
later tenets of the Lost Cause that have given Sherman “a wholly false diabolic presence in this self-indulgent and self-serving folklore of victimhood.” Professor Reid also sees in William T. Sherman a “dazzling literary stylist,” whose published writings and reports are cogent and eminently quotable. Reid uses this correspondence to explore the general’s evolving and complicated relationships with Ulysses Grant, Henry Halleck, John McClernand, Joseph Hooker, Henry Stanton, and, above all, his wife Ellen. It was her Ewing connections and letter writing prowess that was instrumental in Sherman’s reinstatement to command after his temporary breakdown in November 1861. Brian Reid’s biography of General Sherman is deeply researched, written at an academic level, and filled with historical insight and commentary. Its pages will be enjoyed by readers who already have a firm grasp on how the Civil War was won and lost. Sherman’s strikingly individualistic personality shines throughout this crisply written biography and Reid’s refined opinions are welcome, whether the reader ultimately accepts or rejects them. The author appropriately closes his new book with a quote from Rutherford B. Hayes, who described William T. Sherman, quite simply, as “the most interesting and original character in the world.” Finally, as good as Reid’s contribution is to an understanding of the mercurial Sherman, this is not to say that American biographers have nothing important to say about General William Tecumseh
Sherman. In the last twenty years, Sherman has drawn full-length biographies from Lee Kenneth
The Atlanta Campaign The American Civil War was the first war in w
used entrenchments, repeating rifles, ironcla communications. It was also the first American War to be exte Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O having made iconic photographs in the Civil W
George N. Barnard deserves to be ranked in th work in the war’s western theater. A civilian photographer hired by Gen. William
take pictures of fortifications around Atlant them in and around the city in the fall of 18 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s death in 1864. Thus far, no comprehensive, definitive listin Atlanta Campaign presents a riveting work. The Library of Congress has 130 images; the U Point, New York, has at least 98 photographs, collection of George Barnard’s camera Other repositories, such as the Gilder Lehrma New York City, have smaller collections.
For this book we have chosen a hundred images work. Most of the photographs are from other students may wonder at some of our sele
We hope that this work will stimulate further
Barnardiana, and that other scholarly volumes Barnard’s time in Atlanta, mid-September
Federal occupation of the city. 128 pages, photographs,
advances the scholarly literature of ISBN: 978-1-61850-151-6.
(2001), John Eisenhower (2014) Robert O’Connell (2014), and James McDonough (2016). The last word, from this side of t pond, is, in my opinion, James Lee McDonough’s 816-page William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life. The author of nine books the western theater, McDonough a professor emeritus of histor Auburn University, put his lif time of scholarship behind a n anced analysis of Sherman as a military general and as a note American icon. Readers of Civi War history are without questi blessed to have so much recent scholarship published on one o America’s most gifted military leaders.
Cliff Roberts is the President General Barton and Stovall His & Heritage Association and cothor of Atlanta’s Fighting 42n Joseph Johnston’s “Old Guard”, published by Mercer University Press in 2020.
Directory is out. To view or download a free copy visit:
The American Civil War was the first war in w
both sides widely used entrenchments, repeati rifles, ironclad warships, and telegraphed communications. It was also the first America War to be extensively photographed. Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O’Sulliv are famous for having made iconic photographs
in the Civil War’s eastern theater. George N.
Barnard deserves to be ranked in this top tie
theater. A civilian photographer hired by Gen
pictures of fortifications around Atlanta, Ba
took several hundred of them in and around th
of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s death
the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. Thus fa comprehensive, definitive listing has been ma of the photographer’s work. For this book we chosen a hundred images we deem “significant.
for telltale clues. One of the most important e in the center, which Confederates had left
hief engineer in Hood’s army, called try for August 14, 1864, he remarked on , however, never assaulted the Confederate
