Average customer rating:
- Civil War: historical fiction
- A fragmented soap opera
- Very readable.
- Character vignettes, but depth
- A Story of the Effect of War on the Participant
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The March: A Novel
E.L. Doctorow
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Binding: Paperback
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Doctorow, E.L.
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ASIN: 0812976150
Release Date: 2006-09-12 |
Amazon.com
As the Civil War was moving toward its inevitable conclusion, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched 60,000 Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, leaving a 60-mile-wide trail of death, destruction, looting, thievery and chaos. In The March, E.L. Doctorow has put his unique stamp on these events by staying close to historical fact, naming real people and places and then imagining the rest, as he did in Ragtime.
Recently, the Civil War has been the subject of novels by Howard Bahr, Michael Shaara, Charles Frazier, and Robert Hicks, to name a few. Its perennial appeal is due not only to the fact that it was fought on our own soil, but also that it captures perfectly our long-time and ongoing ambivalence about race. Doctorow examines this question extensively, chronicling the dislocation of both southern whites and Negroes as Sherman burned and destroyed all that they had ever known. Sherman is a well-drawn character, pictured as a crazy tactical genius pitted against his West Point counterparts. Doctorow creates a context for the march: "The brutal romance of war was still possible in the taking of spoils. Each town the army overran was a prize... There was something undeniably classical about it, for how else did the armies of Greece and Rome supply themselves?"
The characters depicted on the march are those people high and low, white and black, whose lives are forever changed by war: Pearl, the newly free daughter of a white plantation owner and one of his slaves, Colonel Sartorius, a competent, remote, almost robotic surgeon; several officers, both Union and Confederate; two soldiers, Arly and Will, who provide comic relief in the manner of Shakespeare's fools until, suddenly, their roles are not funny anymore.
Doctorow has captured the madness of war in his description of the condition of a dispossessed Southern white woman: "What was clear at this moment was that Mattie Jameson's mental state befitted the situation in which she found herself. The world at war had risen to her affliction and made it indistinguishable." And later, " This was not war as adventure, nor war for a solemn cause, it was war at its purest, a mindless mass rage severed from any cause, ideal, or moral principle."
As we have come to expect, Doctorow puts the reader in the picture; never more so than in recalling "The March" and letting us see it as a cautionary tale for our times. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“E. L. Doctorow [is] always astonishing. . . . In The March, he dreams himself backward from The Book of Daniel to Ragtime to The Waterworks to the Civil War, into the creation myth of the Republic itself, as if to assume the prophetic role of such nineteenth-century writers as Emerson, Melville, Whitman, and Poe.”–John Leonard, Harper’s
In 1864, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman marched his sixty thousand troops through Georgia to the sea, and then up into the Carolinas. The army fought off Confederate forces, demolished cities, and accumulated a borne-along population of freed blacks and white refugees until all that remained was the dangerous transient life of the dispossessed and the triumphant. In E. L. Doctorow’s hands the great march becomes a floating world, a nomadic consciousness, and an unforgettable reading experience with awesome relevance to our own times.
“An Iliad-like portrait of war as a primeval human affliction . . . [welds] the personal and the mythic into a thrilling and poignant story.”
–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Splendid . . . carries us through a multitude of moments of wonder and pity, terror and comedy . . . with an elegiac compassion and prose of a glittering, swift-moving economy.” –John Updike, The New Yorker
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Praise for E. L. Doctorow
“E.L. Doctorow is a national treasure.”
–
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Beautifully written, meticulously plotted, scrupulously imagined.”
–
The New York Times Book Review, about Sweet Land Stories
“In the assured hands of Doctorow, City of God blooms with a humor and a humanity that carries triumphant as intelligent a novel as one might hope to find these days.”
–
Los Angeles Times, about City of God
“A ferocious feat of the imagination . . . Every scene is perfectly realized and feeds into the whole–the themes and symbols echoing and reverberating.”
–
Newsweek, about The Book of Daniel
“One devours it in a single sitting.”
–
The New York Times, about Ragtime
“Marvelous . . . You get lost in World’s Fair as if it were an exotic adventure. You devour it with the avidity usually provoked by a suspense thriller.”
–The New York Times, about World’s Fair
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Civil War: historical fiction.......2007-08-24
This was an excellant depiction of life as it may have been seen at the time of the Civil War, and most particularly during Sherman's march thru the south. The use of fictional characters gave the story a vibrancy and realism that probably could not have been portrayed thru fact alone. My book club loved it, and, we rarely all love the same book.
A fragmented soap opera.......2007-08-23
A psuedo-romance novel set inside Sherman's march to the sea and beyond. The disjoined story lines lead to a fragmented novel that reads like the script from a daytime TV soap opera. There is little historical insight or significance; in fact, quite the opossite, with the fabrication of events that didn't happen(assination attempts of Sherman??). Not recommended for fans of the civil war.
Very readable........2007-08-03
"The March" is a very readable account of Sherman's march through the South at the end of the civil war. The focus is on what it meant for the soldiers and civilians, not the politics or the strategy. At the same time, the characters are well drawn as individuals. Doctorow maintains an emotional distance from the horrors; while the reader is made aware of them, none of the characters followed as individuals in the novel starve, or suffer unbearable pain (one Southern woman is driven to the edge of madness, and several die). There are some powerful passages, but for the most part the writing does not draw attention to itself. It captures the March in a book of modest size, has interesting sub-plots, and I would highly recommend it. For a very different, but very good and more powerful take on a March, read Patrick Rambauds "The Retreat", on Napolean's retreat from Moscow.
Character vignettes, but depth.......2007-07-22
I'd echo the well-written review from Debra Crosby, but acknowledge that the book is a departure from normal form. It is not a traditional plot-driven novel and it is not really about Sherman's march. Instead, it is a collection of character vignettes, with "The March" the unifying thread.
There are a lot of characters, and it can take some time to get oriented. However, I believe Doctorow manages to create depth in each character despite each character being dedicated fewer pages than in a typical novel. Occasionally I felt like a character disappeared from the book before I expected, but this was a mild distraction because there were so many other characters to latch onto.
The novel is powerful, and in no event sanitizes the Civil War. You cannot read the book without wondering what it must have been like for north and south, civilian and soldier, black and white.
There is a fair amount of military strategy. Hard core Civil War buffs (e.g., fans of Shelby Foote) will not find enough detail regarding troop movements to satisfy them. I've read Foote's three-part Civil War narrative, but I would not describe myself as hard core. In my view, there is just enough to make it real without distracting from the characters. If you despise descriptions of "flanking maneuvers" and cavalry, however, there may be too much here for you. Of course, that's probably going to be true with respect to any historical fiction centered around a war.
Doctorow is a talented writer. If you are looking for a repeat of Ragtime or World's Fair (one of my favorite books), you will likely be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a well-written, sophisticated novel that evokes the power of civil war through several characters, I believe you will be happy with your read.
A Story of the Effect of War on the Participant.......2007-06-09
This is E L Doctorow's fictionalized story of "Sherman's March to the Sea". In late 1864 Sherman was give command of the 60,000 man 'Army of the West' and told to march through the heart of the Confederacy and bring it to its' knees. Sherman did just that by marching through Atlanta Georgia, Savannah and Columbia South Carolina and up through North Carolina through Raleigh to the Virginia border. Along the way his men foraged through the countryside while destroying cotton, railroads and anything else of use to the CSA.
Our story follows groups of people, including Sherman and his command as they travel through the South, we learn about the battles they fought and the losses they suffered. Along the way we also follow a rebel deserter, a freed slave (who can pass for white), an Irish volunteer from NYC (who is really a replacement for a wealthy man who paid him $300), an Army surgeon, the daughter of a southern Judge, and others.
Doctorow does a find job in presenting the death and destruction that was rained on the South by Sherman but he also give a human face to the people who fought and died for their convictions. He never misses a chance to make the Civil War as bloody as it was, nor does he ever put a shining smile on those who were in Slavery.
How true to life his description of Sherman is, is up to debate, but he makes the man human and though he was 'Uncle Billy' to the men who served under him and idolized him. He talks about how the pain of sending men to their death is never easy but is a trade-off for ending the War as fast as possible. The most startling thing that Doctorow found in his research was that Sherman, Confederate General Hardy and President Lincoln all lost sons named Willie during the war; one in battle (Hardy) and the other two to disease. All of them were under seventeen years of age.
The March shows that war is not a pleasant diversion and spending your days killing other men is not the 'glorious' ideal it is sometimes made out to be (just ask any combat veteran).
Customer Reviews:
A look at 'Uncle Billy's boys.......2004-01-27
This book contains an examination of the army that General William Tecumseh Sherman led through Georgia and the Carolinas, in late 1864 and early 1865. Instead of being just another narrative of the March to the Sea and Carolina campaigns, however, Glatthaar's book is a look at the individuals that composed the army. In it, he examines the social and ideological backgrounds of the men in Sherman's army, and evaluates how they felt about various factors of the war--slavery, the union, and, most significantly, the campaign in which they were participating. The result is a fascinating look at Sherman's campaigns through the eyes of the everyday soldier. Glatthaar makes the army come alive, and shows the men not as heartless animals who delighted in wanton destruction, not as mechanized marching machines who could perform the most difficult marches without even flinching, but instead as real human beings, complete with sore feet, empty stomachs, and minds engaged in contemplation over the ethical ramifications of what they were doing to the people of the South.
This book, and others like it (such as James McPherson's For Cause and Comrades), is a refreshing change from the norm in Civil War history. The value of this book lies in its helping the reader understand that the war was fought by individuals, not masses of blue and gray, and that these individuals felt and thought a great deal about the cause they were engaged in. I have read much on the subject of Sherman's march, but never before this book did I truly feel like I understood the mentality of the 60,000 man army he led. This book will not give you a detailed and thorough account of Sherman's campaigns, but it will give anyone who already is somewhat familiar with the marches an incredible amount of insight that, I believe, cannot be gained elsewhere.
A view of the war from ground level.......2000-08-10
I have to confess a bias; Professor Glatthaar taught me US history in my first semester of college and was a very engaging, entertaining and clear teacher.
This book is history of the very best kind. It is extensively documented from primary sources, it is well written and draws the reader in and the text of the book is free from cumbersome and often distracting academic citation apparatus. It also has selected a topic of almost epic proportions.
The March to the Sea, coming on the heels of the devastating fall of Atlanta was the straw that broke the South's back. After years of war and the related hardships, the devastation that this march produced in the South dealt a death blow to the South's war effort.
In one of the great strategic decisions of the war, Sherman breaks his lines of communication and supply and, like a modern day nuclear sub, disappears only to resurface at Savannah. The freedom of movement that this decision allowed made this march even more effective.
Further, the productivity of the South, even after years of warfare is evidenced. The author presents data showing an increase in the weight of soldiers due to the richness of the diet they were able to secure from those unfortunate enough to be in the path of Sherman's army.
To quibble with a prior reviewer, this is not a novel. This is academic history of the best sort but written in a easy and accesible manner. A great book.
Learn more about Sherman's Soldiers- in their own words.......2000-02-27
Joseph Glatthaar wrote this book in order to examine Sherman's march across the South "from the level of the common soldier, both enlisted and officer". In the introduction he states that by writing the book from this perspective, he hoped "to restore the reality of the campaigns, to understand the underlying motivation of Sherman's men for adopting a policy of devestation and to shed light on the total-war concept in military history".
Mr. Glatthaar's efforts have resulted in this very informative and engaging book. I did not know a lot about Sherman's Army before reading this book, and feel that I now have a much better understanding of the men who filled the ranks and led the regiments in their famous march to the sea. In his text, Mr. Glatthaar presents many quotes directly from letters and diaries written by Sherman's men, which really enhances the story and his conclusions.
I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn about Sherman's Army- why it was successful, why it adopted a policy of total war, destroying much of the South, and why it remains controversial to this day.
A great justice in the portrayal of MG Sherman's force........1997-03-28
Individuals who belong to a Civil War reenacting association, history buffs, and serious scholars of the Civil War will all find quiet enjoyment in Joseph Glatthaar's historical novel on Major General Sherman's march to Savannah and through the Carolinas. Glatthaar's perspective of bringing the war down to the level of the individual soldier is not always found in historical novels. He writes about the soldier's innermost feelings, not about the glorious generals, the great armies, or the magnificent campaigns. I believe that individual battles do not win wars, but that it is the men composing the fighting force that can turn a potential devastating defeat into a glorious victory. Mr. Glatthaar has done a great justice in his portrayal of the men who conducted the march to the sea and beyond. I would highly recommend the book to anyone who wishes better to understand the soldiers that fought for Sherman
Book Description
Sherman's March is the vivid narrative of General William T. Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas in the closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life the dramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plundered their way through the South and those of the anguished -- and often defiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protect themselves and their family treasures, usually in vain. Dominating these events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops, the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered.
"What gives this narrative its unusual richness is the author's collation of hundreds of eyewitness accounts...The actions are described in the words, often picturesque and often eloquent, of those who were there, either as participants -- Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers -- in the fighting and destruction or as victims of Sherman's frank vow to 'make Georgia howl.' Mr. Davis intercuts these scenes with closeups of the chief actors in this nightmarish drama, and he also manages to give us a coherent historical account of the whole episode. A powerful illustration of the proposition put forth in Sherman's most famous remark." -- The New Yorker
Customer Reviews:
One Of The Best Books I've Read.......2007-10-12
This book is easy to read! The author does not write above or below the reader. It's a great straight forward book filled with a large amount of information. The information presented will be appreciated by Civil War buffs of any level. He covers both the military and civilian angles.
And Now for the Details..........2007-09-30
I have been a Civil War buff all my life and thought I knew a fair amount of detail on all of the major engagements of the war. However, until I read "Sherman's March", I really didn't know anything about his post-Atlanta campaign except that he marched to Savannah. Presumably his soldiers fought battles along the way and presumably they did something after capturing Savannah but I guess my curiosity never led me to find out more. It was in the Atlanta campaign that my great great grandfather was captured so I thought I should find out what happened after that.
What the author, Burke Davis, chronicles is what exactly DID happen after the fall of Atlanta. He has put together a fascinating account of the March to the Sea (and beyond) by compiling first-hand accounts of the events of the campaign. Sherman's men found little oppostition after Atlanta but their march had a devestating effect on the South. The brutal, unforgiving thievery that his foragers and "bummers" committed led to a great loss of resources and morale for the Southern folks. What few battles there were did not register on the richter scale of war but the destruction wrought by his troops was of tsunami proportion. There is much about the various communities put to the torch (beginning with Atlanta) and focussing on Columbia, SC. There is also much to suggest that Sherman was guilty of oversight by not maintaining tight control over his troops. His attitude was that the South needed to learn the consequences of their wrongly conceived rebellion. The sooner their morale was broken, the sooner the war would end and the fewer number of soldiers would become casualties (on both sides). While the reader may find truth in Sherman's attitude, it is hard not to become enraged at the extent of the mayhem.
Davis also presents a fair amount of information of the slaves that were freed along the way and the attitude of the different Union Generals towards their emacipation. In the 21st Century it is pretty commonly felt that the Civil War was about slavery. However, a significant percentage of the Union's fighting men felt the issue of the South's secession from the Union was the cause they were fighting for, Sherman included. Nonetheless, they used the freed slaves whenever it was to their advantage and abandoned them when it wasn't.
Sherman's concept of a large army invading deep into enemy territory with no lifeline of support was a challenging concept at the time and its' success influenced military strategy thereafter. Although Davis documents that the soldiers were able to take far more than they needed, it was still an impressive campaign. There were plenty of things the men did without for roughly six months; clothing, pay, letters from home, and many other things that the Army of the Potomac took for granted.
After Savannah, their march through the Carolinas spelled the defeat of the South and Davis does a good job of detailing Sherman's significant involvement in the war's end. There was controversy surrounding that and Sherman found himself at odds with the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. Davis concludes by giving us a brief synopsis of the rest of Sherman's life after the war.
During the first chapter I was apprehensive about Davis's style of writing but the rest of the book made me appreciate his approach to the subject. His frequent use of primary sources was helpful yet not overdone. His writing gave way to some editorial comments but, overall, I thought the book was pretty well balanced. I gave it 5 stars because, after the first chapter, I couldn't put it down and because I learned so much about an aspect of the Civil War that no one else seems to make much mention of.
Unrelenting aggressive slash and burn good read.......2007-06-29
Based upon civilian, military, and reporters eyewitness accounts. Davis' wonderfully written account of this mercurial Union general's march through the South moves along at a fast pace. There are those who would have us believe Sherman was just a troubled man and his military actions were inhuman; he may, in part, had these attributes, but we shouldn't disregard his compassion. His brilliance as a military leader is unquestionable; ruthless against the enemy but sensitive to the woman and children. I found myself shaking my head with sorrow through one paragraph only to switch to a chuckle on the very next. The bibliography is extensive.
Beginning with the fall of Atlanta, we follow the unrelenting aggressive slash and burn total warfare of General Sherman's Union troops, and then the final march into Raleigh. The strategy was to beat the Rebels into submission----a quicker end to the war. Although not stated in the book, I think the "march" introduced the creation of mobile warfare. Sherman to wife Ellen: "there are some very elegant people here who I knew in better days and who do not seem ashamed to call on the 'Vandal Chief'. They regard us just as the Romans did the Goths and the parallel is not unjust. Many of my men with red beards and stalwart frames look like giants". In battle was not the only way a soldier lost his life: many union troops died after a forced march back home; despicable and troubling. The finale march was a victory parade through Pennsylvania Avenue.
There are stories of rescue and caring among the carnage, such as the feeding of confederate families. Davis does a good job of showing the human side of the lives of the confederate people. Atrocities occurred on both sides; alcohol and the lax in discipline were no doubt the culprit in the burning of property. Sherman made the mistake of overextending negotiations for surrender; he was relieved, but Grant kept him on; only small changes were made in negotiations. Sherman to a friend: "General Grant is a great general. I know him well. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he ws drunk; and not, sir, we stand by each other always". Just a note: the free press aided the enemy then as it does so today.
"It was to be almost a century before military scholars proclaimed the general as the most original and influential of Civil War field commanders, whose concepts forecast developments in the twentieth century."
Wish you well
Scott
A Genuine Thriller.......2006-12-14
Some of us who neither grew up in, nor have familial roots in the deep south sometimes find it difficult to fathom why many of our born and bred Redneck brethern are still upset about the Civil War. This book gave me understanding. It also ignited in me an abiding passion for American history that my high school and college courses completely failed to stimulate.
Comparing "Sherman's March" to Michael Schaara's "Killer Angels" [which I also enjoyed hugely]... I'd say Schaara's book is a very fine historical novel... but in "Sherman's March" Burke Davis has accomplished the IMO much more difficult task of rendering rigorously-documented history so that it reads as if it were a novel.
An excellent narrative of Sherman's march.......2006-07-03
I really enjoyed this book. it was well worth the purchase price and turned out to be better than I actually expected. The only thing that would have made it better would have been the inclusion of detailed maps. This book is an excellent historical narrative, filled with many eyewitness accounts. The idividual stories gave the book an emtional impact I didn't expect.
Book Description
Even after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, the Civil War continued to be fought, and surrenders negotiated, on different fronts. The most notable of these occurred at Bennett Place, near Durham, North Carolina, when Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union General William T. Sherman. In this first full-length examination of the end of the war in North Carolina, Mark Bradley traces the campaign leading up to Bennett Place.
Alternating between Union and Confederate points of view and drawing on his readings of primary sources, including numerous eyewitness accounts and the final muster rolls of the Army of Tennessee, Bradley depicts the action as it was experienced by the troops and the civilians in their path. He offers new information about the morale of the Army of Tennessee during its final confrontation with Sherman's much larger Union army. And he advances a fresh interpretation of Sherman's and Johnston's roles in the final negotiations for the surrender.
Customer Reviews:
A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH SIDES - EXCELLENT DETAIL.......2006-11-08
Without doubt Bradley's book does justice to each side all the way from the Generals to local people in
Chapel Hill to Raleigh. It fails to note Bennett Place was in Orange County at the time. Durham county did not exsist
until 1868 when it was carved out of Orange Co. I had a 3 Great-grandfather, CSA Col, who was killed at Bentonville, NC
James Henry Neal.
His daughter lived until 1935 when she died in Atlanta Ga. She as a child of 6 living in Atlanta Ga.during the
"March To The Sea" Gen. Sherman set-up his HQ in her mother's kitchen, my gg-aunt Louise Neal, served Sherman biskets.
I have many hand-written letters by John White and his daughters Laura and Delia who discussed Chapel Hill
immediately after the war in 1865.John White eventually became U.S. Postmater in Chapel Hill for three years and later left that job to be Orange County Sheriff twice.
Bradley's book is a wealth of knowledge of events ocurring on the local scene.
Sherman conducted several military trials in Raleigh of civilians and soldiers alike. I have original documents and judgements of the
officer's tribunal. Each were charged with various offenses from plundering to murder.AT least 2 soldiers and 1 civilian were
sentenced to death,only to have Grant void the verdicts with Pres.Andrew Johnson's permission.
A Fascinating Read on the Last Days of the Civil War in North Carolina!.......2006-07-25
Mark Bradley has written a most excellent account of the last days of the Civil War in North Carolina between Joseph Johnston and William Sherman. Being a North Carolina native and having visited and traveled through many of the places in the book, I was particularly interested.
The book is not so much a detailed account of the last battles in North Carolina (Bentonville, Averasboro, Wyse Fork, Fort Fisher, etc.) as it is the military and political maneuvering between the two generals - Johnston in attempting to gain favorable surrender terms for his army and Sherman attempting to be lenient with the South at the end of the war. Indeed, aside from the aforementioned battles, most encounters between North and South during the last days in North Carolina were no more than brief skirmishes.
I particulary enjoyed reading the accounts of the Union occupation of Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Goldsboro. Having lived in Goldsboro and Raleigh earlier in my life, I enjoyed reading the accounts. Also interesting were the accounts of the Rebel occupation of Greensboro and Charlotte.
Throughout the book, Bradley manages to incorporate several interesting anecdotes: the unfortunate luck of Rebel Lietenant Walsh from Texas, the marriage of Northern General Atkins' courtship and marriage to a Chapel Hill lady, etc.
Bradley's writing style is interesting and maintains a fine balance between being a free-flowing read, just like his excellent Battle of Bentonville title.
Read and enjoy! Highly recommended.
Great Companion to "Last Stand in the Carolinas!".......2004-05-04
Mark Bradley has written an excellent companion book to his "Last Stand in the Carolinas," which has currently gone out of print. In this volume, Mr. Bradley picks up where he left off, following Johnston and Sherman from Bentonville to the surrender of the Army of Tennessee at Durham, North Carolina. Bradley's writing is, as in his other book, great!
But missing from "This Astounding Close," are the excellent maps created the very skilled cartographer Mark Moore. The maps provided are not bad--they are actually quite good--but they could have been better. The small numbers of maps left me wanting more, especially ones detailing the smaller skirmishes taking place during the maneuvering in North Carolina. If the maps had been better and mpre plentiful, I would have given the book five starts instead of four.
Being from the South, I have always considered Sherman and his subordinates nothing short of the devil-incarnate. But from this book, I gained a new respect for these men and saw the softer side of them. Bradley depicts how John "Black Jack" Logan saved Raleigh from destruction at the hands of raged Federal troops intent on avenging Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mr. Bradley also told of how lenient Sherman was toward the surrendering Confederate troops and toward the civilians of North Carolina, especially after the surrender. Sherman even offered Johnston and his troops much kinder terms than those given to Robert E. Lee at Appomattox! But Northern politicians saw these terms as too soft and evetually gave Johnston the same terms given to Lee.
This is a very good book; no doubt a great addition to my rapidly growing Civil War library. Before reading this volume, I knew next to nothing about Johnston's surrender at Durham, North Carolina, in the Bennet Farmhouse. If you are a Civil War buff get this book; if you are a military history buff, get this book! I got it, and am happy I did.
Johnston's Last Hurrah!.......2004-03-15
The Civil War didn't officially end with General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. General Joe Johnston's Army of the South and General Kirby Smith's forces in the Trans-Mississippi still remained in the field.
This is the story of the situation in North Carolina facing Johnston and Union General William Sherman after the Battle of Bentonville. The author presents both sides of the story along with the political pressures from Richmond and Washington.
There is not an abundance of information about Johnston's eventual surrender of the Army of the South and other forces under his command. The author is a leading authority about the 1865 North Carolina Campaign and presents an entertaining, interesting and scholarly review of the events after Bentonville.
Gripping portrait of the final days of the Army of Tennessee.......2000-10-06
Mark Bradley's second book is a worthy companion to his excellent book on Bentonville. This book takes a different approach, presenting the movements and subsequent surrender negotiations instead of the chaos of a pitched battle, but it works nontheless, infusing a different sort of drama and emotion. I found the descriptions of Sherman's army extremely interesting, and the fate of the Army of Tennessee was both moving and compelling. The book places the surrender of Johnston's army in its historical context, explaining the strong position that Johnston was negotiating from, and the possibility of uniting with Lee's army for another offensive, an event which worried Sherman greatly. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read Bradley's Bentonville work, as this provides the rest of the story. The only negative comment is that I miss the incredible maps by Mark Moore, which are not present in this work. Otherwise, Mark Bradley continues his tradition of a very readable first hand account.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book by a Great Author!
- An exciting book of historical fiction
- An exciting book of historical fiction
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Emma and the Civil Warrior
Candy Dahl
Manufacturer: Carolina Moon Pub Co
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0970635842 |
Book Description
This middle-grade, historical novel tells the little-known story of the seventeen days following the signing of the Appomattox Treaty. Emma Graham, 12, refuses to believe in the collapse of the Confederacy and actively defies the Union Army until "Lee's men" begin to arrive home from years of fighing. Her effort to accept the South's defeat pales beside more personal struggles. Lt. George Round, the Union Army's signal messenger, repeatedly befriends the Graham family, contradicting Emma's belief in "demon Yankees." And the father who returns to Emma is a different man from the precious image Emma has held in her heart for more than three years. Can Emma ever accept the truth of her situation and be happy again?
Customer Reviews:
Great Book by a Great Author!.......2003-04-28
Mrs. Dahl wrote a fantastic book about the history of Raleigh, and being a resident in Raleigh and a member of Christ church, this book covers a great deal of Raleighs history! great book!
An exciting book of historical fiction.......2001-09-18
Emma And The Civil Warrior is a novel for young adults, set in America 1865. Despite the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the brutal Civil War raged about Raleigh, North Carolina. Twelve-year-old Emma Graham dares to defy the 100,000 Union troops surrounding and occupying her city, by smuggling morphine, spying, and stealing an enemy code book. But her actions could have terrible consequences, for the rest of her family and for all Raleigh. Emma And The Civil Warrior is an exciting book of historical fiction; though its main heroine is an original character, nearly all of the cast are directly from U.S. history. A brief Author's Note at the end explains the connections between the story and the events that shaped the end of America's deadliest war. Emma And The Civil Warrior is also available in softcover
An exciting book of historical fiction.......2001-09-18
Emma And The Civil Warrior is a novel for young adults, set in America 1865. Despite the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the brutal Civil War raged about Raleigh, North Carolina. Twelve-year-old Emma Graham dares to defy the 100,000 Union troops surrounding and occupying her city, by smuggling morphine, spying, and stealing an enemy code book. But her actions could have terrible consequences, for the rest of her family and for all Raleigh. Emma And The Civil Warrior is an exciting book of historical fiction; though its main heroine is an original character, nearly all of the cast are directly from U.S. history. A brief Author's Note at the end explains the connections between the story and the events that shaped the end of America's deadliest war.
Customer Reviews:
Civil War enthusiasts should learn about this campaign!.......2000-03-26
Sherman's March to the Sea is well-known, however his subsequent campaign up through the Carolinas is not. Sherman is widely considered to be the inventor of manuever warfare, and as such this is required reading. It is little known that this campaign continued for 9 days after Appomattox!
READ THIS BOOK YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED
Book Description
“Tomorrow morning we set out on a campaign which will be remembered. God grant it aid to bring to a speedy end this terrible and lamentable war!” So wrote Major Henry Hitchcock on the eve of General William Sherman’s epic march across Georgia to the sea. Hitchcock, a new member of Sherman’s staff, was right about the fame, or infamy, that would attach to the campaign. His diaries and letters describe at first hand the destructive swath Sherman’s army cut through Georgia and the Carolinas. The major, religious and trained in the law, watches the burning and pillage with as much sorrow as satisfaction. If his sympathy for the Southern people is strong, so is his devotion to the Union and its unstoppable general.
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Coburn's Brigade: 85th Indiana, 33rd Indiana, 19th Michigan, and 22nd Wisconsin in the Western Civil War
Frank Welcher , and
Larry G. Ligget
Manufacturer: Cardinal Publishers Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1578600707 |
Book Description
The Northern brigade of John Coburn has gained a reputation both notorious and laudatory. Accused of gross misconduct (as these authors show, improperly) when Thompson's Station was surrendered in Tennessee, they were captured and sent to Libby Prison. Released, they were determined to redeem themselves in the mediocre assignments given to them by the Western army. Then, having regained the confidence of their superiors, this group of Midwesterners fought staunchly and credibly in the Atlanta Campaign--shining particularly at the Battle of Peachtree Creek and were the first unit into Atlanta after its fall. This unusual and detailed history of a brigade which stayed together the entire war shows a little different version of unit solidarity. Not every unit was universally glorious; too often we pretend that is so. This is the story of a unit which failed and then succeeded. 462 pages; 19 detailed maps; 40+ illustrations; nearly 1,500 endnotes.
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The Fiery Trail: A Union Officer's Account of Sherman's Last Campaigns
Thomas Ward Osborn
Manufacturer: University of Tennessee Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0870495003 |
Product Description
A day to day account of Sherman's march January-March 1865.
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