Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea | Noah Andre Trudeau

Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea | Noah Andre Trudeau | Southern Storm: Marching through Georgia with Uncle Billy Sherman and his army of bummers in 1864

books:

Southern Storm: Sh...

	Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea Noah Andre Trudeau Harper, 2008 - 688 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Award-winning Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeau has written a gripping, definitive new account that will stand as the last word on General William Tecumseh Sherman's epic march?a targeted strategy aimed to break not only the Confederate army but an entire society as well. With Lincoln's hard-fought reelection victory in hand, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, allowed Sherman to lead the largest and riskiest operation of the war. In rich detail, Trudeau explains why General Sherman's name is still anathema below the Mason-Dixon Line, especially in Georgia, where he is remembered as "the one who marched to the sea with death and devastation in his wake."

Sherman's swath of destruction spanned more than sixty miles in width and virtually cut the South in two, badly disabling the flow of supplies to the Confederate army. He led more than 60,000 Union troops to blaze a path from Atlanta to Savannah, ordering his men to burn crops, kill livestock, and decimate everything that fed the Rebel war machine. Grant and Sherman's gamble worked, and the march managed to crush a critical part of the Confederacy and increase the pressure on General Lee, who was already under siege in Virginia.

Told through the intimate and engrossing diaries and letters of Sherman's soldiers and the civilians who suffered in their path, Southern Storm paints a vivid picture of an event that would forever change the course of America.

for more information click here

You get to join the left and right wings in the march from Atlanta to the taking of Savannah

Sherman's so-called "March to the Sea" is the stuff of American legend. The popular view of it as Total War with the goal of attacking civilians is utterly wrong. Nor was it, as Sherman later claimed, a mere relocation of headquarters from Atlanta to a port on the sea at Savannah. Noah Andre Trudeau takes us through the entire campaign including its origins, and a very detailed and almost day-by-day and mile-by-mile process of Sherman's forces through the forests and swamps of Georgia in November and December of 1864.

The campaign had a general intention, but not a detailed plan. Sherman's forces were 60,000 strong and hand sufficient food and arms to keep those men fed and armed for more than a month, if need be. The line of marching troops and hundreds of wagons were miles long. At the end, the supplies remained almost completely in tact because of the extensive foraging activities. Sixty-thousand men will eat an enormous amount of food each day and it is these foraging activities that caused most of the destruction of civilian goods. While there were some cities along the way that bore the brunt of Sherman's anger, for example the town of Millen near Camp Lawton, a Confederate prison camp for Union soldiers, was ordered destroyed in a "tenfold more devilish" manner than the commander of the Seventeenth Corps had ever dreamed of. Most of the time, guards were put around the homes and the civilians were protected in their homes and the property in the homes was left in tact. However, many of these people had hidden their goods outside and those, when found, were taken by the soldiers.

The citizens were left very vulnerable when their yams, pigs, beeves, horses, and other goods usable by Sherman's army were taken. These people couldn't simply go and get food at a nearby store and their neighbors surely suffered a similar fate. So, yes, there was terrible civilian hardship after such a large army passed through. But the notion that there was a continuous path of burning and murder from Atlanta to the sea is fantastically overblown. One of the interesting aspects of this campaign is the hundreds and thousands of slaves who left their homes to free themselves and follow the army. However, the army told them to go back home because the army could not and would not provide for them. At times, the army pulled up its pontoons and bridges immediately after crossing to leave slaves on the bank and unable to cross. Yet, many still found ways to cross (some probably drowned) and stayed with the army. Later some were used as laborers to lay corduroy (split logs laid crossways over the road) to enable the army to pass over mud.

The Confederate forces were quite ineffective in trying to stand against or even harass Sherman's army. The author places most of the blame for this on Jefferson Davis's empowering separate armies without a central command. The various commanders did not have sufficient force to do any more than sting Sherman's army and had no one to unify the forces. Nor did the civilians answer the call for 10,000 more volunteers.

The taking of Fort McAllister is fascinating reading. The preparation was extensive and the actual battle was over in less than a half-hour. Most of the fatalities on the Union side were caused by the "torpedoes", the word used at that time for what we call land mines. They were used to impede the progress of the army towards Savannah. Sherman ordered the Confederate prisoners of war be used to dig them up and remove them. This act was controversial then and remains so today. Sherman's view is that if they didn't want their soldiers blown up by the torpedoes they should not have planted them. He certainly wasn't going to endanger his men in that work. The taking of Savannah was more or less an abandonment and surrender. There was no battle and the Confederates scuttled some ships, most notably the spectacular explosion of the ironclad "Savannah", and burned some supplies that might have aided Sherman's army. The Rebels were ineffective in spiking their heavy guns, which the Union easily repaired and took for their own use.

This very interesting, well-written, and informative book also has a section of contemporary images and a list of the forces and their commanders for both the Union and the Confederacy during Sherman's march. There are also extensive footnotes, a detailed bibliography, and a very helpful index.

I think this is a superb book and recommend it strongly.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

for more information click here

Southern Storm: Marching through Georgia with Uncle Billy Sherman and his army of bummers in 1864

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)was along with US Grant the commander who won the Civil War for the United States. Noah Andre Trudeau, author of several outstanding books on the Civil War, has published this long
book on the famous Sherman March to the Sea which transpired from November 15, 1864 to the capture of Savannah in December 1864.
Trudeau has assembled a vast array of first person letters, the Official Records, primary and secondary books and maps to chronicle in detail this amazing odyssey against a faltering and soon to be defeated Confederacy.
Sherman achieved victory in the bloody Atlanta Campaign capturing that important city in September 1864. In November his rested, well equipped and well fed army launched out towards the southeast to plunder, punish, burn and destroy all who might stand in their way on the trip to the coast Sherman's blue clad troopers would be asked to forsake long supply lines by foraging off the rich stores to be found in Georgia.
Sherman's 60.000 men, thousands of mules and horses along with wagons was divided into two huge wings led by General OO Howard leading the right wing and Henry Slocum the commander of the left wing. These men were good subordinates to Sherman. The campaign was well planned and executed. It has become a template of how a campaign can be organized.
They were oppossed by fighting Joe Wheeler and his cavalry force which proved ineffective against the blue clad snake that was Sherman and his forces. Beaureguard was the overall rebel commander but proved inept in marshalling the Georgia State Militia and troops to defeat the Yankees.
Trudeau divides his book into the following sections:
a. Atlanta to Milledgville (then the state capital) November 15-24
b. Milledgeville to Millen-November 30-December 4th
c. Millen to Savannah-December 5-30
d. Savannah-Dec. 11, 1864-January 21, 1865
In an unusual and effective format Trudeau looks in detail at each day of the march through the eyes of soldiers on both sides, civilians, African-Americans and government and military officials. This gives us a new perspective on the march. These accounts run the gamut from the humorous to the tragic. Trudeau also does well portraying the thought, fears and hopes of the thousands of African-American slaves liberated by the Yankees.
It is clear from reading this book that:
a. it was no cakewalk! Every day the men of Sherman's army faced constant sniping from the enemy and outraged citizens, rain, mud, cold and recalcitrant mules and horses. Destroying railroads was not an easy task.
b. Southern leaders did not know where Sherman was heading when he left the Gate City of Atlanta. Macon? Augusta? Savannah? No one knew for sure until the Ohioan left Millen beaded for Atlanta. Sherman was left free to roam through Dixie as Confederate General John Bell Hood had swung his forces north towards Tennessee where he was soundly whipped by Union General George Thomas in the battle of Nashville in December, 1864.
c. The march effectively cut the shrinking Confederacy in two. Along with Grant's triumphs against Lee in the Eastern Theatre and the re-election of Lincoln the war would soon end with Union victory. Sherman would leave Savannah after his victory to plunder and punish the South in the Carolinas.
d. Sherman made the South howl by taking his destructive brand of warfare against a populace who had not felt the hard hand of war upclose and personal. Over 300 miles were trod by Sherman's boys consisting mainly of boys from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana although there were troops from the east who also served under Uncle Billy. A wide swath of destruction 60 miles wide made Sherman a hated name in the region for a century or more.
e. War is hell and these pages testify to that truism. We see people lose their loved ones, homes, farms, livestock and their own lives. War is never glamorous but is always cruel.
f. There were small battles which were fought such as Waynesboro, battles in front of Macon and most notably the scaling of Fort McAllister near Savannah which was soon seized by Sherman's army.
This book will become the source Civil War scholars and buffs turn to for the latest and best account of this pivotal Civil War campaign. Marching through Georgia will never seem the same to those who enjoy military history spun like a tale well told by a master of the craft.

for more information click here

Comparing Southern Storm with Eye Witness Account

I have copies of the diaries of Martin Curtis Tyler who served with the pontoon train in the right wing of Sherman's army as part of Company E Fourteenth Wisconsin. On Friday December 9,1864 he wrote " We have traveled through a pine forest all day, the forage is scarce and we have only got 1 load of corn and the mules only get 4 ears of corn each night. We got no sweet potatoes & the 25 Wisconsin was sent from our PT train for stealing ours last night. We came 14 miles & was brought to a halt at 3pm & turned off the road to the right & 1 1/4 mile to the Ogeeche River & laid the PT to let the troops cross that came on the other side of the river & they will not be here until tomorrow morn." If you compare this to Trudeau's description of action on the same day, you can appreciate the work involved in combining the accounts of numerous diaries so that an accurate and consistent description is given of the march. Trudeau gives a very useful overview of the march while providing enough detail to identify the daily account in individual diaries. If you think the book is dull and tedious then you should read one of the diaries to understand that the daily life of the troops was dull and tedious. There are few cheering crowds, a lot of mud that the wagons had to be pushed through and a very uncertain supply of food and clothing. Thank you Noah Trudeau for an honest account of the march to the sea and those responsible for carrying out the necessary work.
Marcia Roth

for more information click here

Boring subject, handled well.

Sherman's march to the sea was important strategically and psychologically, but as a military adventure it was little more than a logistical achievement. Trudeau captures its essence well - 600 pages of soldier accounts that, "We went foraging today, found some hogs and sweet potatoes." The next day would be the same. After a while, the litany gets tedious. He gives a good sense of Southern outrage at the march, and some sense of the God-awful disorder of the South's military, but i felt he could have done much more with the later. All in all, I do not think the project was either worthy of Trudeau's considerable talents or he would have been better served to raise his sights and assess the march's larger impacts. The march and it's subsequent effort through South Carolina affected the South for generations. It broke the South psychologically. Trudeau kept his writing largely with the foot soldiers, and cavalry skirmishes, because that's about all there was to it militarily. I think that the work suffers for that, because that really wasn't where Sherman's real impact was. I had just finished Trudeau's remarkable book on Gettysburg and was expecting more.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

products you might be interested in