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The Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (Library of America)
The library of America is dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as the "finest-looking, longest-lasting editions ever made" (The New Republic), Library of America volumes make a fine gift for any occasion. Now, with exactly one hundred volumes to choose from, there ...more
Hardcover, 1136 pages
Published
October 1st 1990
by Library of America
(first published May 10th 1892)
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Amazon fulfillment of third-party offering, 2009-09-04. Surely one of the most fascinating and, pound-for-pound, realbadassmuthafuckas America's ever produced. If someone had to burn my hometown, I'm glad it was this guy. What would have been truly epic, in the Achilles/Ajax-and-Hector vein, would have been Sherman mixing it up with Bad Bedford Forrest, Duke of New York and most definitely H.N.I.C.:
A month later, Forrest was back in action at the Battle of Shiloh (April 6 to April 7, 1862). He c...more
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I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Sherman. Often remembered only as Grant's Right Hand and the Scourge of Georgia, he really comes to life in his own words. He is always thinking and analyzing and shows an appreciation of the world around him, natural, political, and militarily. This highly readable autobiography covers all of his work in the American Civil war as well as much of his earlier life. While the majority of the book deals with the Civil War (often going into the reeds to ...more
This is a terrific book. Sherman was undoubtedly the greatest Union general of the Civil War, and also among the most earnest about the necessity of preserving the Union. In fact, the greatest impression that I got from his memoirs was just how single-minded he actually was about ensuring that the United States, as originally compacted, would endure. Obviously, in his memoirs - written long after-the-fact - he would have taken care to present this impression, knowing well by then of its historic...more
Sherman's at his best for me
when he talks about a site I have visited
California at the transition
from Mexico to Statehood
for instance
The old Monterrey Customhouse
Yerba Buena
which became San Francisco
Sherman reported to Washington
on the discovery of gold
and helped set off
the Gold Rush of 1849
I spent a good deal of time
not necessarily deliberately
looking at his battle sites
along the Mississippi
and some...more
when he talks about a site I have visited
California at the transition
from Mexico to Statehood
for instance
The old Monterrey Customhouse
Yerba Buena
which became San Francisco
Sherman reported to Washington
on the discovery of gold
and helped set off
the Gold Rush of 1849
I spent a good deal of time
not necessarily deliberately
looking at his battle sites
along the Mississippi
and some...more
Cantankerous, opinionated, vigorously intelligent, full of integrity, insecure, vain, irrepressible: in addition to his strategic genius, Sherman was all these things, and all come out in his memoirs. They end shortly after he became General of the Army upon Grant's election to the presidency. What many will not know is that Sherman had more of the United States than perhaps any other prominent public figure of his time. He was involved in the gold rush, had been stationed in Florida, founded th...more
This book is lengthy, detailed and full of refferences to the Oficial Records... as one would expect from a book of this type and from an author of his fame and position. Broken into two volumes... the first contains 150 pages or so on Sherman's pre-Civil War army career in California and about 200 pages of his views on his actions prior to being placed in Command of the Military Division of the Mississippi before the Atlanta Campaign of 1864. The second volume contains close to 400 pages of inf...more
Extaordinary book. Ok, this book approaches 1,000 pages in length - yet read faster than most books I've read. The letters in the book are awesome - folks could just write well back in the 1800s. (Unlike this review). Although long, the writing is concise, informative, interesting and compelling. I literaly could not put it down and awoke several nights and read till dawn. I loved this book and recommend it to most anyone, not just civil war buffs. In fact his tales of California in the 1...more
Other than Chickamauga and the seige at Vicksburg, I have spent little of my civil war reading about the battles on the western front and I've read very little that talked in depth about Atlanta. Time to pick up some more books! That is the best thing about the civil war history is that it continually leads me to discover more avenues that I haven't read. I sort of got the idea that because he was so involved in banking during such a economically turbulent time and seemingly was respectable and...more
One of the very best military memoirs. Sherman was a genius in battle but he hated war: War is Hell. He saw that the way to break the South was to take war to the hotbed of succession and to create a swath of destruction to break the revolt. He was depressingly modern in his approach to war and his campaigns were studied well into te 20th century as a model for Blitzkreig. Ironically, the start of the war found him the head of the Louisiana military academy (later to be LSU) where he had gr...more
Inside the mind of one of the greatest military thinkers in history. If nothing else, read the section portraying the letters between Sherman and General Hood. Sherman's arguments in favor of the Federal point of view are brilliant.
Not quite as well written at Grant's memoirs. It is interesting to read this side by side with that book though to see the contrast between the two men. Also, how their paths veered after the war.
On NPR they were discussing the Civil War and its 150th anniversary. They mentioned that the autobiography of President Ulysses S Grant was very readable, so I first read it. Upon becoming involved in the Civil War, Grant found that Sherman was one of the few generals that he could count on to follow orders. If Grant asked Sherman to move his troops in two days, Sherman made it happen. This was not the case with the vast majority of other subordinates. Again this book is so well written and...more
Aside from the CW, which I haven't hit yet, Sherman offers a good deal of local color about life in the mid-19th century.
I have just started this book.
Was digging it, read the first volume, and need to buy a copy(had a library book) to read the second volume and get to the part about the March to the Sea, which is the whole reason I took the book on!
Tremendous, unique detail provided. It's easy to see how this is an indispensable reference for anyone writing about Vicksburg, Atlanta, or the March to the Sea. Unlike Grant, Sherman's memoirs has a good amount of original thought and also provides good ideas on the organization of the army that, while dated, should still be required reading for any cadet.
Melody
marked it as to-read
so far I have a love hate feeling about Sherman...mostly hate...ok, wait...I've seen a documentary on Sherman in the past few days and his "march to the sea" was pretty smart...he's a real bad ass!
Sherman was always one of my favorite generals in the Civil War, even though I disapprove of what he did to the Indians after the war. This is a look inside the thinking of the man.
The memoirs of the head of Union cavalty operations during the Civil War and a departmental commander in the west after the war during Reconstruction and the Indian Wars.
Sherman was a strange man, but consistent
Morgan
is currently reading it
so far so good
JPSteve
marked it as to-read
Mark
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Kathleen
marked it as to-read
Timothy
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Aj
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“You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.”
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