Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

by John F. Marszalek
Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

by John F. Marszalek

Paperback(1st Edition)

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Overview

Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order is the premier biography of William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War commander known for his “destructive war” policy against Confederates and as a consummate soldier. This updated edition of John F. Marszalek’s award-winning book presents the general as a complicated man who, fearing anarchy, searched for the order that he hoped would make his life a success.

Sherman was profoundly influenced by the death of his father and his subsequent relationship with the powerful Whig politician Thomas Ewing and his family. Although the Ewings treated Sherman as one of their own, the young Sherman was determined to make it on his own. He graduated from West Point and moved on to service at military posts throughout the South. This volume traces Sherman’s involvement in the Mexican War in the late 1840s, his years battling prospectors and deserting soldiers in gold-rush California, and his 1850 marriage to his foster sister, Ellen. Later he moved to Louisiana, and, after the state seceded, Sherman returned to the North to fight for the Union.

Sherman covers the general’s early Civil War assignments in Kentucky and Missouri and his battles against former Southern friends there, the battle at Shiloh, and his rise to become second only to Grant among the Union leadership. Sherman’s famed use of destructive war, controversial then and now, is examined in detail. The destruction of property, he believed, would convince the Confederates that surrender was their best option, and Sherman’s successful strategy became the stuff of legend.

This definitive biography, which includes forty-six illustrations, effectively refutes misconceptions surrounding the controversial Union general and presents Sherman the man, not the myth.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780809327850
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date: 11/08/2007
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 688
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range: 3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

John F. Marszalek is Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Mississippi State University.  His publications include several books on William T. Sherman, and biographies of Civil War general Henry W. Halleck, black West Point cadet Johnson C. Whittaker, black congressman George W. Murray, and the infamous Jacksonian, Peggy Eaton.  

Table of Contents


Preface     xi
Acknowledgments     xvii
Prologue     xxiii
Unstable Beginnings     1
Making Southern Friends     30
Gold Rush Soldier     52
Setting Down Roots     77
The Disorder of Financial Life     93
Contented Southern Schoolmaster     123
Reluctant Warrior Under Attack     140
Rebirth at Shiloh     171
Restoring Order to Memphis     188
Battling the Bayous to Reach the Vicksburg Fortress     202
Practicing Destructive War in Mississippi     232
Atlanta Falls     259
March to the Sea     288
Punishing South Carolina and Ensuring Victory     317
Fame Tarnished     334
National Hero and the South's Friend     360
Indian Country Chaos     377
The Anchor of Home     401
Commanding General versus the Politicians     422
Retiring from the Army and Refusing the Presidency     445
Safeguarding Historical Order     460
A Full Life Ends     479
Notes     501
Bibliography     587
Index     613
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