Sherman's March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era) Review

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Sherman's March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era) ReviewReading history is something many of us enjoy. The lives of the great or near great, political movements, wars, migrations all of these things are enjoyable reads. Reading how an event becomes "history" is different from reading history. There are no great moments or dramatic incidents, no bugles, no charging cavalry or great speeches. Instead, we have a newspaper reports, articles in magazines, speeches and letter. Taken together, these items determine our remembrance of the event.
This well written book is a history of how Sherman and the March were "garbled, huckstered and gilded". This is a history of Sherman, the development of the Lost Cause Tradition and how the March clashed with the Reconciliation Tradition in the years following the war. Remembering the war, who writes the history and what is said, occupies much of America's attention from about 1870 to 1920. A great deal is at stake, the people involved are very serious about what history of the war will say. Sherman's March through Georgia is one of the crucial events of the war and all factions have much to say. The March, destroyed Southern resistance by showing how helpless the South was. Humiliating and destructive, it cut the heart out of the Confederacy breaking civilian resolve as it destroyed the infrastructure.
The book starts with a good discussion of the development of the ideas that lead to the March and the immediate it has impact on the war. After that, the book follows Sherman from the end of the war to his death covering his relationship with the GAR and the South. The South's reactions to Sherman are complex and careful. While a major figure in the South's defeat, he is a firm friend. During his life, this duality coupled with Reconciliation needs and fears of Reconstruction produces some odd reactions. After his death as the Lost Cause Tradition takes hold, coverage becomes more caustic. The death of the veterans makes things worse as the story grows. The South's reactions in the early twentieth century are a revelation and show how the Lost cause tradition gained power as the generation that fought the war passed away.
Sherman and the March are great press. We have a comprehensive survey of them in print, song, plays and movies. Along the way, this helps us understand how we make "history". That history is not a collection of names and dates but a shared remembrance and accepted ideas.
This is not an easy read. The authors write in a scholarly style that can make for slow reading. They do have the ability to illustrate some complex ideas and people with a few good sentences. Their presentation is as lively as the subject allows. I do not consider this an enjoyable book. I am interested in how the "history" of the war came into being and how it is changing. This is an excellent book on how Sherman and the March is seen and why.Sherman's March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era) OverviewGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea" in 1864 burned a swath through the cities and countryside of Georgia and into the history of the American Civil War.As they moved from Atlanta to Savannah-destroying homes, buildings, and crops; killing livestock; and consuming supplies-Sherman and the Union army ignited not only southern property, but also imaginations, in both the North and the South.By the time of the general's death in 1891, when one said "The March," no explanation was required.That remains true today.Legends and myths about Sherman began forming during the March itself, and took more definitive shape in the industrial age in the late-nineteenth century.Sherman's March in Myth and Memory examines the emergence of various myths surrounding one of the most enduring campaigns in the annals of military history. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown provide a brief overview of Sherman's life and his March, but their focus is on how these myths came about-such as one description of a "60-mile wide path of destruction"-and how legends about Sherman and his campaign have served a variety of interests.Caudill and Ashdown argue that these myths have been employed by groups as disparate as those endorsing the Old South aristocracy and its "Lost Cause," and by others who saw the March as evidence of the superiority of industrialism in modern America over a retreating agrarianism.Sherman's March in Myth and Memory looks at the general's treatment in the press, among historians, on stage and screen, and in literature, from the time of the March to the present day.The authors show us the many ways in which Sherman has been portrayed in the media and popular culture, and how his devastating March has been stamped into our collective memory.

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