Before his spectacular career as General of the Union forces, William
Tecumseh Sherman experienced decades of failure and depression. Drifting
between the Old South and new West, Sherman witnessed firsthand many of
the critical events of early nineteenth-century America: the Mexican
War, the gold rush, the banking panics, and the battles with the Plains
Indians. It wasn't until his victory at Shiloh, in 1862, that Sherman
assumed his legendary place in American history. After Shiloh, Sherman
sacked Atlanta and proceeded to burn a trail of destruction that split
the Confederacy and ended the war. His strategy forever changed the
nature of warfare and earned him eternal infamy throughout the South.
Sherman's Memoirs evoke the uncompromising and deeply complex general
as well as the turbulent times that transformed America into a world
power. This Penguin Classics edition includes a fascinating introduction
and notes by Sherman biographer Michael Fellman.