'I can make this march, and make Georgia howl.' -William Tecumseh
Sherman The 'March to the Sea' shocked Georgians from Atlanta to
Savannah. For the first time, suffering and carnage came to their very
doorsteps in the form of 60,000 battle-hardened Union troops led by
General William Tecumseh Sherman. In the late autumn of 1864, as his
troops cut a four-week long path of terror through Georgia, Sherman
accomplished his objective: to destroy civilian morale and with it their
support for the Confederate cause. His actions elicited a passionate
reaction as tales of his dastardly deeds and destruction burned
Sherman's name into the Southern psyche. He became the ruthless
personification of evil, an arch villain who made war on innocent women,
children, and old men. But does the Savannah Campaign deserve the
reputation it has been given? And was Sherman truly this brutal? In her
new book War and Ruin, Anne J. Bailey examines this event and
investigates just how much truth is behind the popular historical
notions. Because Sherman's dash through Georgia was so terrifying, it
left an indelible impression on the people who were unlucky enough to be
in the Union army's way. Bailey contends that the psychological horror
rather than the actual physical damage-which was not as devastating as
believed-led to the wilting of Southern morale. This dissolution of
resolve helped lead to ultimate Confederate defeat as well as to the
development of Sherman's infamous reputation. Although he rarely carried
out his threats to the South in full, Sherman's thunderous rhetoric
nevertheless would resonate through the generations. War and Ruin looks
at the 'March to the Sea' from its inception in Atlanta to its
culmination in Savannah. This fascinating text is a chronicle of not
just the campaign itself, but also a revealing description of how the
people of Georgia were affected. War and Ruin brilliantly combines
military history and human interest to achieve a convincing portrayal of
what really happened in Sherman's epic effort to smash the Confederate
spirit in Georgia.
