Southern Storm
Long before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an American Civil War general exposed the horrible power of 鈥渢otal war鈥� as he rampaged across the South. Or did he?
The ever-quotable Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman certainly promised to 鈥渕ake Georgia howl!鈥� and he was hardly gentle during his famous march to the sea in 1864. But an exhaustive new history tells a story of military prowess and remarkable survival, not lawless and rampant destruction.
Union soldiers did torch homes, confiscate crops, and cripple railroads as they carved a path from Atlanta to Savannah, writes author Noah Andre Trudeau in Southern Storm: Sherman鈥檚 March to the Sea. But few soldiers were killed on either side, and northeastern Georgia recovered quickly.
Almost 150 years of American mythology suggest a much grimmer story, one that Mr. Trudeau dismisses. The march, he writes, may 鈥渇orever be best remembered for everything it wasn鈥檛.鈥� Other historians 鈥� and plenty of Southerners 鈥� are certain to think differently.
But everyone agrees about one thing: The march was a long, tedious, and dangerous slog. Sherman made a risky decision to go off the grid, as we鈥檇 put it today, and travel without the benefit of a supply chain or communication with the outside world. He and his troops had to live off the land, no matter who happened to be in their way 鈥� city dwellers, farmers, or slaves.
There鈥檚 no doubt that Sherman & Co. thought the South deserved to pay for starting the Civil War.
鈥淲ar is cruelty, and you cannot refine it,鈥� Sherman wrote. One of his aides wrote: 鈥淲ar ... must make the innocent suffer as well as the guilty, it must involve plundering, burning, killing.鈥�
But Trudeau, a former executive producer at National Public Radio and author of a well-received book about the Battle of Gettysburg, finds evidence that Sherman鈥檚 words were more scathing than his actions.
Trudeau鈥檚 overly detailed, 688-page account is a bit of a slog itself; readers will grow tired of hearing about each day鈥檚 food-finding efforts and the availability of sweet potatoes. But amid the minutiae, the author provides sharp analysis and tells a gripping story of men and women at their best and worst.
In addition to poring over memoirs and newspaper accounts, Trudeau dips into the diaries of participants. Amazingly, he finds each day of the five-week march recounted in at least 50 journals.
Some of the most memorable scenes in the book highlight the experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, including a surprising number of children. 鈥淭hey came burning Atlanta to day,鈥� writes 10-year-old Carrie Berry. 鈥淲e all dread it ... we will dread it.鈥�
Another girl pleaded for her home: 鈥淢r. Soldier, you would not burn our house down would you, if you do where are we going to live?鈥� The Michigan soldier was so touched that he refrained from torching her house. (Union troops, in fact, were often respectful and even polite to Southerners, and spent much time admiring local women.)
Sherman looms largest of all in 鈥淪outhern Storm,鈥� although he鈥檚 a hard man to figure out 鈥� 鈥渁 person of profound ethical and spiritual contradictions, and possessed of many faces.鈥�
Sherman is a deeply sensitive man; the early death of his son leaves him in a fragile emotional state. But he has little interest in rights for black people and is constantly annoyed by the countless slaves that follow his soldiers.
On one hand, he appears to be an avenging angel 鈥� a 鈥渟tone-faced devastator鈥� who wrote of wanting to kill 300,000 leading Southerners.
But a 鈥渕oral drift,鈥� as Trudeau describes it, prevents him from doing more to devastate the people and property he came across. Sherman, of all people, has a heart.
Sherman, the No. 1 villain in the history of the South, never seems to wrestle hard with the choices he makes, however. Driven by his commitment to 鈥減atriotism and national destiny,鈥� he has no time to agonize or reconsider, unlike President Abraham Lincoln.
With the help of savvy strategic decisions and modern-sounding pontoon bridges, Sherman reaches the coast and telegraphs Lincoln that he has a Christmas gift for him: the crucial city of Savannah.
The march did not, Trudeau argues, ever reach the level of 鈥渢otal war.鈥� In the larger picture, however, it 鈥渄ramatically fractured the social fabric鈥� of the South. And it made Southerners lose faith in the ability of their leaders to protect them, hastening the end of the Civil War.
Sherman would live for another quarter century, burnishing the stories of his brilliance to a high gloss and making the truth ever murkier. Georgia would recover 鈥� and remember. And the targeting of civilians would become ever more critical to the dark art of warfare.
Randy Dotinga is a freelance writer in San Diego.
