Sherman Reading Fighting Prophet ....

[KLSDAD]

They (we) sure don't write like they used to ! Both Sherman (I did order the book of his letters yesterday) and Lewis. A couple of things that I found particularly interesting .....

He had an opportunity to be the #2 guy in the War Department when it was pretty clear that Cameron was on his way out so he might have been Stanton. He had an opportunity to lead the Ohio Volunteers before McClellen so he might have been him. He had an opportunity to lead the forces in Missouri before Lyon and we know what happened to him .....


I came to this book after reading Castel's Decision in the West and then bios of Logan, McLernand and Porter so it's been interesting to get all of their perspectives on Sherman.

My copy is a first edition so I haven't read Simpson's input into the edition that he edited.....I'll have to find an read that. I'm only up to McPherson's death at this point. I found it interesting that Sherman (and Grant?) apparenntly made an effort to take all the heat because the expected him to be the one to do good things after the war.

 

[KLSDAD]

Good book! Much more about the man than the battles themselves. I just received Sherman's Selected Correspondance....what a monster! I'm not sure I'll crack it open any time soon.

Quite a roller coaster ride for Cump....

Apparently even before the war he was considered presidential material by both sides. Then he was considered by many to have gone crazy. He seems to have been the darling of the Union when making the bad guys howl while Grant was stalemated around Petersburg. Then a few months later the Radical Republicans threw him under the bus in order to fill the void left by Lincoln.

Fortunately things ended up pretty well for him.

 

[LittleGuy1864]

I agree that this is a very good book, as I'm currently reading it myself. I'm reading the copy that Simpson did edit and I'm currently up to Shiloh right now. It did take me some getting used to reading Lewis' style of writing, but once I did, it makes for a very interesting reading experience. I think someone as colorful as Sherman deserves to have someone like Lewis pen a biography on him.

I read Sherman's Selected Correspondence while I was deployed last year and I have to say, that is one of my personal favorites. I will more than likely go back and read it from cover to cover once again. Dare I say it, but I enjoyed Correspondence more than his memoirs simply because those letters are written as the events are unfolding and not written in hindsight years later.

Rebecca

 

[KLSDAD]

I agree that this is a very good book, as I'm currently reading it myself.

I meant to bookmark what a soldier said about him.....something about Muslims and "Mohammet" (or some odd spelling thereof). If you come across it could you post it or give me the page number?

 

[LittleGuy1864]

KLSDAD, sure I can do that!

Rebecca

 

[diane]

I meant to bookmark what a soldier said about him.....something about Muslims and "Mohammet" (or some odd spelling thereof). If you come across it could you post it or give me the page number?

Would you be talking about Bilali Mohammet? He was a respected elder of the Sapelo Island community in Georgia, near Savannah, but died before the war. Sherman's order distributing the coastal islands to the former slaves restored that community. I believe it is no longer there, or at least only old people, but has been considered part of the Gullah culture.

 

[KLSDAD]

I'm pretty sure the reference was to the muslim prophet..... I just thumbed thru the book a little and couldn't find it.

 

[cash]

I'm pretty sure the reference was to the muslim prophet..... I just thumbed thru the book a little and couldn't find it.

Check p. 564

 

[KLSDAD]

Check p. 564

Thanks Al....you are indeed an accomplished student of the Civil War!

Here's the quote attributed to the diary (4/30/65) of a private in the 30th Illinois:

"I won't believe he has made a mistake until I know all about it. It can't be....I'd rather fight under him than Grant and if he were Mahomet we'd be devoted Mussulmen."

 

[cash]

Thanks Al....you are indeed an accomplished student of the Civil War!

Here's the quote attributed to the diary (4/30/65) of a private in the 30th Illinois:

"I won't believe he has made a mistake until I know all about it. It can't be....I'd rather fight under him than Grant and if he were Mahomet we'd be devoted Mussulmen."

I just happened to read a reference to it last night in John Barrett's book, Sherman's March Through the Carolinas. Fortunately, his footnote was accurate.

 

[KansasFreestater]

They (we) sure don't write like they used to ! Both Sherman (I did order the book of his letters yesterday) and Lewis. A couple of things that I found particularly interesting .....

He had an opportunity to be the #2 guy in the War Department when it was pretty clear that Cameron was on his way out so he might have been Stanton. He had an opportunity to lead the Ohio Volunteers before McClellen so he might have been him. He had an opportunity to lead the forces in Missouri before Lyon and we know what happened to him .....


I came to this book after reading Castel's Decision in the West and then bios of Logan, McLernand and Porter so it's been interesting to get all of their perspectives on Sherman.

My copy is a first edition so I haven't read Simpson's input into the edition that he edited.....I'll have to find an read that. I'm only up to McPherson's death at this point. I found it interesting that Sherman (and Grant?) apparenntly made an effort to take all the heat because the expected him to be the one to do good things after the war.

If you're a Sherman fan, you might also enjoy Fierce Patriot by Robert L. O'Connell. I think O'Connell deliberately gave his book a similar title (F...P...) in homage to Lewis. But O'Connell's way with words is, in my opinion, better than Lewis's. In fact, O'Connell's writing is so dazzling, I could hardly put the book down.

 

[KansasFreestater]

I read Sherman's Selected Correspondence while I was deployed last year and I have to say, that is one of my personal favorites. I will more than likely go back and read it from cover to cover once again. Dare I say it, but I enjoyed Correspondence more than his memoirs simply because those letters are written as the events are unfolding and not written in hindsight years later.

Rebecca

Oh, ain't that the truth!! Sherman in all his brilliance, neurosis, feistiness, wit and genius really comes through in those letters! My hat is off to you for getting through the whole tome cover to cover -- I've read bits and pieces, but the whole thing will probably take me years. I think his letter to Henry Halleck of Sept. 17, 1863, analyzing the various classes of the South (planters, "young bloods," etc.) and how each of those classes would affect the war is one of the most important, insightful, thought-provoking documents anyone's ever written about the war. If I were a history teacher, I think I would make it required reading!

 

[KansasFreestater]

Another Sherman book I've got on the shelf -- hoping to get to soon -- is Noah Andre Trudeau's Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea. Trudeau debunks a lot of the "Gone With the Wind" type Lost Cause bullpucky by looking at the March a single day at a time -- what actually happened, according to huge piles of soldier's diaries, journals, etc.

 

[LittleGuy1864]

Oh, ain't that the truth!! Sherman in all his brilliance, neurosis, feistiness, wit and genius really comes through in those letters! My hat is off to you for getting through the whole tome cover to cover -- I've read bits and pieces, but the whole thing will probably take me years. I think his letter to Henry Halleck of Sept. 17, 1863, analyzing the various classes of the South (planters, "young bloods," etc.) and how each of those classes would affect the war is one of the most important, insightful, thought-provoking documents anyone's ever written about the war. If I were a history teacher, I think I would make it required reading!

Well, I did read it while I was deployed and had some downtime. I knocked it out in about a month, actually. I couldn't put it down some days, and just got immensely engrossed in some of the letters he wrote. I have three other Uncle Billy bios on my shelf that I have yet to read.

Rebecca

 

[KansasFreestater]

Well, I did read it while I was deployed

Don't know where you were, but thank you for your service!

 

[KansasFreestater]

I read Sherman's Selected Correspondence while I was deployed last year and I have to say, that is one of my personal favorites. I will more than likely go back and read it from cover to cover once again. Dare I say it, but I enjoyed Correspondence more than his memoirs simply because those letters are written as the events are unfolding and not written in hindsight years later.

Rebecca, you inspired me to pick that book up again (hadn't looked at it in a few weeks), and oh my goodness, that man makes me howl!! (not in the Georgia sense!) Reading what he says to say about McClernand, politics, journalists, etc., you see the true meaning of "rapier wit"!

 

[ole]

Another Sherman book I've got on the shelf -- hoping to get to soon -- is Noah Andre Trudeau's Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea. Trudeau debunks a lot of the "Gone With the Wind" type Lost Cause bullpucky by looking at the March a single day at a time -- what actually happened, according to huge piles of soldier's diaries, journals, etc.

That, KF, is a great, entertaining and enlightening book. Everyone ought to have it and read it twice. Same with Simpson's, Sherman's Civil War. You don't know Sherman until you've read both.