The Memoirs Of General William T. Sherman

Reviews

1. 

   Gio – August 11, 2024

   Good Writers Make Good Generals!
   There’s the example of Julius Caesar, of course. And in America, there was Ulysses Grant, whose orders and dispatches were so concise and unequivocal that they were credited by his subordinates for many of his victories. Grant’s Memoirs are widely recognized as a classic of autobiography, as much for their literary merit as for their content. I’ve had this Penguin edition of “Cump” Sherman’s Memoirs on my shelf for so long that the price is about a third of the current, but I’ve never been tempted to read them, chiefly because of Sherman’s reputation for inhumanity during his service against the trans-Mississippi Indians.A couple days ago, however, I opened the book on a whim and started reading, and I’ve hardly looked at anything else since. The writing is fantastic! Utterly unadorned yet vividly descriptive. Witty, and that’s a surprise! Forthright, modest, down-to-earth. As thoroughly planned as one of his campaigns, which I find may be explained in part by his frequent assignment of logistic tasks in his early military career. He knew how to move supplies and keep account of where things were.Like any 19th C memoirist, or any Viking skald, Sherman feels obliged to trace his ancestry for a few pages, which I confess didn’t immediately stir my interest. Then, however, when he begins his narrative of his military service in Florida, against the Seminoles, suddenly the saga comes to life. I learned more from this one chapter, as a primary source, about the early Americanization of Florida than from anything I’ve read elsewhere. I could feel the rash from the palmetto on my skin. Likewise, the two chapters on his years in California just after the invasion of Mexico, took me to Monterey, to Yerba Buena before it became San Francisco, and up the river to Sutter’s Mill and the Gold Rush Country more vividly, more “virtually” in the game-boy sense of the word, than any historian’s account of those years. Sherman was, in his blunt style, as fine a writer as Twain. No wonder he was so effective as a general. Good writers make good generals, as I said before. My thesis is proven; I’ll be sending a sample of my reviews here on amazon to the new Commander-in-Chief in Washington next February, in hopes of an appointment in the field. I will, of course, in true 19th C fashion, remind Pres. Obama of my ardent electioneering on his behalf.[I had no intention of reviewing this book until I finished it, but the first 112 pages have been so exciting that I wanted to share them. I plan now to add paragraphs to this report as I continue reading.]One of the thrills of reading Sherman’s account of his years in California is encountering the street names of San Francisco — Mason, Larkin, Stockton, Ord — incarnated as ardent young bucks, flesh-and-blood yearning for the accomplishments you know lie well in their futures. It’s also intriguing – poignant, if you will – to find Sherman hunting geese or courting señoritas in company with young fellow officers whom he will be thrashing on the battlefields in another fifteen years.* It’s worth noting that Sherman was only slightly more successful during the 1850s than Grant. Despite his intrepid energy, probity, and obvious business skills, he found himself in 1858 with no significant wealth, no stable occupation, and a family of a wife and four daughters. Perhaps it wasn’t so easy, after all, for a person without deep pockets to achieve success in ante-bellum America, except by luck, dishonesty, or slavery. Sherman’s last job before the elction of Lincoln was as the superintendent of a “military seminary,” that is, a school for the sons of planters, in Louisiana. Knowing that his moderate criticisms of the slave system would get him fired anyway, Sherman resigned as soon as Lincoln was elected. No one around him in Louisiana expressed any doubt that the preservation of slavery was the “fighting issue” behind secession.** As Sherman left his youth behind and entered the fray of the Civil War, he shifts his tone from that of an adventurous raconteur to an earnest historian, and I’ve found that I need to read him differntly also, less for pleasure than for historical knowledge. I’ve slowed down and taken time to evaluate his reportage in comparison to what I already ‘know’ of Civil War historiography. Sherman’s manner of constructing his narrative also changed; he began to incorporate documents – his field reports and letters, the field reports of other officers, etc. By the mid 1870’s when Sherman wrote these memoirs, the true course of events and the soundest interpretation of them were already afire with controversy.Two insights, from Sherman’s perspective: 1) the elite Louisianans whom Sherman conflicted with, over the act of secession, were amazingly confident that there would be no war and that their ‘peculiar institution’ would thrive. They were all remarkably civil and genteel in their agreement to disagree, and Sherman departed without obstruction and with his pay in his pocket! 2) from Sherman’s perspective, right at the front firing line with his green regiments, the Battle of Bull Run was a wash; either nobody won or both sides did, but neither side had the military skills to follow up and inflict a tactical victory. The war would continue until somebody on one side or the other knew how to win… and as “we” know, that would be Grant and Sherman himself.

2. 

   starflakes – August 11, 2024

   A Must Adult Read
   Beauty often is in the eye of the beheld and while this wonderful memoir personally was tedious at times in Sherman’s California memories and very in depth in naming corps in battle for the novice to try and keep straight, this work is thee best historical writing of the American period in the 1800’s.Sherman’s attention to detail shows in his work and why he was successful in battle. If one has read Patton’s memoirs, it is like reading Sherman’s ghost. The same lessons Sherman learned are what every soldier has to learn to win in a war.There are though wonderful insights from personal revelations on Grant, Lincoln and the mood of the nation which Sherman gives frankly to provide the history as it really was.The one absolutely surprising thing in reading this is that Ken Burns, historians and our history classes have the Civil War fought backwards. From Sherman’s view, the war was never fought from the Potomac south by the Union army against Lee’s Virginia Army. The war instead from Grant’s and his direction was fought in the west to the east. The Cumberland gained first, then the Mississippi, then the central south, then Georgia, the Carolinas and finally to Virginia.Grant only held Lee in check to the last while Sherman carried out the battle plan in taking the Confederate army apart of Johnston.There is alot of detail in this book, so it might be difficult for any but advanced history readers, but it is well worth the effort for all as this book is delightful in explaining real history from pre Civil War to post Civil War.The one amusing thing about Sherman is some of the most horrific battles which others mourn over, Sherman instead simply is unmoved like at Shiloh, calls them skirmishes at Atlanta or even Custer which was under his watch is not even mentioned.He does literally come across as the real life incarnation of John Wayne’s characters mixed with the legendary Greek warriors. This book is hard to master, but you will be pleased in completing this read.

3. 

   Robin Buxton – August 11, 2024

   A great read,should have been 4*5 stars
   The very direct way of writing and commenting on the war,and avoidingPolitics is very refreshing. Unfortunately very few can record theirHistory with the common touch.A large scale map would make it more understandable.Robin Buxton

4. 

   sunil kr.rajora – August 11, 2024

   बहुत पसंद आई।

5. 

   pedro von thompson – August 11, 2024

   I’d read Grant’s autobiography and found it an absorbing read if a little dour and on seeing Sherman’s Memoirs available on Kindle for 49p thought that I would take a look. I wasn’t expecting too much but was hoping for an insight into the mind of the man who enacted a scorched earth policy on the South to make sure that they knew they were beaten. What I found was an enthralling read.Sherman was a man of high moral principles which were the product of his time but he was also in many respects surprisingly liberal for his day and whilst occasionally jarring to encounter some of his attitudes as a modern reader I did not find him in the least an unsympathetic character. On the contrary, for a man who’s business eventually manifested itself as total war, his humanity is ever present. He also has an eye for the absurd and many of his anecdotes made me laugh out loud which as they happened 160 years ago brought that world and the people to life. His descriptions of people and places are quite often strikingly good, written from a soldier’s eye to detail but with an artist’s eye for the beauty or ugliness of the scene.His early years, as a child to the pre-war officer and businessman, are not just mere details to be skipped over but are an absolutely fascinating insight into the still growing, still forming United States of America. From his childhood home to West Point to his postings in Florida and then California he makes a window into the past for us.by painting an image of the scenery and populating it with observations and tales of the real people who he encountered. There were some really dodgy people in California n 1848, let me tell you……or rather, Sherman does.The war is obviously the bulk of the book and much of it is detail for the historians to digest, a fact that Sherman makes note of now and again. In between the tales of individual heroism or atrocities he details his reconstruction of the army and his orders for troop movements as he plays his game of chess. It his here that I feel that his genius as a general shines through. It is not some brilliant counter-strike or cunning ruse day that wins the day, it is understanding that his best resource is his men and that the morale and fighting effectiveness of these men is his responsibility. The attention to detail in keeping them well supplied and their training and organisation dominates his time and thinking. He wants them healthy, fit and motivated and he does not want to lose any more of them in battle than he has to. Every campaign is planned with a goal and a method of achieving this in the most efficient way possible and as he moves his three army corps over hundreds of miles of difficult terrain then communication with his generals is paramount as is trust in the men he selects. Also of vital importance is his relationship with Grant who trusts him implicitly. Many of the letters and orders from Grant include a line that basically tells him to do what he sees fit as Grant has faith in his abilities. This loyalty and friendship is a strong bond between the men and plays no small part in their eventual victory.I am no military historian or tactician so I may well be talking rubbish but I will offer my view that he achieved his stunning successes not by actually fighting the enemy but wearing them out by bullying them into running way from his superior forces. Eventually they ran out of supplies, something that he made certain that he never even came close to doing. I found it engrossing to try and visualise his troop deployments as he pushed the enemy this was and that until they were in a position where they were of no threat to his campaign to flatten the rebel states.Amid all of the technical details of his generalship are many stories regarding himself and others. Too often where the lead is flying too close for the comfort of his staff officers ‘Uncle Billy’ led from the front. On one occasion he took a relief column on a forced march at double quick time to pull another general’s irons out of the fire. He wryly noted that nobody dared complain about it because the ‘old man’ was setting the pace. On another occasion the train he was on was stopped and ambushed by rebel cavalry. A big old shoot out went on sounding exactly like something out of a western movie. Things were getting rather difficult and the rebels gained access to the train car behind the locomotive and tried to set fire to the engine before being driven off by a detachment of union cavalry that turned up in the nick of time. Rollicking stuff that was taken to a new level when Sherman observed that after all of this mayhem one of his staff officers was livid to find that the rebels had used his best dress shirts to try and torch the locomotive. It clearly amused him as it did me a century and a half later.Anyway, as the kids today say, spoiler alert. The North won the war ( even the rebel General, Joe Johnson’s, surrender to Sherman is a notable story in itself ) and peace arrived. Sherman ended up in Washington. He did not like it there one bit. The political intrigue and lying and backstabbing is laid out in striking detail. Sherman was more outraged by the peace than the war ever managed. Eventually, after winning all of those battles as well, he was glad to retire.A remarkable man, a remarkable life and a remarkable work. It should continue to be read rather than be left as some dusty tome on a library shelf as it brings an important period of history to life from the perspective of one of the major players.

6. 

   Colleen Toohey, Australia – August 11, 2024

   This book is a great read !Sherman’s early life is narrated well and his return to Army life seems to say that he was born to be a soldier, a Commander of fighting men.After his successes in the Civil War, President Grant awarded him with the Command of the Union Army and he went on leading the U.S. forces in their battles, with the Indian Nations

7. 

   A.A.H – August 11, 2024

   Buying autobiographies from a hundred or more years ago can be very hit or miss. This book is a definite hit. The language is that of a genuine writer, not the hit and miss stu=ilted prose you so often get.Clearly and easily written it doesn’t claim to be a full description of the whole Civil war, but it does give a full and vivid description of one man’s part in it.And at 49p you’re not exactly taking a big risk in purchasing it.

8. 

   Kajol Gupta – August 11, 2024

   i like packing & book is very nicefor cse student