Customer Reviews

The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta

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The most fully realized depiction of wartime Atlanta from boom city in transportation, manufacturing and commerce to its siege, evacuation and destruction. He weaves well-chosen dialog and thoughts from letters, many diarists and contemporary newspaper accounts to paint a complete picture of the time. I was impressed that he was able to balance these threads while also keeping tabs on important outside action which effected the city -- always anchoring the story with the voices of those involved. Six accurate maps in the start help to pinpoint where everything happened.

In a great year for books covering Atlanta's history, "The Bonfire" stands out.

Marc Wortman has done a masterful job of conveying a sense of deeply personalized history yet keeping the city of Atlanta itself as the central character in the story. When I read a pair of sentences such as the two that follow, I feel engaged in a gripping story:

"A Georgia up-country reel was in the offing in which the partners would approach like courting mates, touch briefly and tellingly, and then deflect across and away until they met again, around ridges and rivers, repeating their steps until, like lovers, they fell into a deep embrace. But here the embrace was that of war."

I love how people like Lincoln and Grant are mere peripheral characters, ones whose influences are certainly felt, but who are far from the core of the story. Instead, people like the slave/entrepreneur Bob Webster become our heroes (heroes not without flaws mind you) by tending to the Union wounded left to rot in the post battle sun.

The fascinating character of Sherman is presented in such a way that our focus on him becomes increasingly clear as the tale gets closer and closer to its climax and returns to him again in a contemplative fashion several years later in a post war Atlanta visit with his daughters.

I feel like I have just scratched the surface in terms of how much I appreciate this book. It is a wonderful accomplishment by Mr. Wortman and a gift to anyone who reads it.

Wortman has found an interesting way to portray the history of a city over a half-century of development during trying time. Using Atlanta in 1864, when it was the center of the focus of war in the Western Theater, as the pivot point of his story, Wortman goes back to the period of the removal of the Native Americans from the area and brings his story up to the Civil War period. He does this by selecting a few of Atlanta's diverse citizens, telling how they came to be in Atlanta during the Civil War, what happened to them during this period, and what happened to the city at large. This is not a story of war, so much as it is the story of what war can do to a city and it's citizens. It is also a story of how such citizens face adversity. Wortman tells an interesting story, making the history of this city over this half-century come alive in a very personal way.

Marc Wortman hasn't so much written a book about the siege and burning of Atlanta as he has written a history of Atlanta covering approximately fifty years from its founding until its surrender to the army of William Tecumseh Sherman and its ultimate destruction. In doing so he has won the award for the most misleading book title of 2009, for his is not a book solely focused on "The Siege and Burning of Atlanta." A full third of the book passes by before Mr. Wortman comes to the outbreak of the Civil War, and nearly another third of the book passes by before his narrative makes its way to the Atlanta Campaign, the siege of the city, its surrender and burning.

What Mr. Wortman has done very well is given us a very detailed look at the history of Atlanta, seen through the eyes of its citizens; its wartime mayor, James Montgomery Calhoun (a first cousin once removed of Senator and United States Vice President John C. Calhoun), Mrs. Cyrena Stone a diarist with Union sympathies, and Robert Gadsby, a slave in title only, who may or may not have been the illegitimate son of Daniel Webster. It is interesting that Mr. Wortman chose three Atlantans with Unionist leanings as the main characters in a book about the siege and burning of Atlanta; Margaret Mitchell's Atlanta, this isn't.

The military history of the Atlanta Campaign, the siege of the city, its surrender and burning, have taken a backseat in Mr. Wortman's tome. Despite its title the siege and burning of Atlanta are not the main focus of this book. It's narrative, rather, is driven by Atlanta's Unionist inhabitants, which in and of itself is worthy of study. But in a book with a title, "The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta," one would expect to find a book solely dedicated to military operations instead of only a third of its 361 pages of text.

Mr. Wortman's book is well researched and written in an easily read style. It transitions easily from topic to topic, giving the book a nice narrative flow. "The Bonfire" is a great bargain for the book buyer, as it is several books all rolled up into one; a history of Georgia, the Indian removal (The Trail of Tears), the founding of Atlanta, an abbreviated genealogy of the Calhoun family, a biography of Robert Gadsby, and a history of the campaign for Atlanta, its siege and burning.

I thought the book was about Sherman's burning of Atlanta. The book actually covers from the founding of Atlanta thru the civil war. The use of historical characters and accounts of day-to-day living add real depth and understanding to the times.

I loved this book. If you like U.S. history, this book is for you. Confederacy and the life of the people of Atlanta really comes alive in this riveting story. It was a fascinating read about Atlanta during the hotbed of war. You have to read it.

"Bonfire" is "a film waiting to happen"~ The images elicited by the wonderful scenic descriptions, the remarkable characterizations and the overall exciting pace of the work make it a book most 'difficult to put down'!

The skilled generalship of the flinty Sherman and his cold-blooded determination to bring the Southern populace, civil as well as military, to a realization of the futility of further resistance has long been the central focus of any study of the battle for Atlanta.

Where author Wortman excells is in his technique of telling the story by repeated references to certain citizens of Atlanta, such as Mayor Calhoun, no partisan of the Confederacy~ Mrs. Cyrena Stone, a fervid Unionist and diarist of the daily experiences of the average Atlantan and~ for me, most wonderfully, the story of Robert Gadsby.

Gadsby, born into slavery, was the illegitimate son of the 'larger than life' politico Daniel Webster who had an affair with Charlotte Goodbrick, "a mulatto of uncommon beauty" who was owned by John Gadsby the operator of a eminent Washinton holstery: "Webster eventually bought Charlotte..Bob was not so fortunate."

After the death of John Gadsby, Bob Gadsby became the property of a wastrel son who promptly 'lost' the young slave in a card game. His new owner sold Bob into the ownership of a slave trader who found a buyer in Georgia for the young black.

It was thus that this intelligent, talented young man found himself far from the sophisticated world of Washington and living in a plantation far into the South. His talents as 'gentleman's gentleman', barber, chef, etc., soon ingratiated him with his new owners, there was a custom of the times which would enable a slave to 'lease' his freedom in exchange for a monthly stipend. Bob soon became an entrepreneur and at the time of the siege by the troops of Sherman, he was more than uncommonly wealthy. The suffering of wounded Union prisoners held little concern for the Rebel forces; they were unable to attend well to their own hospitalized military personnel. Gadsby organized a force of 'negroes' to give what assistance, as they minimally could, to somehow alleviate the distress of the Union prisoners.

As a black, he soon~ and uniquely, was to accompany the delegation of civilian Atlanta 'city fathers' who rode out to meet the Union forces of the advance column which entered Atlanta after Confederate forces withdrew.

This is a book with a unusual feel for the personages of those times and belongs in the library of anyone interested in the tragedy that was the Civil War. Sherman has the final word in the concluding passages of author Wortman's work:

"Here we were, claiming to be the freest people in all the world. and offering liberty to all mankind, and yet there was an abnormal state of things.There were 4,000,000 slaves in the United States and we had, in the heart of the country an institution antagnostic to the very principles of our government. So it had to be abolished."

It is necessary to understand that Sherman if reviled by many, even to this day~ carried out his campaign in such a fashion that Confederate Gen. 'Joe' Johnson was a grieving pall bearer at Sherman's funeral. The honoring of Sherman by Johnson, during inclimate wet weather, was to bring about an illness from which Johnson was to soon lose his own life.

It's all here! Don't fail to acqure Mr. Wortman's masterpiece!

The Bonfire by Marc Wortman is a study of the city of Atlanta, Georgia from its beginnings as a railroad hub in 1845 through its fall during the American Civil War. Anyone wanting a detailed description of the Atlanta Campaign from May-September 1864 in which General William Tecumseh Sherman defeated Confederate Joseph Eggleston Johnston will be disappointed in this work. It is not a military history of the war; instead the book illumines the conflict through first person accounts and stories of soldiers and civilians involved in the Atlanta Civil War story. In that regard the book succeeds admirably. It is a page turner.
Atlanta was founded by Virginians and was a railroad center of the Western and Atlantic railroad. The Calhoun family were prominent in the political and social leadership of the city which had grown to over 10,000 by the time of the Civil War. James M. Calhoun, a relative of firebrand Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, was the mayor during the war. Calhoun was a unionist but supported the South and slavery. Many slaves were allowed to hire out for business in ante-bellum Atlanta; some of these persons became wealthy. Wortman tells the tale of an African-American business leader in Atlanta who may well have been an illegitimate son of Mass. Senator Daniel Webster.
Wortman recounts the sad story of native American Indian removal from Georgia; the wildy and wooly culutre of Atlanta prior to the war and the lot of southern women living in the city. He describes the horrors of war as soldiers died in the thousands during the Atlanta campaign and the wounded were carried for in the beseiged city. Atlanta was burned by retreating Confederates under the leadership of John Bell Hood. This occurred following Southern defeat at the battles of Peachtree Creek, Atlanta and Jonesboro. Later Sherman would torch the city and demand that all civilians leave its environs. Over 60,000 casualties suffered during the Atlanta campaign about equally divided between Northern and Southern forces. General Sherman loved the South but made hard work on them so as end the war and restore order and union to the United States.
Atlanta grew at the end of the war and became a prominent American city. Wortman has told the story of nineteenth century Atlanta with a novelist touch; interesting stories and anecdotes making this a compelling read.Recommended.

I am a Civil War buff, and a member of the Puget Sound Civil War Round Table in Seattle. Enjoyed Marc Wortman's latest work "Bonfire" tremendously. Had no idea there were so many Union sympathizers down south, nor that some blacks had as much literal freedom at times (though they remained slaves in title at least) to determine their own economic fate both before, during, and apparently to a lesser extent after the war. A key part of this book is the chronicle of Atlanta's opportunistic growth -- certainly not beginning as the teeming metropolis we all assumed, heading into the Civil War. I learned a great deal about Sherman, his love of and familiarity with the South, his plodding tactics, his temerity, and ultimately his genius in using superior Yankee numbers to continuously outflank Johnston and Hood on the way to encircling Atlanta. Enjoyed reading about the Calhoun family history and their political ascendency within the city power circles. The book was well written, not as dry as many of the others I've experienced on the Civil War, and very well researched. It teems with personal references and diary entries on the part of those who directed and lived the Battle of Atlanta on a daily basis. As such it is a fine contribution to the body of Civil War literature, and fills in a previous vacuum in the real story of how Atlanta came to the torch.

--Larry Cenotto, Edmonds, WA

Sherman was not one to glorify war and the siege and taking of Atlanta ably demonstrates how horrible it can be. I recently read Battle Cry of Freedom which provided context for The Bonfire but Wortman does a great job too giving the reader ample background to this particular battle. I enjoyed how he went back to the settlement of the area, the settlers themselves (especially Mayor Calhoun), and how Atlanta had grown to become the heart of the Southern States. Atlanta (like Stalingrad, Berlin, Saigon and Baghdad) was a symbol for both sides. In the case of Atlanta, it represented both a stubborn collective and a strategically important target.

The book provides a holistic view of the conflict from crime in the city, to depleted supplies, to the fluid maneuvers of the cavalry. The style of writing allows for a decent pace and though the author can get wrapped up in details he wins you back with the real human stories. Definitely a must read for Civil War buffs but not necessarily recommended for novices.