37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Balanced Account of War's Terrible End Game, October 28, 2004
When Lincoln won the election of 1864, any reasonable hope of winning the war, even of the most optimistic of Southerners, vanished. Yet still, they fought on, drawing out the bloody end game though its conclusion was already a certainty. General William T. Sherman had long considered that the war could not be won without completely breaking the will of the Southern people to continue fighting, and now, he was certain of it. His answer was to take war to the civilians - to pillage, burn, and destroy a large swath through Georgia and the Carolinas, mostly unopposed by any significant enemy resistance. Burke Davis' book, Sherman's March, grippingly tells the story of this dark chapter of American history.
The book opens with the fall of Atlanta, and ends with Sherman's army marching triumphantly through the streets of Washington in the Grand Review. In between, Burke deals with the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, as well as various skirmishes and demonstrations, but this is not a campaign book, full of detailed military maneuvers. My copy doesn't have a single map other than the one on the inside cover of the book. Instead, this book concentrates on the march itself, using hundreds of eyewitness accounts, both of civilians, and soldiers of both sides, to bring to life this incredible and terrible event.
Though Mr. Davis is a Southerner, his account is largely a fair one. Sherman is neither presented as a devil or a hero, and a fair attempt was made to give an account that balanced the outrage of the Southerners with the reasons that Sherman believed his march to be necessary. Davis covers everything of significance, including the reactions of the politicians and generals to Sherman's bold maneuver, his capture of three Confederate State Capitols, and his burning of one of them. The greatest part of the book, however, is the story of the people who experienced the destruction, as well as those who brought it to them with the hope of ending the ongoing devastation of the war once and for all. This is a fascinating, well-researched and well-written account of Sherman's march through the South, and if there is any better, I don't know of it.
Theo Logos
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book, June 21, 2006
This is a fantastic book. It's great for a number of reasons:
1. It is full of so many personal accounts of the events (from Union men and Southern civilians) that it fills out the events. The March comes alive and you realize that this REALLY happened and that real human beings were affected by it.
2. It is never dry. Some military history books get so wrapped up in the movements of individual regiments, etc. that you feel as if the writer is more interested in showing how much detailed study they have done than relating the event in its many dimensions. This book never grows dry. This is certainly not a tactical history, but it is never grows boring.
3. Sherman emerges as a complex man who has a genuine affection for people, but at the same time believes that the best thing for the nation is quick suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of the Union - to this end he is willing to take war to a new level.
4. The brutality of the war comes out in full force - from atrocities, willful and meaningless destruction, quick death, and the pain of those caught up in the midst of it.
If you're looking for a great book for some summer or vacation reading and you're fascinated by the Civil War, this is a great book to pick up.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sherman's March, April 22, 2000
By A Customer
This book is an excellent, readable treatise of Sherman's march. Davis skillfully puts together many sources of reference from both sides in order to accurately piece together the events which occurred during the march. Neither condoning nor villifying Sherman's actions, this account comes off as objective without being dry or ponderous to read.
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