Customer Reviews

Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea

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Sherman's March to the Sea is a simple story. Hood took off for Tennessee, Wheeler presented no real threat and Confederate leadership dithered. For the men it was a long walk in the sun with ample food taken from the local population. In the process, they tore the heart out of Georgia and broke the moral of the Confederacy. Given such a simple story, how could anyone write a 688-page book that is worth reading?
Noah Andre Trudeau is one of our best authors with a number of excellent books and prestigious awards. His writing style conveys large amounts of information in a readable manner that makes large books easy to read. This skill helps the reader by keeping the story fresh and interesting in this very detailed account of the campaign.
The book opens with an explanation of how Sherman came up with the idea for the campaign and how he talked Thomas, Grant & Lincoln, via Halleck, into approving it. The author says the Meridian Mississippi Campaign provided the idea for The March. I feel that he should have gone back to Grant's Vicksburg Campaign for the idea. The Mississippi Campaign may have proven living off the land is practical but the Vicksburg Campaign started the idea. This is a minor point and subject to debate. The second and equally major idea is the role of civilians in the Southern war effort. The author gives us a detailed description of Sherman's ideas on this subject and how they developed during the course of the war. The selling of his idea presents a side of Sherman we seldom see. Here is an accomplished administrator at his best. Alternating assuring Thomas, watching Hood and explaining things to Grant & Halleck, step by step the project is approved.
The heart of the book is the daily chapters, where the activities of all major formations are detailed. Each chapter has a map, showing weather, marching routes and population centers. This daily map keeps the reader in the story and located in Georgia. Gradually, we see how the march is developing and can trace the major formations' progress. This is a major benefit and one of the books strongest points. In addition to the daily map, any significant fighting has a map too. I want to congratulate HarperCollins Publishing for not stinting on this critical item. They have taken a very good book and made it a great one by including these maps.
Sherman's major formations are the Left Wing, the Right Wing and the Cavalry. Depending on the situation, independent detachments appear as required. The work is marching, destruction and foraging. Each day, miles must be covered, food must be found, regulations enforced, infrastructure destroyed and Confederate forces kept at bay. Very quickly, we come to appreciate how complex this campaign is. The rank & file is required to make a huge effort each day. Protecting the wagon train may be the most wearing duty. Encumbered by the slow moving wagons, mud, poor roads and hills these men alternately stand and run. This is in addition to pushing wagons up hills and pulling them out of the mud holes.
Straying to far from the road leads to death. Straggling leads to death. Confederate response while generally ineffective can be deadly for isolated parties. The author does an excellent job of detailing the problems in mounting a response to Sherman. These problems, while endemic during the war, seem much worse during this campaign. "Joe Brown's Pets", a divided and confused command structure, John B. Hood's Tennessee adventure, States Rights, P.G.T. Beauregard, William J. Hardee and Jefferson Davis all have roles in the unfolding disaster. Joe Wheeler is the only person that tries to mount an effective response. Resources, orders and his problems as a commander limit how effective the response is. This is not a long dull walk in the sun. This is a very difficult, dangerous and somewhat speculative campaign.
This is a detailed account. The daily format ensures the reader will have a full picture of the dangers and difficulties. This sequential approach ensures that the reader instantly understands each encounter or problem. The ugly incident where General Davis strands Afro-Americans on the wrong side of the creek is fully explored with realistic and fair comments by the author.
The last chapter, "At the Right Moment and in the Right Direction", is a fitting finial to the story. The author provides a clear assessment of the campaign from both a Northern & Southern perspective. In addition, he gives us a glimpse of the making of an American epic.
I am a huge fan of Noah Andre Trudeau's books. He is an excellent writer that produces well thought out readable informative histories. This may not be his best book but it is one of his best books and deserves consideration as his best.

If the average person were to be asked to name an event of the American Civil War, it is likely that Sherman's March would be near the top of the list, possibly ahead even of Gettysburg. A 20th Century series of damaging floods in Georgia were referred to as the "worse devastation since Sherman's Civil War march to the sea," and an Atlanta sportswriter referred to a disgraced Atlanta Braves' player as "the most disliked person hereabouts since William Tecumseh Sherman." During the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, T-shirts were sold, portraying a fiery image of the general, with the legend, "Atlanta's Original Torch Bearer." Routinely, visitors to ante-bellum homes, not only in Georgia but also in Mississippi and Alabama are treated by the docents to gory tales of what Sherman did to their town. They are befuddled when reminded that, (a) obviously the house we are in did not get burned, and (b) Sherman was no where near here.

Noah Andre Trudeau has written a number of books on the Civil War, among them, Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War 1862-1865, an excellent account of the role of the United States Colored Troops, and added to these with Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea.

Trudeau's concern is that most books by and about the March have not tried to nail down exactly what Sherman expected to accomplish and exactly what really did go on. If the destruction was as great as not only remembered by Georgians, but bragged about by Sherman's boys, then why have so many ante-bellum properties survived.

Trudeau argues that the campaign was a highly organized, carefully planned operation, with ample room for Sherman to improvise. When he departed from Atlanta, on November 15-16, 1874, his troops were not travelling lean and mean. "Packed into more than 2500 wagons were a twenty-day supply of bread, forty days or sugar, coffee, and salt and three days worth of animal feed. Moving with the lengthy wagon trains were 5,000 cattle, representing a forty day beef supply." [538] Indeed, his wagon trains were larger per thousand men than were those the Army of the Potomac took into the Wilderness six months before.

Trudeau was also committed to discovering exactly what happened during the march. He dug deeply into writings of both Yankees and Rebels, their letters, their diaries, and to a lesser degree, their reminiscences. His bibliography is thirty-seven pages of fine type, mining numerous manuscript and newspaper sources, as well as dozens of published articles from historical magazines and autobiographies.

Starting with a quick discussion of the post-capture of Atlanta troops movements and the development of Sherman's idea to march to the Atlantic, Trudeau starts Sherman's army from the Atlanta area on November 15, 1864. Each day's march is illustrated by a small quarter page map of that day's troop activities, which would be very helpful if one wanted to drive the March. In addition, Trudeau discovered in his research that the weather was always mentioned by diarists and letter writers, if forgotten by memorialists and autobiographers, so each little map has an inset of that days weather (November 15 was clear, high 40s, low 50s). He argues that the weather played a major role in the campaign with the initial fine weather turning nasty with extensive rains and continued chilly conditions, something Sherman had not counted on.

A typical day, using Tuesday, November 22, went something like this: it snowed in the morning, then cleared in the afternoon with the temperature ranging from upper 20s to low 40s. Henry Slocum's Left Wing moved slowly toward the then-state capitol, Milledgeville, shivering in the cold. Advance units reached the town in the afternoon and evening. The troops moved through, with Slocum making his headquarter's in the local hotel. The residents hung out white flags, a successful protection device for their homes while the inmates torched the state penitentiary. And the blacks greeted their liberators with cheers and dancing in the street. Some African-Americans were not as lucky: an 8th Texas cavalryman recorded in his diary that they "whipped about 1,000 negros, who were on their way to the enemy."

Uncle Billy made his headquarters in the plantation of Confederate politician Howell Cobb, noticing the way the evening sky was lit by the surrounding campfires. Someone turned up a recent Cobb proclamation urging Georgians to assail the Yankees on all sides -- and that was enough to doom Cobb's property.

The Confederates, now convinced that Sherman was not heading to Macon, decided that Augusta with its powder works was the real target and made plans to dismantle the works. The Confederate response to Sherman was hampered by divided command between Wheeler, Beauregard, Hardee and Gov. Brown, each split off form the others by lack of a telegraph, whose lines had been cut by Sherman.

Oliver Howard's Right Wing was sliding past Macon and dealing with the snow and the resulting mud. An important aspect of Sherman's Army were the Pontoon trains that accompanied each wing, waiting to provide instant bridges over any water that could stop the Yankees. The 25th also saw skirmishing at Griswoldville between the Right Wing troops and Confederates from Macon.

Sherman reached Savannah on December 22, occupying the city and making contact with the blockading U.S. Navy ships.

Trudeau is continually concerned with exactly how much damage was actually done to property on the way - not as much as both the Confederate memories and the Yankee boastings would remember - and with the impact of the March on the War.

Where the troops actually passed, damage was extensive: animals killed, fences cut down to build campfires. "Many of us are utterly ruined," one Bulloch County farmer wrote. More fences than houses were destroyed -as is evident by the number of ante-bellum homes that can be toured in the path of Sherman's Boys. The biggest property loss were the slaves who, in the thousands, tramped after the liberating Yankees. Railroads had ties burned and rails bent. Slocum reported that his Left Wing destroyed 119 miles of railroad.

But as soon as the shock passed, people began to rebuild. Telegraph service from Mobile to Richmond had been restored by New Years Day and by January 3, 1865, Confederate engineer, Major General J. F. Gilmer was able to report "cars now run from Macon to Milledgeville."

Ironically, the greatest damage Sherman caused was the exact opposite of what he intended. Trudeau argues that Sherman was a conservative who wanted to end the war as quickly as possible and restore the old world. But the psychological destruction to Georgia society, even more than the physical destruction, made that impossible.

Southern Storm is a superb retelling of this iconic Civil War campaign and will make a welcome addition to your shelves.

After his well regarded "Gettysburg," Noah Trudeau's more difficult task in "Southern Storm" is to detail Sherman's 1864 march through Georgia as something more than that infamous affair brought us in Hollywood's version in "Gone With the Wind." Except for the concluding December capture of Savannah, there are no epic battles pitting one general against another, just the daily slog of a 60,000 man Union army reaping a three hundred mile swath of forage, fire, destruction from Atlanta to Savannah. Told mostly from the side of the Union army, each day is different and uniquely described without repetition. Sherman's strategy was to move two separate armies (led by Generals Slocum and Howard)to the southeast with feints towards Macon, thrusts towards Augusta, concealing his intentions, keeping the Rebels confused and his strategies disguised until the end. With numerous maps, fine descriptions and telling cameos, the book excels by avoiding boredom. Scenes, agonizing and enlightening, enliven the book; the joyous support of the slaves freed by the March as they followed the troops, Sherman's well planned tactical maneuvers which enabled his armies to traverse creeks, streams and rivers, and the failure of the Southern leaders especially Jefferson Davis to comprehend the magnitude of Sherman's offensive. Trudeau, to his credit, proves that fact supplants opinion by saving the editorializing overviews to the ending chapter. This is a book which is convincing because of its rigorous attention to detail and the fairness and writing skill of the author.

I have copies of the diaries of Martin Curtis Tyler who served with the pontoon train in the right wing of Sherman's army as part of Company E Fourteenth Wisconsin. On Friday December 9,1864 he wrote " We have traveled through a pine forest all day, the forage is scarce and we have only got 1 load of corn and the mules only get 4 ears of corn each night. We got no sweet potatoes & the 25 Wisconsin was sent from our PT train for stealing ours last night. We came 14 miles & was brought to a halt at 3pm & turned off the road to the right & 1 1/4 mile to the Ogeeche River & laid the PT to let the troops cross that came on the other side of the river & they will not be here until tomorrow morn." If you compare this to Trudeau's description of action on the same day, you can appreciate the work involved in combining the accounts of numerous diaries so that an accurate and consistent description is given of the march. Trudeau gives a very useful overview of the march while providing enough detail to identify the daily account in individual diaries. If you think the book is dull and tedious then you should read one of the diaries to understand that the daily life of the troops was dull and tedious. There are few cheering crowds, a lot of mud that the wagons had to be pushed through and a very uncertain supply of food and clothing. Thank you Noah Trudeau for an honest account of the march to the sea and those responsible for carrying out the necessary work.
Marcia Roth

A very solid, workman-like account of Sherman's march through Georgia, but not especially emotionally engaging. It does stop at Savannah though, there's nothing on the continuation of the campaign into South Carolina and North Carolina. There are no great battles here, those pretty much ended with the capture of Atlanta. One point made quite clearly in this book is that Sherman did his best to avoid major confrontation with the Confederate forces and split his force into two prongs to at least appear to threaten the maximum number of targets and thin the Southern defences, and he was hugely successful at this, with a great deal of help from the South and its inability to form a united command structure to oppose him. Hood took his substantial forces left after the attacks out of Atlanta and went north to threaten northern supply lines and presumably force Sherman to divert his offensive to follow him, only to succeed in destroying what was left to no particular purpose. The remaining Confederate generals and their forces couldn't decide on what to defend or how to go on the offensive to blunt or stop Sherman. The book gives very clear explanations on what was on the minds of both sides. There's lots to learn here for those sufficiently interested, but little that will stir your blood unless you're a descendent of the folks in Sherman's path.

I have read multiple books on Sherman's March to the Sea, but none offer the incredible, day-by-day detail afforded by Noah Andre Trudeau's Southern Storm. The American Civil War produced no other military action quite like this incredible event. It was a major departure from the Union's pervious strategies for conducting the war. Sherman would not seek to conquer and hold Southern territory as practiced in the first half of the war nor would he seek to destroy his enemy's armies as practiced in the second half. Rather he would sustain himself off the countryside and destroy any and all military and other assets that fell within his chosen path. His goal was simple enough: Destroy the people's resolve to fight.

In just over 5 weeks Sherman would move over 60,000 men 300 miles through central and eastern Georgia and not even lose a wagon. The South was utterly helpless in front of his advancing armies. But even more so was the thoroughness with which this raid mentally stamped defeat into the minds of the Southern people. This book tells the day-by-day story in such detail that one walks away from this read with an in depth understanding of Sherman's strategy, the reasons for the South's dysfunctional response and, unreported until now, the compassion of the people of the North.

Sherman's genius was the speed with which he drove his Army through Georgia. Moving 60,000 men deep into the enemy's homeland without supply lines had never been tried before, ever. 60,000 men need things, not the least of which is food, forage and ammunition. Realizing that the South was organizationally unprepared for his version of what later would be called a blitzkrieg, Sherman knew his success depended on a swift campaign. He would drive this vast army across a 60 mile swath of Georgia, covering the 300 miles between Atlanta and Savannah in just 30 days. The South never was able to mount an effective response. Except for what amounted to minor skirmishes, so adept was Sherman at handling his columns that except for Wheeler's undermanned cavalry, the South was consistently outflanked, out maneuvered and forced to retreat.

A major portion of Georgia countryside, 300 miles long by 60 miles in width, was destroyed. Once Savannah was invested, in only 15 minutes its most formidable military installation, Fort McAllister, would fall to a Union frontal assault, connecting Sherman's Army with the Union fleet under Admiral Dahlgren and finally, after weeks of silence, to the outside world. Almost without pause the Confederate government would yet again discard the people of Georgia just as it had consistently been doing for 30 days. They would abandon Savannah's civilians, women and children mostly, to the invading Union horde. Within 24 hours of Sherman's Goths entering the city, law and order was established. Within 48 hours, the vandals were feeding and protecting the populace. Two and a half weeks later, on January 15th, Union transports were tying up at Savannah's wharves, delivering food and clothing donated to the people of Savannah from the citizens of New York, Boston and Philadelphia: So much for for the South's spin of being visited by Goths, vandals, rapists, despoilers and hordes. The real truth is the North let them up easy.

This march was not made for meanness, it was not made for spite, it was not made to conquer. It was made to end treason. To this day people do not understand one simple fact: The American Civil War was fought to end treason. This march was made to reunite. It was made to demonstrate to the Southern people, not the Southern states, that they would not be separate and distinct, that the war was over, that their government was so inept, so thoroughly defeated and so helpless, that it could no longer defend its territory nor its people, let alone feed, house and clothe them. But most importantly, despite all its controversy by the naysayers on both sides which continues to this day, the march was an unmitigated military success that finally brought freedom and liberty to a land which previously had not known it.

This is a very good work by Noah Andrea Trudeau, one of his very best. Well written, succinct and unbiased, it contains much original analysis and cogent thought not found elsewhere. You will not be disappointed.

Good day to day, place to place narrative of this campaign. Since the Deep South was a hollow shell by the Fall of 1864 there were too few skirmishes to make this book a true Civil War battle work but for the student of the March to the Sea this is a valuable work because it accurately describes the day to day advance of Sherman's armies to Savannah. I enjoyed the book and recommend it to readers at all level. It does help temper some of the outrageous beliefs that some still hold that Sherman's army ravaged the South during this operation.
One gains an enhanced appreciation of the fine planning and execution by Sherman and his staff during this extraordinary campaign--Generals and staffs, experienced after three hard years of war, performing at the peak of their abilities. Good stuff.

Southern Storm provides a detailed account of General Sherman's march through Georgia and the military and political implications of this military feat. It is amazing to consider that an army set out with little supplies, no communications to its home base and into a hostile territory with the intent to live off the land and defeat the populace so they are forced to rejoin the Union. This book details the movement of Sherman's two wings (often acting independently) with the various outlying guards in the form of cavalry and artillery. The southern resistance was almost non existence due to the errors in organization leaving several regional commanders that did not have to respond to the centralized authority. The shinning grace came in the form of Bedford Forrest's cavalry who harassed many supply lines but ultimately was not going to turn the tide of the war. The book is filled with sweeping historical pictures, as well as, intimate vignettes into the lives of daily soldiers, civilians hiding their valuables, and military leaders as the armies of Sherman swept across the land. For those who are looking for an account of this story you cannot do much better. Without fanfare or hyperbole this provides an excellent account of not only the victories of Sherman's armies but the realities of the destruction that was wrought as they moved throughout the South. Whether you are a beginner or an expert you cannot go wrong with this one.

The March to the Sea is one of the more problematic events in Civil War History. For one thing, of course, you get the Southerners who are still upset by the way the war ended, and the fact that Sherman marched to the sea, essentially proving that the war was over and the South should surrender. Once you get past their resentment, another issue comes to the fore: there aren't any battles, and there wasn't any real suspense to the events, or at least there isn't now. At the time there apparently was, because the army was out of telegraph contact with the North for about a month while they marched from Atlanta to Savannah. Regardless, there have only been a few books on the subject, and I've never seen a detailed account of the whole campaign before.

Noah Andre Trudeau is an interesting guy. In his day job, the last I heard, he was a senior marketing guy at National Public Radio (selling the advertising they claim not to have...but that's another story). He writes Civil War history in his spare time, and he's produced a stack of books, mostly on the latter part of the Civil War. I would think the book he wrote that deals with the earliest event is the history he did of the Battle of Gettysburg.

So now he's produced a book on the March to the Sea. The detail here is awesome, with the author providing a day-by-day account of the army, often broken up into morning and evening narratives, and with the separate wings of the army dealt with in turn. Each day has its own map through most of the march, showing the positions of the various forces. Cities and towns are denoted on the maps by little dots; once the Yankees have visited, the dots are hollow rather than filled in. A note on each map tells you which towns are "under the gun" that day. When any serious fighting occurred, the author provides you with more detailed maps of that event, showing the position and paths of the units involved.

This is a detailed, intelligent account of the course of this campaign, which details how the Union could have conducted such a campaign, and how the Confederates could have allowed it to occur. The multitude of Confederate generals (Beauregard, Wheeler, Bragg, Hardee, etc.) wandering around commanding almost no troops, but trying desperately to prevent what was occurring, is entertaining in itself.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it to the Civil War buff. It's a good account of a relatively neglected subject.

Noah Andre Trudeau's book Southern Storm covers Sherman's March to the sea is the most interesting volume I have read on the subject.

After the obligatory informational chapters to set the stage Trudeau begins his own march to the sea in the same way as the troops did, day by day.

Each day is treated as an individual story, with it's own actions, encounters and dangers, all those involved are covered from the left and right wings of the Northern forces to the Confederates opposing them to the towns and people encountered black and white.

The day by day method along with the maps that goes with them adds to the story giving the feeling of the steady progression of tension among both the citizens and the soldiers trying to oppose them.

It also allows each encounter, each skirmish and each town's encounter with the Union forces to be given it's full credit. Many pages are added to the book due to this but it doesn't cause the story to drag. The smaller scale allows for the small scale encounters to be given their due. In the march of armies they are not significant, but to the men who faced death received them it was everything.

The index of forces in the back was also very informative.

A sequel featuring South Carolina would be most welcome. Id buy it. It's a great reading volume, particularly for the 4th of July.