Civil War Monitor has been putting out lists of the best books on a variety of Civil War-related topics lately. Here is its list of the Five Essential Books for Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864. Bennett Parten, Professor of History at Georgia Southern University who is finishing up his own book on the impact of the March on emancipation compiled the list. You can read his commentary for free at Civil War Monitor. Here are the books he chose:
1. Noah Andre Trudeau, Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea (Harper Perennial, 2009)
“It’s an exhaustive history with an equally as impressive bibliography, making it a boon to readers and researchers alike.”
2. Joseph T. Glatthaar, The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns (UNC Press, 1995)
“It takes the reader into the campaign, offering a view into topics such as how the soldiers foraged, why they fought, what camp life was like, and even how they interacted with enslaved people.”
3. Lisa Tendrich Frank, The Civilian War: Confederate Women and Union Soldiers During Sherman’s March (LSU Press, 2015)
“With a keen focus on southern women and their interactions with Sherman’s men, Frank seamlessly blends gender history into story of the Sherman’s March, showing how southern women sat at the very heart of the campaign.”
4. Anne Sarah Rubin, Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory (UNC Press, 2014)
“She does an excellent job explaining how the history of Sherman’s March shaped (and still shapes) American culture.”
5. Henry Hitchcock, Marching with Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, Major and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, Nov. 1864–May 1865 (Bison Books, 1995), edited by M.A. De Wolfe Howe
“This collection of excerpts taken from the diaries and letters of Major Henry Hitchcock, one of Sherman’s adjutants, may well be the most important first-hand account of the March.”
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Nice list. Looking forward to Rubin’s book, would’ve made it to that one by now if I wasn’t trying to space-out my March consumption to 1 book/yr.
Glad you left contrarians Dickey and Marszalek off the list. They fill way too many gaps and question marks with presumptuous conclusions, and the strength of their language in doing so reveals plenty of hubris.