Marching Through Georgia: The Story of Soldiers and Civilians During Sherman's Campaign

If you're looking for a tactical study of Sherman's Atlanta campaign, this isn't it. If you're looking to delve into the human aspects of a massive Civil War campaign, this definitely is it. If you're looking for a well written book of interest to a broad range of readers, this is also it. No need to be a "buff" to enjoy Kennett's fast paced work that is full of interesting stories and insights into a broad range of topics. His writing keeps the pages turning. It is a unique combination of "beach" book and reference. I have two quibbles with Kennett's writing and they are technical: 1) Stop separating full sentences with semi-colons. Use periods. It aids in reading. 2) Stop using French terms where they aren't necessary or translate them. The book is too good for that to matter much.

Lee Kennett's Marching Through Georgia could easily be mistaken for a "popular history", the kind of work that scholars will occasionally endorse, but usually dismiss. Marching Through Georgia is certainly as readable as any so-called popular history but this work is a gem of historical scholarship, to be compared with the studies of such authors as Bell Irvin Wiley, James Robertson, Reid Mitchell, and Earl Hess. The number of primary sources consulted is positively staggering. Kennett understands, and communicates the character of Civil War soldiers and soldiering in the Western Armies (North and South) better than any author I've ever encountered with the possible exception of Larry Daniel. An outstanding book!

I was raised in Georgia and attended public school in Athens in the 60s and 70s. Even in a university town some 100 years after the Civil War there were people with embittered attitudes toward the North who saw themselves as citizens of a conquered country. This was surely due in part to Civil Rights legislation enforcing integration; and in part to that fable of Southern life, GONE WITH THE WIND. Most white Southerners know and many revile the name of William Tecumseh Sherman; not because they are ardent historians but because Margaret Mitchell and director Victor Fleming immortalized Sherman's burning of Atlanta on celluloid. In fact, although I hardly studied anything about the Civil War in public school, our class did take a 60-mile bus ride to watch GONE WITH THE WIND at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Although many years have passed, I have no reason to believe that today's young Georgians are any more informed about the actual history of their state; whether this is through official ignorance, shame, fear, or willful deceit I cannot say.Lee Kennett's book, MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA goes a long way toward addressing this ignorance, and should be required reading for every Georgian. The book focuses on Sherman's North Georgia Campaign, the Battle of Atlanta and the March to the Sea as it affected the soldiers and civilians of both sides. His discussion of strategy is general and primarily about Sherman's decision to have his army forage off the land. Even this is included because of the consequence such forage had for the people involved--Kennett lays the blame of the Union atrocities at the feet of this decision, but takes care to point out the nature of such "atrocities", and that truly severe crimes other than the destruction of property was rather rare. Indeed, what makes Kennett's book so valuable is its evenness of tone regarding the issues and personalities. A Sherman biographer, he neither idolizes nor demonizes the General. Sherman, though not the main subject of this book, emerges as a recognizable and very human figure. Sherman's devotion to duty was horrifyingly single-minded--Kennett relates an incident in which 28 Union soldiers are too ill to travel, and Sherman left them in the care of a Confederate hospital in Milledgeville while he moved on with his troops: "'If they die, give them a decent burial,' Sherman said, 'if they live, send them to Andersonville [the prison in south Georgia where Union soldiers were held in appalling conditions to die in the thousands], if course,' Dr. Massey may have looked a bit nonplussed at this, for Sherman added: 'They are prisoners of war, what else can you do? If I had your men I would send them to prison.'" In another incident, Sherman refused to accept Union prisoners from Andersonville in a prisoner exchange because they were too ill or wounded to fight.Kennett's descriptions of Sherman's progress were very meaningful to me as a native of the state. Non-Georgians might get bogged down a bit i

Lee Kennett is an excellent historian who combines exhaustive research with a splendid narrative pace in his "Marching Through Georgia."This is not a book about Sherman's military campaign through the Peach State. The battles and maneuvers provide only the backdrop. The story is of the common soldiers who fought with and against Sherman and the citizens of Georgia who endured both armies during 1864.The author makes heavy use of diaries and first person accounts. He focuses on several perspectives across the book: life in the trenches, on the battlefield, camp life, foraging, life on the March to the Sea, life in besieged and occupied Atlanta, and the life of Georgia's black and white citizens. What is rendered is an exciting account of what these people experienced during these seminal months in their lives and the life of their country'. Kennett brings it all together as a story -- never falling into the trap of some authors of this genre of over repeating diary entries and accounts in a redundant attempt to be thorough. He achieves just the right mix of memoir and story to keep his book moving along at a good clip.This book will fascinate and educate.