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Chapter 9: Sherman and the Modern Historians
- University of Missouri Press
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132 hat so many of the major stars in Gone With the Wind were British is perhaps very telling. although not intended by the movie’s creators, the large number of British actors and actresses in the film reflect an interesting aspect of the creation of the Sherman myth. The modern view of Sherman is as much a product of the view of British professional military men as it of the Southern lost Causers and Sherman’s northern political enemies. The first British officer to write extensively about the american Civil war was Garnet wolseley. The twenty-nine-year-old lieutenant colonel in the British army, stationed in Canada, took a leave of absence and smuggled himself into Virginia after the battle of antietam. wolseley then became an unofficial observer with the Confederate army. after the war he wrote about the war’s leaders in British and american magazines, newspapers, and professional journals.1 when wolseley joined lee’s army of northern Virginia, he had as much battlefield experience as any of the men he interviewed. he had seen action in the Second Burmese war, was decorated during the Crimean war and the indian mutiny, and had served during the Second opium war with China. after his visit he consistently proved that he knew what he was talking about when it came to military affairs. in Britain, wolseley earned the reputation as a professional soldier who could be depended on in the worst of situations. for his services in the countless colonial conflicts in Victorian africa, wolseley was promoted to commander in chief of the British army in 1894 and was given the noble title of Viscount by a grateful Parliament.2 wolseley’s writings were decidedly pro-Confederate. This should not be surprising since the British elite tended to favor the Confederate cause. This was due as much to anti-union sentiment as anything else. The British elite, ChaPter 9 sherman and the modern historians T sherman and the modern historians 133 not knowing much about the South, created an image that was an idealized view of their own past, of noble cavaliers who took up sword to protect home and hearth. They saw the north as the culmination of the changes that had happened in Britain and were continuing to happen, such as democracy and industrialization. The British elite had created their own version of an idealized South of “moonlight and magnolias” long before margaret mitchell began her novel.3 wolseley saw robert e. lee and Stonewall Jackson as the great generals of the war. he blamed lee’s failures on his obedience to President Jefferson davis and argued that his strategy at Gettysburg could have succeeded had his subordinates been more aggressive in its execution as Grant’s officers had been at Chattanooga.4 wolseley had high praise for Sherman. he considered Sherman to be Grant’s Stonewall Jackson. when Sherman did not agree with the orders from his superiors, he still carried them out with vigor. according to wolseley, it was this respect for the chain of command that guaranteed union victory in the Vicksburg campaign.5 as a commanding general, wolseley would have greatly appreciated that trait. he criticized Sherman for not being more aggressive against Johnston’s army of tennessee during the atlanta campaign and for allowing himself to be drawn deeper into Georgia. on the Joseph Johnston versus John Bell hood debate, wolseley agreed with Sherman that the Confederacy made a serious mistake in removing Johnston. he wrote that the march to the Sea showed the world that the South could no longer defend itself. This goal was reached by simply marching through; no destruction had to take place. wolseley wrote nothing with which Sherman’s contemporaries, north or South, would have disagreed. even wade hampton agreed with wolseley’s statement that the most important aspect of the march to the Sea was that it put Sherman into position to strike at lee.6 wolseley’s praise of lee did cause a minor controversy in the north before Sherman’s death. Sherman responded to wolseley’s magazine articles in the press. he wrote that “the american people will be fully prepared to select subjects ” to glorify “without hint or advice from abroad.” Southern newspapers attacked Sherman, as they did anyone who suggested lee was anything less than a god.7 wolseley was a romantic and, like most military men, a conservative who did not like change. The second industrial revolution was changing the...