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61 he public’s perception of General william t. Sherman from the end of the Civil war until his death in 1891 would change repeatedly. The accusations that General Sherman and all union generals were brutal destroyers appeared in the Southern press before the end of the war, but these accusations had quickly been overshadowed by the twin evils of radical republican politicians and carpetbaggers as the perceived enemy of the South. Sherman visited the South many times during his tenure as general of the army and was always warmly greeted. while Sherman’s reputation in the South was at its high point, he was the center of controversies in the north largely because of his treatment of union generals and politicians during the war and in his writings. as those controversies and accusations of leniency were beginning to be forgotten in the north, Sherman, however, managed to stir new controversies in his attempt to ensure that history would favor the union cause. This would have the twin effects of boosting Sherman’s favorable perception in the north and inviting hostility from the South. accusations of Sherman’s brutality would start to emerge again after the publication of his memoirs. most of these claims would come from northern men who felt they had been wronged by Sherman in his memoirs or as head of the army during peacetime. in an interview with the Milwaukee Sentinel given in 1875, just after the publication of Sherman’s memoirs, General Joseph “fighting Joe” hooker became one of the first to claim that Sherman prosecuted the war “like a brigand” who had forgotten that he was “making war on his own countrymen.” hooker would say in this same interview that Sherman’s destructive way of war was why Grant’s administration had distanced itself from him. hooker must have chosen to forget that Grant promoted Sherman to general of the army in 1869. although there was a ChaPter 4 the War of the memoirs T 62 DEMON OF THE LOST CAUSE great deal of friction between Grant and Sherman when hooker made this statement (Sherman had even moved his office from washington, dC, to St. louis), this was because of political issues such as the reorganization of the war department and the admittance of african americans to west Point. hooker’s statements can only be seen as lashing out against a junior officer whose career greatly bypassed his own. it was Sherman’s promotion of oliver otis howard to command of the army of the tennessee that had finally driven hooker to resign his command. By the time hooker made his statements he was well on his way to being remembered as the great bungler at Chancellorsville.1 hooker echoed the wartime richmond press when he accused Sherman of leaving a “black streak in his rear” and that eventually his actions would be “considered disgraceful by the great Christian world.” although comments like these would be used also by twentieth-century historians, this was not the commonly held view of Sherman during his lifetime. The accusations of Sherman as a traitor to the union cause had never taken hold, and the north viewed him as one of the great heroes of the war. Southerners still approved of Sherman and reveled in his supposed break with the Grant administration.2 Southern generals who published their memoirs during this period disagreed with Sherman on aspects of the war, mostly on questions of strategy and the ratings of certain generals. even the most critical of memoirs stopped well short of accusing Sherman of outright brutality as hooker had done. one of the more critical of Sherman was General John Bell hood’s memoir titled Advance and Retreat. it was published in 1880, a year after hood, his wife, and their oldest daughter died in a yellow fever epidemic in new orleans. General P. G. t. Beauregard had the memoir published. The proceeds went to support hood’s ten surviving children, the youngest born just weeks before the death of her mother and father.3 hood, however, would have taken at least a little comfort from the fact that his tragic death made it difficult for Johnston, Sherman, or anyone for more than a generation to criticize him or his memoirs without appearing heartless. hood began preparing to write his memoirs almost as soon as the war was over. it was the continuation of the battle to clear his name and blame others for his defeats that had...

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