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Sherman: Fighting Prophet (review)
- Civil War History
- The Kent State University Press
- Volume 5, Number 2, June 1959
- pp. 230-231
- 10.1353/cwh.1959.0002
- Review
- Additional Information
230Cl VIL W AR history Kansas, to "kill every man big enough to carry a gun," and the massacre that followed has no parallel in the Civil War. Within two hours, one hundred and fifty male citizens, many young boys, are killed. One hundred and eighty-five buildings are destroyed, including most of the business district. A city is almost wiped from the Kansas map. Union General Thomas Ewing's retaliatory "General Order No. 11" gutted the Missouri western border counties of Jackson, Bates, Cass, and part of Vernon. Amid die murder and pillage, a civilian population vanished. Witiiin a few days western Missouri is desolated, leaving only coundess stone chimneys as mute evidence of the vast arson. The area was long known as the "Burnt District." A depressing glimpse of die civilian plight is preserved by die artist George Caleb Bingham on the famous canvas, "Martial Law." Today tiiis "no quarter system" is seemingly accepted as a part of our code of war. In fact, it seems outmoded in light of die atomization of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The audior convinces his readers diat die "Gray Ghosts" are brave and bold and serve the Confederate cause well; in fact, "better tiian they knew." Nevertheless, you are made keenly aware of their viciousness, which shocked the entire nation. Moreover, diere is no romantic nonsense about tiiis brutal type of warfare and die men who fought it and died for it. On March 10, 1864, Governor Tom Reynolds of Missouri prophetically wrote Quantrill: 'The history of guerrilla leaders is that diey always fail or are killed." And, so it is widi many of diese guerrilla leaders ere die end of die hostilities. It is not a pretty sight: Quantrill felled in manure and mud is completely paralyzed below his arms; Todd suffocates in his own blood; Anderson and Clement are gunned down from their cavalry saddles. The Jameses and die Youngers survived die ordeal only to become harassed, lawless desperados. Mr. Brownlee ably and fully recasts die sketchy guerrilla story commenced by John N. Edwards in a partisan book written eighty years ago. John K. Hulston Springfield, Missouri. Sherman: Fighting Prophet. By Lloyd Lewis. Introduction by Bruce Catton. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company. 1958. Reissue of 1932 volume. Pp. xviii, 690. $8.00.) a quarter of a century has passed since this contribution made its mark in the field of Civil War literature. To appreciate the immensity of Mr. Lewis' accomplishment we must reacquaint ourselves with the central character from a time perspective. William Tecumseh Sherman was indeed a dazzling individual whose military strategy was later studied by European and American experts in war colleges. The first world war found Sherman's tactics adopted on a universal basis—destroying the economic foundation of one's enemy and raiding deep into his territory. Sherman was connected with other than military features of the American scene. The California gold rush, the aftermath of the Civil War, and die con- Book Reviews231 quest of the Far West by railroads all find Sherman's name associated witii diem. The audior covers seventy years in the life of tiiis dynamic figure. Bruce Cation's new appraisal as an introductory feature hits the nail squarely on the head when he remarks: Sherman was, in other words, a man of contradictory aspects, and the great virtue of Lewis' book is that it shows how tiiose different aspects became a part of the man's character and how they finally were welded into a coherent whole. Lewis was able to do this partly because he had studied everything Sherman did and said with perceptive care, and partly because he always saw Sherman as expressing the inner spirit of die unsophisticated , poorly trained, matter-of-fact young men who fought under him. This is no ordinary military biography. It is rich in anecdotes and detail» and has withstood die test of time in terms of its literary merits. The reviewer would like to stress tiiat, among die many positive tilings which can be said about this volume, Mr. Lewis' excellent description of the relationship between Grant and Sherman and the meaning of the Union in Sherman...