Last Train from Atlanta (review)

440CIVIL WAR HISTORY Last Train from Atlanta. By A. A. Hoehling. ( New York: Thomas Yoseloff . 1958. Pp. 558. $6.95.) the above review by mr. kurtz, which is one of the best I have seen in many a blue or gray moon, may weU have persuaded our readers to invest $3.00 in Mr. Key's slim but exceUent work. It is now my pleasant duty—always with a view to the reader's pocketbook, and I may be the only one in the reunited United States to keep a watchful eye on Civü War expenditures—to urge all readers to put forth $6.95, cheerfully and with assurance of reward, for Mr. Hoehling's volume. For recent newcomers to Civü War collecting, the two books wül afford a reliable miniature library on the Atlanta campaign, reinforced by Mr. Hoehling's extensive bibliography for possible future additions. Needless to say, such veteran coUectors as Percy Hart and Bruce Jacobs wül already have Sherman's Memoirs and Hood's Advance and Retreat, as weU as the first-hand narratives of General Joseph Johnston, Jacob Cox, and Charles SIocum, not to mention the studies of Sherman by Lloyd Lewis and LiddeU Hart. There are many other relevant works, and so the coUector's problem is endless. For the neophyte, however, and for those citizens whose idea of the Battle of Atlanta is limited to the movie version of Gone with the Wind, these recent volumes wiU do for a start, with later backtracking if desired . With relevant uses of Federal dispatches and Northern newspapers, Mr. Hoehling centers his point of view upon Atlanta during the fateful months of July, August, and September, 1864. He has expertly dramatized the historical essence of a city threatened, besieged, and overrun by a hostile force, and his account belongs with the best narratives of other modern sieges, such as those of Sevastopol, Verdun, and Stalingrad. The author may weU have begun with a psychological premise—unorthodox, outré, abhorrent to the dry-as-dust historians —such as foUows: "Exactly what does it mean—physicaUy, intellectuaUy , and emotionaUy—to be caught in a siege and conquered by the enemy?" According to this premise Mr. Hoehling has flouted the academic historians, with their painfully pedantic paragraphs and their treasured, sterile footnotes, and has given us a book which lives on every page. His primary courses are multitudinous, including military records, civilian writings, and newspaper materials, and he has consulted a host of secondary works. The important point, however, is the author's ability to select from this vast accumulation what he can best use for a sustained, comprehensive, compelling narrative. Mr. Hoehling has not permitted General Sherman or Lloyd Lewis to write his book for him; always he shows an original sense of form, of continuity, of suspense, and of unflagging interest which he shares with Bruce Catton, Douglas Freeman, Fletcher Pratt, and a few others, all of whom deUghtfuUy thumbed their noses at the dry-as-dust, macliine-made manufacturers of history. Last Train from Atianta is entirely Mr. Hoehling's book, and the product redounds to his credit. If space permitted, I would cite many passages to show the wartime amalgam of fear and calmness, hysteria and fortitude, which accompanied the in- Book Reviews441 exorable approach to and invasion of the city. Sherman's rules of warfare, like those of Julius Caesar, Hadrian, Wüliam the Bastard, Bonaparte, and Bismarck , were relentlessly harsh but tacticaUy and strategicaUy equitable. Once captured, Atlanta became a Federal military base, and the commanding general proceeded accordingly. "I propose," he wrote to HaUeck on September 4, "to remove all the inhabitants of Atlanta, sending those committed to our cause to the rear, and the rebel families to the front. I wül aUow no trade, manufacture , nor any citizens there at all. ... If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I wül answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking." The message is clear enough. War is war. Sherman did not mention peace and reconciliation. They would come later, but not until the last shredded Confederate resistance was overcome. In the meantime, Sherman and the...