We Knew William Tecumseh Sherman: An Eyewitness Biography, and: The Seige of Vicksburg, and: Sherman's March: An Eyewitness History of the Cruel Campaign that Helped End a Crueler War (review)

BOOK reviews91 erate States Marine Corps provide service records for the fifty-seven men who accepted commissions to become C.S.M.C. officers and one whose commission was not confirmed. Biographical information is provided for forty-two of diese individuals. Information is also given for two officers of the Virginia Marine Corps who did not serve as C.S.M.C. officers. In addition, service records are given for four individuals reported as Marine officers but whose commissions are not confirmed by records. Service Records of Confederate Enlisted Marines has details of wartime service for 1,238 men, arranged alphabetically by name. In a few instances, biographical information is added. Also included is an index of spelling variations for names. Anodier index gives known information about Marines' places of birth or residence. In addition, there is a "Correction and Addenda" which has biographical supplements for eleven commissioned officers. Donnelly's organization and presentation are admirable and reflect a vast knowledge of the military forces serving along the Confederacy's coasts and rivers. All material presented is meticulously documented, although some detail is inevitably missing due to die absence of complete records. W7here conjecture is possible, careful substantiation is given for the conclusion presented. Donnelly's research, writing and resourcefulness in finding sources can serve as standards for others to attain . These three volumes fill a void in the history of the Navy and Marine Corps. Those who study Civil War naval operations, or who research the prodigious Southern efforts to form and maintain their military power, will find much supplementary detail in Donnelly's books. For four years, the officers and enlisted men of die CS. Marine Corps were part of a "great civil war." Aldiough no former Confederate Marine ever rose to national prominence, the men of the Corps stood the trials of their disrupted civilian lives with the same strength of character that characterized their endurance of wartime trials. Thomas J. Bohon Cascade, Maryland We Knew William Tecumseh Sherman: An Eyewitness Biography. By Richard W7heeler. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1977. Pp. xiii, 130. $7.95.) The Seige of Vicksburg. By Richard W7heeler. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1978. Pp. x, 257. $11.95.) Sherman's March: An Eyewitness History of the Cruel Campaign that Helped End a Cruder War. By Richard Wheeler. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1978. Pp. xi, 241. $11.95.) Richard W7heeler has, without question, mastered the technique of writ- 92civil war history ing "eyewitness" histories. In addition to the volumes under review he has had published recently three other "eyewitness" works. One of these, Voices of the Civil War, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection as well as winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award as the best Civil W7ar book of 1976. His Civil W7ar volumes are largely collections of first-person accounts integrated into a narrative by short, clear passages written by W7heeler himself. These are in italics. Although the quotations, which appear in regular type, are in most cases from standard sources such as published memoirs, reminiscences, diaries, journals and letters, they are well chosen. We Knew William Tecumseh Sherman: An Eyewitness Biography was written as a companion volume to the author's previous work, We Knew Stonewall Jackson. "Jackson was right-hand man to General Robert E. Lee" writes W7heeler. "Sherman was the same to General Ulysses S. Grant." This is true but only to a limited extent. For one thing, Jackson never commanded above the corps level whereas Sherman, whenhe marched out ofChattanooga in the spring of 1864, was the ranking general in the western theater and headed an army of 100,000 men. This was the beginning of a march to fame and glory for the Union general whose sanity had been questioned early in the war. Atlanta fell to his forces inSeptemberand in Novemberhe commencedhis famous"March to the Sea," Atlanta to Savannah. After presenting the latter city to President Lincoln as a Christmas present, Sherman turned his columns in the direction of the Carolinas. The campaign ended near Durham, North Carolina, in April, 1865, when Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his small force. North and South Carolina, and Georgia...