Sherman's March in Myth and Memory

Edward Caudill, Paul Ashdown

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216213437
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

General William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea" in 1864 burned a swath through the cities and countryside of Georgia and into the history of the American Civil War. As they moved from Atlanta to Savannah—destroying homes, buildings, and crops; killing livestock; and consuming supplies—Sherman and the Union army ignited not only southern property, but also imaginations, in both the North and the South. By the time of the general's death in 1891, when one said "The March," no explanation was required. That remains true today.

Legends and myths about Sherman began forming during the March itself, and took more definitive shape in the industrial age in the late-nineteenth century. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory examines the emergence of various myths surrounding one of the most enduring campaigns in the annals of military history. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown provide a brief overview of Sherman's life and his March, but their focus is on how these myths came about—such as one description of a "60-mile wide path of destruction"—and how legends about Sherman and his campaign have served a variety of interests.

Caudill and Ashdown argue that these myths have been employed by groups as disparate as those endorsing the Old South aristocracy and its "Lost Cause," and by others who saw the March as evidence of the superiority of industrialism in modern America over a retreating agrarianism.

Sherman's March in Myth and Memory looks at the general's treatment in the press, among historians, on stage and screen, and in literature, from the time of the March to the present day. The authors show us the many ways in which Sherman has been portrayed in the media and popular culture, and how his devastating March has been stamped into our collective memory.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction: Burning the March into Memory
• Chapter 01. Sherman
• Chapter 02. Industrial-Strength Sherman: The Press, the Idea, the Myth
• Chapter 03. Sherman among the Historians
• Chapter 04. Still Marching: Sherman in Literature
• Chapter 05. Long Remember: Sherman on Stage and Screen, in Song and Poetry
• Chapter 06. In Sherman’s Tracks
• Epilogue: The March and Its Myths
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Authors
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