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War and Ruin: William T. Sherman and the Savannah Campaign. By Anne J. Bailey. (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003. Pp. 144. Cloth, $65.00; paper, $19.95.)
The history of the American Civil War is replete with controversial personalities, perhaps none more so than William Tecumseh Sherman. In the minds of many contemporary Southerners, Sherman's name is synonymous with the antichrist-an association derived in large part from the mythology that evolved concerning his 300-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah in late November and December of 1864. Following in the footsteps of John Marszalek, Anne Bailey's War and Ruin does an admirable job of cutting through the layers of regional memory tainted by the realities of war, the bitter era of Reconstruction, and the constructs of Hollywood-Gone With the Wind being the most obvious example-no easy task for the historian. Arguing that Sherman's march was more devastating psychologically to Georgians than physically destructive, Bailey's concise overview of this important campaign paints a portrait of Sherman and his march that is as balanced as it is informative.
As a logical extension of Bailey's earlier work, The Chessboard of War: Sherman and Hood...