Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:58 AM 9/7/03 -0400, Don Dory wrote: >Thank you for responding. First, is there any literature that you could >direct me to that would cover McClellan that a Google won't uncover? > >Second, as to Grant, he seemed to do pretty well with the Western >campaigns in Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi with troops that had >been newly formed up. Now I will grant you that he had Sherman under >his command in the latter part of these campaigns which was of immense >tactical advantage. > Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton both wrote multi-volume histories which cover the Civil War in detail -- especially recommended is Catton's GRANT TAKES COMMAND. The best single-volume works, in my estimation, are either Fletcher Pratt's ORDEAL BY FIRE or the recent BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM by MacPherson. There have been a couple of solid biographies of Sherman in recent years, but I do not have the citations available and my copies are upstairs in boxes at the moment. Sherman had performed quite well at First Bull Run and had then been given a most important independent command in Northern Kentucky, a state vital to Lincoln's strategy. For him to then be placed under a relative upstart (Sherman had been successful in everything he did and his brother was a most influential Senator, while Grant had failed miserably from the end of the Mexican War into early 1862, and was regarded as a time-serving lightweight by his superior, "Brains" Halleck) must have been a come-down but one taken by Sherman in stride. Years afterwards, Grant asked Sherman if he had ever been really scared during the Civil War, and Sherman responded that he had, at Shiloh, but that once he saw Grant in action he recognized that Grant was a better soldier than he was, and ever afterwards simply placed his faith in Grant. Grant became concerned about the political and logistical value of the Shenandoah Valley. While most of the denizens of the Valley were either neutral or pro-Union (Congressmen were sent to Washington from these hustings throughout the War), their strained loyalty to the Commonwealth of Virginia caused them to feed and provision Confederate forces advancing down the Valley on Washington. In late 1864, Grant ordered Sheridan to advance up the Valley, from Winchester to Staunton, and to burn out all farms and the like, regardless of the political tenor of the owners. Sheridan was ordered to leave the Valley in such a state that "when you depart, not even a crow can cross the Valley save that it carry its own provisions". Sheridan did his task with grand precision, turning America's most fertile farmland into a corruption of subsistence-farming plots which have only managed to regain their former glory during the generation just past. Fascinating times, fascinating people. Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html