Doctorow.

This is coolbert:

What a disappointment! I am looking at books yesterday at the local Target, and see this book by Doctorow, "The March" .

I have just blogged on this just recently.

This novel has Sherman's March to the Sea during the American Civil War as the backdrop for the story.

So I pick up the book and open the cover to read the inside of the jacket. And I am immediately floored. Well, not exactly so, only in a figurative manner. The VERY FIRST sentence says something to the effect, "After burning Atlanta, Sherman embarked on his march to the sea . . . "

NO!! NO!! A thousand times NO!!

How could Doctorow have made such a grievous error?? A man such as Doctorow MUST HAVE carefully researched this book. And yet, what is it, the very first sentence in the jacket is preposterous.

As I have said before in a prior blog entry, Sherman DID NOT burn Atlanta. Atlanta did burn to the ground during the Civil War, but it burned from fires set by the Confederates to prevent their [Confederate] munitions from falling into the hands of Sherman. These fires spread, unintentionally, and DID burn the city down. But it was not from the efforts of Sherman's army that this did occur.

[it is also speculated that fires set by Confederate artillery firing at Sherman's troops also inadvertently set fires in Atlanta. Probably true!]

Here is an interesting web site, [click here to see site], that describes the letter sent by Sherman to Hood [defender at Atlanta] during the battle for Atlanta. From the communique of Sherman to Hood:

"God will judge me in good time, and He will pronounce whether it be more humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of a brave people at our backs, or to remove them in time to places of safety among their own friends."

[Sherman in this case is talking about evacuating the citizenry of Atlanta so they may NOT become innocent non-combatant casualties in case of battle WITHIN Atlanta itself.]

This tells me that Sherman WAS NOT the depraved barbarian some folks have taken him to be.



I highly recommend the above web site. www.sonsofthesouth.net. OUTSTANDING!!

coolbert.