Home front and battle front merged in 1865 when General William T. Sherman occupied Savannah and then marched his armies north through the Carolinas. Although much has been written about the military aspects of Sherman's March, Jacqueline Campbell reveals a more complex story. Integrating evidence from Northern soldiers and from Southern civilians, black and white, male and female, Campbell demonstrates the importance of culture for determining the limits of war and how it is fought. Sherman's March was an invasion of both geographical and psychological space. The Union army viewed the Southern landscape as military terrain. But when they brought war into Southern households, Northern soldiers were frequently astounded by the fierceness with which many white Southern women defended their homes. Campbell argues that in the household-centered South, Confederate women saw both ideological and material reasons to resist. While some Northern soldiers lauded this bravery, others regarded such behavior as inappropriate and unwomanly. Campbell also investigates the complexities behind African Americans' decisions either to stay on the plantation or to flee with Union troops. Black Southerners' delight at the coming of the army of "emancipation" often turned to terror as Yankees plundered their homes and assaulted black women. Ultimately, When Sherman Marched North from the Sea calls into question postwar rhetoric that represented the heroic defense of the South as a male prerogative and praised Confederate women for their "feminine" qualities of sentimentality, patience, and endurance. Campbell suggests that political considerations underlie this interpretation--that Yankee depredations seemed more outrageous when portrayed as an attack on defenseless women and children. Campbell convincingly restores these women to their role as vital players in the fight for a Confederate nation, as models of self-assertion rather than passive self-sacrifice.

Marching with Sherman: Through Georgia and the Carolinas with the 154th New York presents an innovative and provocative study of the most notorious campaigns of the Civil War -- Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating 1864 "March to the Sea" and the 1865 Carolinas Campaign. The book follows the 154th New York regiment through three states and chronicles 150 years, from the start of the campaigns to their impact today. Mark H. Dunkelman expands on the brief accounts of Sherman's marches found in regimental histories with an in-depth look at how one northern unit participated in the campaigns and how they remembered them decades later. Dunkelman also includes the often-overlooked perspective of southerners -- most of them women -- who encountered the soldiers of the 154th New York. In examining the postwar reminiscences of those staunch Confederate daughters, Dunkelman identifies the myths and legends that have flourished in the South for more than a century. Marching with Sherman concludes with Dunkelman's own trip along the 154th New York's route through Dixie -- echoing the accounts of previous travelers -- and examining the memories of the marches that linger today.

America in the antebellum years was a deeply troubled country, divided by partisan gridlock and ideological warfare, angry voices in the streets and the statehouses, furious clashes over race and immigration, and a growing chasm between immense wealth and desperate poverty.The Civil War that followed brought America to the brink of self-destruction. But it also created a new country from the ruins of the old one—bolder and stronger than ever. No event in the war was more destructive, or more important, than William Sherman’s legendary march through Georgia—crippling the heart of the South’s economy, freeing thousands of slaves, and marking the beginning of a new era.This invasion not only quelled the Confederate forces, but transformed America, forcing it to reckon with a century of injustice. Dickey reveals the story of women actively involved in the military campaign and later, in civilian net- works. African Americans took active roles as soldiers, builders, and activists. Rich with despair and hope, brutality and compassion, Rising in Flames tells the dramatic story of the Union’s invasion of the Confederacy, and how this colossal struggle helped create a new nation from the embers of the Old South.

New York Times Bestseller A gripping, definitive account of Sherman’s legendary and destructive march through Georgia. “Mr. Trudeau’s narrative is peppered with trenchant observations from Sherman, one of history’s more quotable military leaders. . . . Mr. Trudeau accomplishes what he set out to do: march through the experience in all its detail.” — The Wall Street Journal In Southern Storm, award-winning Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeau has written a fascinating account that will stand as the last word on General William Tecumseh Sherman’s epic march—a targeted strategy aimed to break not only the Confederate army but an entire society as well. In rich detail, Trudeau explains why General Sherman’s name is still anathema below the Mason-Dixon Line, especially in Georgia, where he is remembered as “the one who marched to the sea with death and devastation in his wake.” Told through the intimate and engrossing diaries and letters of Sherman’s soldiers and the civilians who suffered in their path, Southern Storm paints a vivid picture of an event that would forever change the course of America.

Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory

In this engrossing work of history, Lee Kennett brilliantly brings General Sherman's 1864 invasion of Georgia to life by capturing the ground-level experiences of the soldiers and civilians who witnesses the bloody campaign. From the skirmish at Buzzard Roost Gap all the way to Savannah ten months later, Kennet follows the notorious, complex Sherman, who attacked the devastated the heart of the Confederacy's arsenal. Marching Through Georgia describes, in gripping detail, the event that marked the end of the Old South.