I give homage to the Northern trinity that won the war: Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman. What I learned in this biography is not only that Sherman deserves his place in this trinity, but that overall Sherman is one of the greatest and most consequential men of the 19th Century.
Sherman ranged the length and breadth of the US during his time. In a century when travel could be long and arduous, he seemed to be everywhere. He spent time in San Francisco as a banker and roamed the countrysides in his military career, but his favorite place seemed to be St. Louis.
It is amazing that Sherman headed a military academy in Baton Rouge when South Carolina seceded. He had a certain naivete regarding politics.
I was reading flying to SF and I was reading it flying home.
We've got a long way to and a short time to get there.
(1/5 At the Birmingham terminal waiting to board the flight to Houston)
In the Second Seminole War, Sherman wanted a war of extermination. There is no doubt that Sherman was not an egalitarian and that he headed a US army that exterminated Native Americans on the plains after the war. P. 20
The author walks a fine line between absolving and holding Sherman accountable as an Indian killer.
Speaking of Grant:
"He stood by me when I was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk; now, sir, we stand by each other always." P. 95
Flying to Houston on my way to SF, reading about "Cump." It's bumpy over New Mexico like Sherman's bumpy life. 1/5/15
McPherson says that Vicksburg was the most important strategic victory of the war. P. 122
It's hard for me to visualize Sherman's march to the sea. P. 156
Grant's battlefield insensitivity. P. 202
The Bummers. (1/9 Ready to takeoff in SF)
"You will be satisfied in their utter extermination." P. 206 (1/9 Leaving SF)
Out the airplane window to my right I see Alcatraz, the City, Oakland, and boats in the bay. Where is Berkeley? (1/9/15)
More than three million bison gunned between 1872 and 1874. Native Americans depended on the buffalo. These creatures were deliberately destroyed by Sherman and his minions in the effort to exterminate the Indians. P. 203
These were fellow Americans however misguided. P. 259
Sherman's Army of the West stole the show at the Grand Review. P. 264
A mythical 19th century boyhood. P. 280
An appointment to West Point at age 16 thanks to his foster father. P. 282
The skeptical Cump had trouble with his pious Catholic wife. (P. 300 1/9 Enroute from Houston to Birmingham)
Sherman perhaps personifies more than anyone 19th century America, the good and the bad. Should I read more about this complex man? P. 347
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