War So Terrible: Sherman and Atlanta

by James Lee McDonough and James Pickett Jones

Atlanta's fall was the beginning of the end for the South, and this book describes and analyzes the dramatic Atlanta campaign in a manner fair to both Yankee and Rebel, more extensive then any volume... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393024970
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Length: 385 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

War So Terrible

This is an excellent book reviewing the battles that took place from Chattanooga to Atlanta in the summer of 1864 in the Western armies. The authors, working independently, have chronicled much of the strategy and and battlefield drama that characterized such engagements as Dallas, New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill, Kennesaw Mountain, Ezra Church, Resaca etc. As a layman, I was not bogged down with too much military lingo, and was able to get a good grasp of the strategy used on both sides. Maps and pictures add to the clarity. The authors seemed to start out being favorably disposed to Joseph E. Johnston's command, then, as they analyze all the historical and geographical factors from hindsight, they bring the reader to wonder at his failure to maneuver into a decisive victory over Sherman's advancing army. With the ensuing command of Gen. Hood one senses the nearly frantic contrast to throw men into battle as Atlanta becomes ever-more threatened, at great sacrifice of Confederate lives. If you had ancestors that fought in the Atlanta Campaign, this is a very good book, with details drawn from numerous sources. The writers have added soldiers' and officers' comments from diaries and letters that detail the morale, the terrain, the weather, and attitude towards the events of the day. These add more interest to the sometimes dry, official commentaries so often quoted in other works. Good history for layman or scholar; Union or Confederate.