Marching Through Georgia: The Story of Soldiers and Civilians During Sherman's Campaign

by Lee B. Kennett

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, Kennett follows the notorious, complex Sherman, who attacked the heart of the Confederacy's arsenal. Marching Through Georgia describes, in gripping detail, the event that marked the end of the Old South.

 

Genres: Civil War, History, American Civil War, American History, Nonfiction, Military History, Civil War Western Theater

418 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Lee Boone Kennett was a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Georgia. He lived in Pleasant Garden, North Carolina until his death in 2011 "after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease".

Kennett had a long career as a historian and a writer, in which he specialized in military history. He received many honors, prizes, and awards, including the University of Georgia Research Award, the Lindbergh Professorship at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., a position as a visiting lecturer at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Aeronautical Section, in Moscow, and his decoration by the French Government as Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Academiques, for "services to French culture".

Besides his devotion to the study of history, Prof. Kennett also liked old cars and cats.

Reviews

[Bob R Bogle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly, I picked up this book in the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum in New Orleans. A fine purchase.

This book reads as a well-researched and well-documented outline of the passage of Sherman's troops from the time they set out from Chattanooga until they reach Savannah. I could provide a list of things this book is not: it is not a biography of Sherman, for example, or a military chronicle, whether focused on local tactics or broader political strategy, nor is it a psychological reconstruction of the feds or rebs involved in the drama it portrays; nevertheless, this book at times embraces all these areas of focus, and more.

Certain chapters become slightly annoying as they are crammed with well-documented incidents which are, nevertheless, presented in a manner which is neither temporally sequential nor makes much sense with respect to the passages Sherman's troops cut through the Georgia countryside. But this is a minor problem and I won't dwell on it.

This book is a fine repository for a good deal of information about Sherman's Georgia campaigns. The map it contains of north Georgia is especially useful. I would like to have seen a better map for events occurring in the immediate vicinity of Atlanta. As for the March to the Sea, Kennett did about as good a job as could be done (although I thought he gave very short shrift to the incident of abandonment of camp-following former slaves at Ebenezer Creek, although presumably this was a conscious choice based upon an absence of documentary evidence). We also see next to nothing about Fort McAllister and Savannah, which is unfortunate.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This struck me as kind of an odd book. It’s not bad, per se. But it aims to tell how people experienced a thing, while deliberately avoiding describing that thing. So while parts of it are good, I couldn’t help but to feel somewhat disoriented while reading it.

That’s not to say that Kennett isn’t up front about what his book is and is not. The subtitle describes the book as “The Story of Soldiers & Civilians During Sherman’s Campaign” in Georgia, an introductory note promises “little treatment of strategy and tactics,” and within the text itself, Kennett goes so far as to recommend Albert Castel’s Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 “for those who want to follow the marches and battles in all their details.”

So I can’t fault the book for not providing a full campaign history, since that clearly wasn’t its goal. Instead, it focuses on those who experienced the campaign - without providing a full accounting of exactly what they were experiencing. Of all the Civil War campaigns, Sherman’s invasion of Georgia, battle for Atlanta and March to the Sea perhaps best lends itself to a flowing narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end. This book loosely traces that forward progression, but it’s instead organized somewhat thematically, with vignettes on civilians, soldiers, slaves, foragers, plunderers and more, so it comes across a bit like examining individual trees without ever describing the forest.

Having said all that, there are parts of the book that are quite good. Many battle narratives incorporate the soldier’s-eye view, but few offer an extensive look at civilians’ perspective, which is front and center here. Kennett first sets the scene by describing everyday life in Georgia, which, until Sherman’s campaign, remained largely untouched by war three years into the fight. He points out funny-sounding local names through which Union troops advanced, like Big Shanty and Pumpkinvine Creek, which to me are just everyday place names around here. It’s more disappointing to see that places like “Kenesaw” and “Ackworth” are misspelled on one of the few maps the book has to offer.

Sherman’s advance to Atlanta consisted of a series of battles, so the book’s lack of any kind of battle history is most conspicuous in its first half. Kennett shorthands it as “marching, entrenching, and fighting,” as advancing Union soldiers “kept doing the same sequence of things over and over again, each time in a different place.”

Once Atlanta is captured and Sherman considers what to do next - hold the city, or destroy it and keep moving, “smashing things generally” along the way - the book improves in that there are fewer battles to ignore and more impacts on local residents to consider. With Confederate forces’ defeat and departure, there is less fighting and more destruction as the next phase of the campaign begins. Some civilians flee ahead of the advancing Union troops, some stay behind and helplessly confront them, and a desperate governor, frustrated by a lack of support from Richmond, calls up all able-bodied white men aged 16-55 in a feeble attempt to fight back.

Chastened and defeated as the war approaches its end, Georgians aim to return to normal life as the book concludes with a historiography of the long-term impact of Sherman’s March. While there were certainly hard feelings, Kennett finds that most residents were quick to try to put it behind them. And in an intriguing but abrupt ending that calls out for further commentary, he credits Margaret Mitchell with reviving strong anti-Sherman sentiment in the South.

So as Kennett makes abundantly clear, this is not a full history of Sherman’s campaign. It would be better read as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, a more traditional battle narrative. Castel’s book was already on my to-read list - and since Kennett himself offered his recommendation, I believe I’ll take him up on it.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched social history rather then strictly military. Interesting perspective of the civilians and the foot soldiers on this historical March in 1864.

[Jason Larimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars. I wish there had been more about the actual battles

[Matthew Boehm]

An amateur historian's account of Sherman's "March to the Sea." An enjoyable read, and an instructive one, as Kennett focuses less on military strategies and battle tactics and more on the cultural impact and human response to the Georgia Campaign. Kennett provides a brief but compelling demographic survey of Georgia under Governor Joe Brown, then traces the chronology of the march through a close study of the correspondence, journal entries, and popular culture produced by soldiers, civilians, and officers involved. Sort of a "contact zones" study of this mass military (and civilian) migration. Of particular interest are the many passages detailing the physiological and psychological effects caused by such regular marching. The lack of documentation in this book, however, is a considerable shortcoming.

[Jeff Moffatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a campaign history of Sherman's Georgia campaign of 1864. Rather, the author sets out to capture the collective experience of the soldiers and civilians caught up in critical corner of the war. In this he succeeds wonderfully, 1864 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, Kennett follows the notorious, complex Sherman, who attacked the heart of the Confederacy's arsenal. Marching Through Georgia describes, in gripping detail, the event that marked the end of the Old South.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focused far more on a "snail's eye view" of the 1864 Georgia campaign, looking at the experiences of soldiers and civilians. Personally, while the book wasn't altogether bad, I'm more interested in the military operations.

[Jason Reeser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history.