Sherman

Here's a book that is light reading for one afternoon, probably only of interest to Civil War buffs.

Sherman (Lessons in Leadership: Great Generals Series), by Steven E. Woodworth, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 178 Pages.
Author Steven E., Woodworth is a professor of history at Texas Christian University, and an acknowledged expert on the Civil War. General Wesley K. Clark (Ret) wrote the foreward to the book.

At the beginning of the war, Sherman’s actions led many to believe he was crazy and almost caused his exit from the service. He then settled down and became essential to Grant at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Sherman tended to focus on different objectives than Grant did, Grant aimed at the destruction of the enemy armies, while Sherman thought in terms of taking or destroying key strategic objectives that would undercut the enemy’s ability to sustain its armies. Sherman had a weakness in that he assumed the enemy would do what Sherman hoped he would do. Thankfully he surrounded himself with others who had a better grasp of what to expect and Sherman listened to them. Seldom would Sherman attack fortifications head on as most other Civil War Generals did, including Grant.

Throughout the war Sherman practiced maneuver warfare more skillfully and on a wider stage than any other Civil War general had done. Again and again, he successfully turned his opponents by outflanking them, leaving them the option of retreating or fighting at a disadvantage. The fundamental concepts Sherman had used—maneuvering, avoiding enemy strength, capitalizing on enemy weaknesses—are as valid in the twenty-first century as they were in the nineteenth.

I did not find anything especially new about Sherman’s march to the sea and his subsequent march north through the Cariolina’s except that his reputation for cruelty is much undeserved. He once stated: “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”

Pg. 174: Sherman’s famous line when repeatedly badgered to run for President in 1884: “If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected I will not serve.”