Publisher's Synopsis
*Weaves the lives and careers of Sherman and Johnston together into one entertaining and educational narrative.
*Includes pictures of the generals and important people and places in their lives.
*Includes maps of important battles they fought in. *Discusses their relationship during and after the war.
*Includes Bibliographies of each general for further reading.
William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 - February 14, 1891) holds a unique position in American history. Synonymous with barbarity in the South, Sherman is lauded as a war hero in the North, and modern historians consider him the harbinger of total war. As a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65), Sherman was recognized for his outstanding command of military strategy but criticized for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States, especially in 1864 and 1865. Military historian B. H. Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general."
Sherman spent a majority of the war out west, although it is often forgotten that he was a brigade commander at the First Battle of Bull Run, and that the Civil War actually finished with General Joseph E. Johnston surrendering to Sherman weeks after Appomattox. Having fought against each other and negotiated with each other, Sherman and Johnston became good friends after the war, and when the elderly Johnston served as a pallbearer at Sherman's funeral, he contracted an illness that eventually killed him.
During the Civil War, one of the tales that was often told among Confederate soldiers was that Joseph E. Johnston was a crack shot who was a better bird hunter than just about everyone else in the South. However, as the story went, Johnston would never take the shot when asked to, complaining that something was wrong with the situation that prevented him from being able to shoot the bird when it was time. The story is almost certainly apocryphal, but it was aptly used to demonstrate the Confederates' frustration with a man who everyone regarded as a capable general.
Johnston would become known more for losing by not winning; he was never badly beaten in battle, but he had a habit of strategically withdrawing until he had nowhere left to retreat. When Johnston had retreated in the face of McClellan's army before Richmond in 1862, he finally launched a complex attack that not only failed but left him severely wounded, forcing him to turn over command of the Army of Northern Virginia to Robert E. Lee.
Johnston and Confederate President Jefferson Davis had a volatile relationship throughout the war, but Johnston was too valuable to leave out of service and at the beginning of 1864 he was given command of the Army of Tennessee. When Johnston gradually retreated in the face of Sherman's massive army (which outnumbered his 2-1) before Atlanta in 1864, Davis removed Johnston from command of the Army of Tennessee and gave it to John Bell Hood.
Civil War Enemies, Post-War Friends chronicles the lives and careers of the two famous generals, including their famous encounters in the field, their assessments of each other, and their final surrender negotiations. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Sherman and Johnston like you never have before.
