Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The Sherman-Hood Correspondence

I recently stumbled across and read the correspondence between Generals Sherman and Hood about the evacuation of civilians from Atlanta in 1864. If you're at all interested in the Civil War (or either of the generals), it's highly recommended.

The correspondence is the source of several of Sherman's famous quotes about the horror of war, and Hood comes across as a literate, intelligent and impassioned advocate (however misguided!) that belies the image of him as sort of dopey conveyed by his hang-dog pictures and his later debacles at Franklin and Nashville. You can find it at
this site, and elsewhere by googling "sherman hood correspondence.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:08 PM

    Please explain what you mean by Hood being "misguided".

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  2. A,

    In all honesty, I don't remember what in particular I was referring to. Looking back at the correspondence, I suspect I was referring to Hood's general position that Sherman's order was one of the the most barbarous and monstrous acts in the history of warfare. It plainly wasn't.

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