Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (Library of America)

Hailed as prophet of modern war and condemned as a harbinger of modern barbarism, William Tecumseh Sherman is the most controversial general of the American Civil War. “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it,” he wrote in fury to the Confederate mayor of Atlanta, and his memoir is filled with dozens of such wartime exchanges. With the propulsive energy and intelligence that marked his campaigns, Sherman describes striking incidents and anecdotes and collects dozens of his incisive and often outspoken wartime orders and reports. This complex self-portrait of an innovative and relentless American warrior provides firsthand accounts of the war’s crucial events—Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Atlanta campaign, the marches through Georgia and the Carolinas.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War, leading a devastating campaign of total war against the Confederate States. When Ulysses S. Grant was elelcted president in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the U.S. Army, serving from 1869 until 1883. 

Charles Royster , editor of this volume, is Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University and author of The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans.