Bought this for my father in law's birthday as he is a Civil War buff and specifically wanted something with details about Sherman's Atlanta campaign. He was delighted and says that this is a great book full of information.
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this is a digest since all the facts of the Atlanta campaign couldn't be covered in 200 pages. From the start when the author suggested that the liberation of Andersonville Prison in southern Georgia would have given the Yankees another couple of thousand soldiers i had to question it since Andersonville was a "humanitarain disaster". Indeed if Sherman had freed up this camp he would have had such a handful he wouldn't have...
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The author's stated goal in writing this book is to bring fresh perspective to well-covered material, and he certainly accomplishes that. This fairly short book provides a concise history of the campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, but at heart it is really more of an essay, arguing several points and re-examining things that have been too easily accepted.McMurry reconsiders the military performances of Johnston, Hood, Sherman,...
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Richard McMurry writes an interesting account covering the1864 military and political events in North Georgia stating "Gettysburg had brought no alteration in the relative strength or position of the opposing armies or in the course of the war" noting that Union successes at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga boosted Northern morale and assured that southerners couldn't gain a military victory and secure Federal recognition...
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Lots of military historians have gone over this ground, but McMurry takes an iconoclastic stance that yields fascinating results. His broad argument is that Grant made an error in putting Sherman in charge of the "west" rather than Thomas. Grant made a second, and related, error in personally directing Meade, while leaving Sherman to himself. These goofs caused many thousands of lives on both sides. The war could have...
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