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September 12, 2006

Decision in the West

The American Civil War has always been a fascinating period of history for me. At once gallant and tragic, a moment in our history where we decided that we were going to try to move a little closer to the ideals we had set out in the Declaration of Independence. And yet, at the same time an era when we became a very different country than the one we had set out to be in 1787, one of four major upheavals in our life as a country. Like many Civil War buffs, I've spent a lot more time on the campaigns in the East than in the West, because those are the better-known ones. Appomattox, after all, is where the Civil War came to an end, and by far the best-known Civil War battle is the clash between R.E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and G.G. Meade's Army of the Potomac just south of a hamlet called Gettysburg. But while the fighting in the East garnered much of the acclaim both during and after the war, it is fair to say that the war was actually won in the West, far from the newspapers and publicity.

And one of the most important of those campaigns was Sherman's march on Atlanta. While Sherman is best known for his March to the Sea, when he cut himself off from his base and marched from Atlanta to Savannah, capturing Savannah and offering it to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift. Before he could do that, however, he had to take Atlanta, and that meant facing off with the Army of Tennessee under General Joe Johnston. Decision in the West tells the story of how Sherman and Johnston faced off during the long summer of 1864, and how Sherman eventually reached his goal and set the Civil War into its final phase by capturing Atlanta and guaranteeing that, whoever won the election of 1864, the Union would continue the war to its conclusion, bringing the Confederacy back into the fold no matter the cost.

Decision in the West covers this campaign in impressive detail, from the appointment of Johnston and Sherman to the head of their respective armies up to the final moments of the campaign. The book reads more like an adventure story than a stereotypical dry history text, laying out the importance of the campaign and the situation the United States found herself in in early 1864 clearly and well, leaving the reader no illusions about the importance of the campaign. I will note, however, that Castel labors under the belief President Lincoln was obsessed with the capture of Richmond rather than the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia, an assessment previously effectively disputed by T. Harry Williams in Lincoln and His Generals. I therefore found myself often wondering what other things Castel might have gotten wrong in this history. Castel is also decidedly tough on the generals of each side, highlighting their every failure while not making much allowance for the fact they did not have his benefit of 20-20 hindsight. While it is probably true that each side blew numerous opportunities during the war, there is a reason a wise man once described war as a series of ever-greater calamities culminating in ultimate victory. Nonetheless, for the student of history and for the warrior Castel's review of the failures of each side is valuable if only to illustrate how easy it is to miss opportunities, in war or in life.

Overall, the book is invaluable to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the American Civil War. Well-written, clearly well-researched, and a pleasure to read, Decision in the West is a terrific work.