THE WHITE TECUMSEH, by Stanley P. Hirshson (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 492 pages, $30.00).
In this revealing and comprehensive biography of William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-91), the author draws upon regimental histories, manuscripts, letters, reminiscences, patriotic speeches, and previously unpublished photographs from the archives of the United States Military Academy at West Point to reconstruct a picture of one of the most complex figures in American military history. Hirshson devotes “far more space to [Sherman’s] battles and marches than has any previous biographer,” as he traces the life of this Union Civil War general officer–best known for his “march to the sea” that left a trail of devastation across the South–from his childhood in Lancaster, Ohio, to his appointment as the commanding general of the U.S. Army in 1869.
