A definitive biography that sheds light on the life and times of one of the Civil War's most important generals. William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War , preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war. "Union general William T. Sherman has been the subject of a dozen major biographies since the end of the Civil War....Holden Reid provides the best take on aspects of his subject that has ever been written... [namely his] discussion of Sherman the man, his personality, his pre-Civil War and post-Appomattox life.... He also provides the best take on certain aspects of Sherman's war career, such as his near emotional breakdown in the fall of 1861 and his association with the burning of Columbia, South Carolina. In these regards, Holden Reid has written the best biography of Sherman." -- Earl J. Hess, Journal of American History "Leaves the readers wanting more." -- Jennifer M. Murray, The Annals of Iowa "[T]his deeply researched and deftly argued investigation will likely prove to be the definitive one for the foreseeable future....[Holden] Reid carefully connects Sherman's personality traits to his military strengths and weaknesses." -- Gordon Berg, History Net "Brian Holden Reid offers us a wide-ranging biography that serves the field well by placing Sherman within the larger military, political, and intellectual forces of the nineteenth century, in the process helping to restore an oftmaligned historical figure to his rightful place as a supreme military thinker." -- Zachery A. Fry, Military History Review In this compelling and lucid reassessment of William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-91), Reid (King's Coll. London; America's Civil War ) dispels the myths and misreadings of the commanding general of the Union Army and, later, secretary of war, recasting him as a man of wide intellectual interests who understood that winning demanded strategic vision and assiduous planning. Reid's Sherman grew from an officer unsure of himself to a confident general at once bold in thought, meticulous in planning, and deft and decisive in action... Sometimes argumentative but always insightful, this study of Sherman ranks among the best renderings of the man and the conduct of the Civil War, and will help readers reconsider Sherman's character and the discipline necessary to succeed in war. -- Library Journal "In this thoroughly researched and beautifully crafted work, a master historian has produced a strikingly original book, keenly sensitive to context and brimming with insights. Surely it is destined to become the standard biography of this iconic general, debunking many myths and enlarging our understanding of the man, his times, his wars, and his contribution to saving the United States at its most vulnerable time. If you can read one book about the military aspects of the American Civil War, make it this one." -- Richard H. Kohn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Deeply researched, nuanced in judgment, and compellingly readable, this is military biography at its best. With both microscope and panoramic lens, Brian Holden Reid gives focus to Sherman's complex character, the interplay of his intellect and action, and his shrewd grasp of operational logistics and strategy, while also assessing his place within the broad stream of modern military development. An outstanding achievement." -- Richard Carwardine, Rothermere America