Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell
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Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell
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NATIONAL BESTSELLERWilliam Tecumseh Sherman was more than just one of our greatest generals. Fierce Patriot is a bold, revisionist portrait of how this iconic and enigmatic figure exerted an outsize impact on the American landscape—and the American character. America’s first “celebrity” general, William Tecumseh Sherman was a man of many faces. Some were exalted in the public eye, others known only to his intimates. In this bold, revisionist portrait, Robert L. O’Connell captures the man in full for the first time. From his early exploits in Florida, through his brilliant but tempestuous generalship during the Civil War, to his postwar career as a key player in the building of the transcontinental railroad, Sherman was, as O’Connell puts it, the “human embodiment of Manifest Destiny.” Here is Sherman the military strategist, a master of logistics with an uncanny grasp of terrain and brilliant sense of timing. Then there is “Uncle Billy,” Sherman’s public persona, a charismatic hero to his troops and quotable catnip to the newspaper writers of his day. Here, too, is the private Sherman, whose appetite for women, parties, and the high life of the New York theater complicated his already turbulent marriage. Warrior, family man, American icon, William Tecumseh Sherman has finally found a biographer worthy of his protean gifts. A masterful character study whose myriad insights are leavened with its author’s trademark wit, Fierce Patriot will stand as the essential book on Sherman for decades to come.Praise for Fierce Patriot “A superb examination of the many facets of the iconic Union general.”—General David Petraeus “Sherman’s standing in American history is formidable. . . . It is hard to imagine any other biography capturing it all in such a concise and enlightening fashion.”—National Review “A sharply drawn and propulsive march through the tortured psyche of the man.”—The Wall Street Journal “[O’Connell’s] narrative of the March to the Sea is perhaps the best I have ever read.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post “A surprising, clever, wise, and powerful book.”—Evan Thomas, author of Ike’s BluffFrom the Hardcover edition.
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell - Amazon Sales Rank: #159460 in Books
- Brand: O'Connell, Robert L.
- Published on: 2015-05-26
- Released on: 2015-05-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.18" h x .90" w x 6.09" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell From Booklist Sherman remains one of the most celebrated and controversial military icons in American history. Adored by his Union troops during the Civil War as Uncle Billy, he was despised by Southerners as the monster who mercilessly waged war upon the civilian population in Georgia and the Carolinas. Praised by some for his effective campaigns against the Plains Indians, he was condemned by others as a proponent of genocide. O’Connell, an author, analyst, and professor of history, views Sherman’s controversial legacy as a reflection of the contradictions and complexities within his character. By nature and inclination, he despised the pretensions and affectations of the wealthy, but he mixed with them freely and aspired to match their financial success. He claimed to hate politicians and journalists, yet he talked incessantly in their presence, and his off-the-cuff remarks often served to distort his true views. Despite the apparently wanton destruction of Sherman’s March, he actually kept tight discipline over his troops. This is a well-written and revealing reexamination of the character and career of an undeniably great American. --Jay Freeman
Review “A superb examination of the many facets of the iconic Union general who emerged as Ulysses S. Grant’s most trusted battlefield commander. [Robert L.] O’Connell’s biography of Sherman brings to life an enigmatic, fascinating figure who emerged a brilliant strategist and a master of maneuver, and whose victories in 1864 helped to ensure Abraham Lincoln’s re-election and ultimately turned the tide of the Civil War.”—General David Petraeus, Politico “Sherman’s standing in American history is formidable. . . . It is hard to imagine any other biography capturing it all in such a concise and enlightening fashion.”—National Review“A sharply drawn and propulsive march through the tortured psyche of the man.”—The Wall Street Journal “[O’Connell’s] narrative of the March to the Sea is perhaps the best I have ever read.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post“William Tecumseh Sherman is one of the great characters in American history—protean, highly effective, cunning, outrageous, and in every way memorable. He has found just the right biographer in Robert L. O’Connell. Fierce Patriot is a surprising, clever, wise, and powerful book.”—Evan Thomas, author of Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World “For those who think they know a lot about William Tecumseh Sherman, this book will be a revelation. Those who are meeting him for the first time will be equally mesmerized.”—Thomas Fleming, author of A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War “To his family and friends he was Cump; to his soldiers he was Uncle Billy; to generations of Southern whites he was the devil incarnate. But to biographer Robert L. O’Connell, William T. Sherman was the quintessential nineteenth-century American: full of energy, constantly on the move, pragmatic, adaptable, determined to overcome all obstacles, a nationalist and patriot who teamed with Grant and Lincoln to win the Civil War and launch America as a world power. This readable biography offers new insights on Sherman as a husband and father as well as a master strategist and leader.”—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era “A fascinating dissection of the multifaceted lives of William Tecumseh Sherman—military genius, brilliant organizer, inspired observer, and occasionally wayward husband. Sherman, O’Connell reminds us, was as brilliantly unpredictable on the battlefield as he was off it.”—Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, author of The Soul of Battle and Ripples of Battle “William Tecumseh Sherman has to be our premier grand strategist, who set unexpectedly bold boundaries, not just for war but for peace, and kept to them. In Fierce Patriot, Robert L. O’Connell has fashioned a remarkable, and remarkably original, portrait of one of the people who truly defined America.”—Robert Cowley, founding editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History “William Tecumseh Sherman was the most fiery, complicated, and inconsistent of America’s great generals. In Robert L. O’Connell’s aptly titled Fierce Patriot, he brings this conflicted American hero vividly to life. For both the Civil War buff and the general reader, Fierce Patriot offers new and arresting insights into this remarkable figure and his impact on the world in which he lived.”—Charles Bracelen Flood, author of Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil WarFrom the Hardcover edition.
About the Author Robert L. O’Connell received a Ph.D. in history at the University of Virginia, and spent thirty years as a senior analyst at the National Ground Intelligence Center. He is presently a visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, and was a contributing editor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. He is the author of numerous books, including The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic; Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression; and Soul of the Sword: An Illustrated History of Weaponry and Warfare from Prehistory to the Present.From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
93 of 97 people found the following review helpful. First-rate in terms of narrative, insight and interest By Peter G. Keen I selected this because I was interested in learning more about Sherman. I expected a solid and informative book. This turned out to be much more than that. It is first-rate.First, it is always interesting. The author has a lightness in style and an uusual ability to organize and summarize topics. To pick a few examples; he explains the developments in rifles and the resulting impacts on how commanders positioned troops and soldiers adapted in a compact way that is striking and very clear. Again and again, this skill enlivens the flow of the narrative without disrupting it. I can't recall a book on military history that made the details of campaigns and battles so easy to follow.The core of the book is, of course, the presentation of Sherman's career and personality. The writer made a unusual choice that I think works very well; he separates the military phase of his life as the first and main part of the book and addresses his later career and the very complex psychodramas of relationships within his family circle in other ones. This helpfully unclutters the flow of the narrative, though it is quite arguable that it obscures interactions and is selective in choosing events.Sherman comes across as not particularly self-aware, limited in his empathy and insight, and in many ways not an interesting character. But he was the opposite of this in his growth as a commander. The resulting portrayal abstracts the key historical threads of his life very vividly and convincingly, without neglecting the personal dimensions and resonances. There are a few themes that may be a tiny bit artificial -- a distinctive view of "strategy" as the core of what made Sherman different and a categorization of him as always seeking to be the Number 2 in his relationships with, most obviously, Grant.These are minor demurrals and queries. The analysis seems reliable and the sources and scholarship solid. What stands out is the book is so, so interesting. It flows vividly with a superb sense of the reader -- examples, phrasing and explanation really make this a conversation not a presentation.I loved it. It leaves a sense of enhanced understanding and a rich reading experience.
53 of 56 people found the following review helpful. A "Lollapalooza of a Life" By Robin Friedman In his new book, "Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman" (2014), Robert O'Connell writes of his subject: "Not unexpectedly, [Sherman] has already sired a string of biographies. All deserve some credit for having attempted to capture such a lollapalooza of a life. Yet many share a staccato, even frenetic quality as they jump from topic to topic, racing to keep up with one frenetic life story."This brief quotation captures a great deal both about Sherman (1820 -- 1891) and about the book. O'Connell develops the paradoxes of Sherman's character which resist easy summation. O'Connell shows the "Uncle Billy" of popular renown, in his own time and ours, but he also shows how this character was a construct by a highly theatrical Sherman. His account is strongly but critically admiring of Sherman. O'Connell frequently refers to various of his actions as "good Billy, bad Billy". O'Connell also writes in a colloquial, punchy style that makes the book a delight to read and highly accessible for a complex subject.In addition to the free-wheeling writing style, O'Connell's biography of Sherman is idiosyncratic in its organization. O'Connell concluded that writing a straightforward chronological biography of Sherman would be "bound to create confusion." He found that "three separate story lines, each deserving independent development" emerged from Sherman's life. Accordingly, O'Connell arranges his book topically rather than chronologically in three large sections. The organization produces a clear, well-flowing narrative of Sherman's accomplishments and life but at a cost. First, the book includes a substantial degree of repetition. Second, materials in the earlier parts of the book sometimes require information not presented until much later to be fully understood. Third, the final part of the book, which explores Sherman's private life, lags on occasion and is anti-climactic to what has come before.But even though the organization is not entirely successful, O'Connell has written a perceptive, engaging biography of Sherman. In what follows, I will look briefly at the three strands of O'Connell's story.The first and by far the longest part is titled "The Military Strategist". O'Connell begins with Sherman's studies at West Point, covers his early military career, and his mixed effoirts as a civililan in California and St. Louis before the outbreak of the Civil War. He does an excellent job in tying in Sherman's early life, with its ups and downs, with the events which would make him famous. O'Connell develops what he calls Sherman's sense of himself as a "wingman", working as second in command to another person, most notably U.S.Grant in the Civil War. He also shows Sherman's slowly developing sense of strategy, as Sherman came to wage psychological as well as physical warfare on the South in his March to the Sea and subsequent march through the Carolinas. O'Connell also emphasizes Sherman's career following the Civil War which, he suggests in agreement with Sherman,may have overshadowed his Civil War achievements in importance. Sherman served as the commanding general of the United States and was instrumental in American expansionism, including the building of the transcontinental railroad, the extermination of the buffalo, and the wars against the plains Indians. These accomplishments came at high human cost. O'Connell is blunt and direct in concluding that much of the criticism of Sherman is misdirected.The second part of the book, "The General and his Army" looks at Sherman's "boys" in the Civil War and how Sherman's relationship to his troops developed in the course of the Civil War. Sherman initially was skeptical of his volunteers. As he continued to lead the western armies, his relationship evolved to such an extent that his soldiers trusted him fully and would do the extraordinary things he asked of them in the latter part of the war. O'Connell finds that the Union Army of the West came together as a cohesive unit for Sherman after the Battle of Missionary Ridge in which, oddly, Sherman did not distinguish himself. Under Sherman's leadership, O'Connell argues, "the legions that marched through Georgia and the Carolinas had mastered one of the rarest and most valued of military skills: the ability to adapt." O'Connell writes:"Sherman and his boys were a violent bunch, but they were also decent, idealistic, and inherently magnanimous, reflexively holding out a hand to defeated Southerners. This was easier because almost all believed they were fellow Americans. Yet it would remain true of subsequent American armies in some very far-off places where the people were decidedly not fellow Americans -- that is, when they weren't making the rubble bounce. Alternately devastating and benevolent, that's us, or at least our spear tip, and has been since Uncle Billy and his boys scared the hell out of the Confederacy."In the final part of the book "The Man and his Families" O'Connell examines the frequently tortured course of Sherman's personal life beginning with his relationship to the powerful Ewing family. Sherman was raised by the Ewing's following his own father's death and married Ewing's daughter Ellen after a long courtship. The marriage was troubled by lengthy separations, by strong religious differences and by Sherman's affairs, yet it held. O'Connell offers a nuanced portrayal of Sherman's family life and of his later years when he participated regularly in veteran's reunions and acquired a reputation for sociability and public speaking among much else. The depiction of the intimate Sherman is insightful in many years, but it tends to lose focus by its placement late in the book and by its separation from the treatment of Sherman's many public accomplishments. O'Connell finds that Americans continue to be fascinated by Sherman because he is clearly one of us. He concludes:"Sherman was all these things, a mixture of good and bad, but still a familiar and comfortable presence. It's hard to imagine a more American man than Sherman. And although he died over 120 years ago, it's a safe bet that should Uncle Billy be brought back to life tomorrow, after a short orientation with the requisite hardware and software, he'd find himself right at home."O'Connell has written an excellent biography of Sherman and his "tangled lives". The book will appeal to readers interested in the Civil War and in the American experience.Robin Friedman
71 of 78 people found the following review helpful. Not Strickly a Military Biography of a Military Man By Michael D. Trimble Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this story. I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about Sherman beyond the boundaries of the Civil War years. The tone of the book is informal and conversational. As others have said, the book is broken down into three parts based on different aspect of Sherman's life and relationships. Unfortunately this type of narrative organization causes the author to cover the same time period and many of the same events more than once. This aspect of the book could have been done better. For the military history buff looking for an in depth analysis of Sherman's battle plans and the events that informed his decision making, that is not the focus of this book. This book is more of a human interest story and covers Sherman's life from birth to death, like a normal biography. If all you've ever read or learned in school is about Sherman the Union General, then this book should be very interesting to you. I learned three significant and interesting things about Sherman. One of these things is an actual fact, the type of fact that is fun to share with others. The other two things were what I believe to be well researched assertions. I will not give away these aspects of the book but I can say that I'll be doing additional reading and research of my own to see if I reach the same conclusions as the author. I would like to share this thought provoking quote from the book that perhaps has some modern relevance, "During the last stages of Sherman's March to the Sea, desertions from the Army of Northern Virginia skyrocketed to the point that Longstreet's Corps had more pickets in the rear than in the front, as soldiers bolted to protect their homes or at least their families. The Confederacy was an idea, and Sherman trampled all over it relentlessly--it's symbols, institutions, it's pride--bled the life out of it, and replaced it with hopelessness. That's the way to win." Enjoyable book!
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