Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0

Word count: 4.8M words
Chapters: 483

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals by Ulysses S. Grant et al.Author: Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891,Language: English, Class: E660: History: America: Late nineteenth century (1865-1900), Release Date: Jun 1, 2004

Editor's review

This book gathers memoir texts by three important Union generals of the American Civil War, presenting the war from the perspective of the command level through the first-person accounts of Grant, Sherman, and others. The value of such memoirs lies not only in the record of facts but in how the generals narrate decisions, deflect or accept responsibility, and how the postwar context shapes their recollection of battles. Readers can see concrete details of marching, supply, communication, and battlefield judgment, and can also sense the tension between personal memory and official narrative. For enthusiasts of American history and military history, it is primary material for understanding the thinking of the Union high command; for researchers of writing and historical narrative, it offers a sample for observing how autobiographical sources are constructed. Note that this is a compilation of public-domain English texts, that the format and level of detail vary from piece to piece, and that memoirs carry their own positions; it should not be read straight through as neutral campaign history. It is best read alongside a Civil War timeline and battle maps, and cross-checked against other sources.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers and serious enthusiasts of Civil War history and nineteenth-century American history
Military history readers interested in command, logistics, and battlefield decision-making
Humanities students who need first-person sources to analyze the construction of historical narrative
Independent learners with English reading ability who want to engage with public-domain primary sources

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a Chinese general history or introductory overview, without background knowledge of the American Civil War
Readers expecting a single author's complete, continuous narrative and unaccustomed to multi-author compilations
Readers who treat memoirs as fully objective campaign records and are unwilling to cross-check

Reading tips

First outline the timeline of the main Civil War campaigns, then read the chapters corresponding to each general, so as not to confuse people with events.
As you read, note where generals give different accounts of the same event and keep a comparative record to identify differences in memory and position.
Consult battle maps or concise campaign histories alongside the book, matching march routes to the narrative.
There is no need to read the whole book; begin with the core chapters of Grant or Sherman, then expand to the other sections.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this book contain the complete memoirs of each of the three generals?

According to the available information, the book is titled Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals and is credited to Sherman and others; it is a compilation of related memoir texts, not a verbatim complete memoir by each general. The exact contents and any abridgments should be checked against the actual e-text.

What historical background is needed before reading?

It is best to know the basic timeline of the American Civil War, the division between the Union and the Confederacy, and the approximate roles of Grant, Sherman, and the others. With that framework, the campaign names and personal relationships in the memoirs will not obstruct reading.

Can the memoirs be cited directly as historical fact?

They should not be treated directly as neutral fact. Memoirs contain personal positions, retrospective accounts, and selective memory; they are suitable as one historical source and should be judged only after cross-checking against battle reports, letters, and third-party histories.

Is this edition suitable as an introduction for Chinese readers?

It is not very suitable as an introductory text. This edition is a compilation of public-domain English e-texts without a Chinese introduction or annotations; Chinese readers lacking Civil War background and English reading habits are advised to read a Chinese general history first and then return to this book.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891 Author

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) was an American military officer, best known as a prominent general of the American Civil War, whose life and military career are chiefly documented in his own memoirs. The library holds nine of his works, mostly different volumes and collected editions of the Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, along with a joint volume of Civil War reminiscences by several Union generals. Written in the first person, these works recount marches, battles, and postwar observations, combining historical source value with a personal narrative style, and remain important primary material for the study of nineteenth-century American military history. Public information is limited, so his early life and specific military assignments are not elaborated here.