Rising in Flames

Starred review from May 7, 2018
This superlative, impeccably researched account of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Georgia in 1864–1865 brings to life Civil War history through personal accounts and vivid descriptions of military strategy. Sherman, an avowed and largely unrepentant racist who came to despise slavery as both the driving force and supporting labor of secession, is thoughtfully portrayed as a complex figure whose unflinching military strategy eviscerated the rebel armies’ military capabilities. Dickey, a perceptive and agile writer, masterfully evokes the momentous military campaign, sweeping up the tales of home-front politics, newly freed slaves, an army chaplain, front-line officers, and fascinating portrayals of diverse Union Army members. He gives particular focus to Mary Bickerdyke, who worked for the U.S. Sanitary Commission channeling war relief funds and medical care efforts on a massive scale to save lives and feed troops as they carried out the invasion of the deep South, and “Black Eagle” John Logan, an Illinois legislator who began the war an ardent foe of Abraham Lincoln and author of proslavery laws and, after seeing the horrors of slavery firsthand, became aligned with Lincoln’s goals. Dickey fuses tactical analysis and terrifying descriptions of combat to make Sherman’s military strategy clear, and his accounts of the Battle for Atlanta, its subsequent burning, and the fight for Missionary Ridge are riveting. Dickey tells the story of Sherman’s march unforgettably, with power on every page. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type.

May 15, 2018

Dickey (Empire of Mud) enters the crowded field of Civil War books with this fast-moving and engrossing story surrounding Union Gen. William T. Sherman's decisive campaign through Confederate states in 1864-65. Instead of limiting the narrative to the destructive march through Georgia and the Carolinas, Dickey spends the first third of the book creating context of not only Sherman's army but also aspects of society torn apart by civil war. Throughout his account of the creation of Sherman's powerful military force and their formable operation are interwoven stories of less-well-known individuals affected by the brutal fighting. Here, the author writes in a more personal style, using first names for many of these characters, who appear periodically within the main narrative and become familiar to readers. Some of them, including African Americans, were closely involved in the conflict, while others, such as women caring for the wounded, were more distant. Most significantly, they provide Dickey with a vehicle for bringing otherwise hidden figures into this history. VERDICT A fascinating book with new perspectives for both Civil War buffs and more general readers.--Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018
A study in unintended consequences as a reactionary Civil War commander unleashed a series of progressive forces.William Tecumseh Sherman was a man who, in the field, spared his enemies no violence and showed little mercy. He leaned toward the despotic and was a law unto himself, and his troops were similarly situated on the edge of lawlessness. As Washington-based historian Dickey (Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC, 2014) writes at the beginning of his book, when Union forces staged a victory parade after the Confederate surrender, Sherman's Army of the West "sported the same uniforms they had fought in--worn and tattered, ripped and frayed, riddled with bullet holes, speckled with mud, and stained with blood." The piratical look emphasized the fact that Sherman had fought a relentless, punitive war, cutting a swath across the Deep South on his famous March to the Sea. But, pointedly, parallel to Sherman's army was a force of African-American men and women who had served as road builders, nurses, ambulance drivers, telegraph lineman and in other support roles. Dickey ably captures the shape and feel of the desperate battles Sherman's forces waged, "scorching the Southern earth and issuing no quarter to those who stood in his way." That black forces marched in support of Sherman's victorious army emphasizes numerous points: that African-Americans were essential to the Union's military success even if their contributions were long devalued; and that Sherman himself, though full of racist sentiments, contributed to the postwar push for civil rights through orders for the redistribution of seized plantation lands with self-determination for communities of newly freed slaves--a program later known as "40 acres and a mule" and promulgated by a commander who at the time was not "known for his sympathies for black people."A readable blend of military and political history; though not in the first rank of recent Civil War studies, a valuable addition to the literature.

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