Afterword

This is a work of fiction. For entertainment purposes massive liberties have been taken with the historical record. For instance, the events surrounding the fall of Atlanta were compressed and simplified, although the death of General McPherson occurred as represented. Another example is Ambrose Bierce’s wound; he really did miraculously survive being shot through the head at Kennesaw Mountain, but his astonishing recovery was not as unique as depicted. Be that as it may, where historical characters have appeared I have tried to give a flavor of the real individual, even when they are placed in fictional situations. What follows are brief descriptions of those characters who appear in Marching Through Georgia, and indications where some liberties have been taken, for which I plead the informed reader’s forgiveness.

CAPTAIN AMBROSE G. BIERCE

SCOUT AND CARTOGRAPHER

ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND

Ambrose G. Bierce (1842–1914?) Bierce was indeed a scout with Sherman’s army who performed numerous acts of lunatic bravery; his commanders thought so highly of him that although he enlisted as a private, he ended the war as a major of volunteers by brevet. He miraculously survived being shot through the head during the Atlanta campaign; within two months he had returned to combat, despite being plagued by blinding headaches and vertigo that would be with him on and off for the rest of his life. Some people attribute his black view of life to damage from this head wound; but the evidence was abundant that he was a strange and difficult personality long before a Confederate bullet injured his brain. After the war he earned his living as a journalist, working much of the time for the young William Randolph Hearst; on the side, he wrote fiction on the supernatural and the all-too natural horrors of the Civil War. His greatest moment of glory, aside from the Civil War, was when he directed for Hearst the public relations campaign against the Southern Pacific Railway’s attempt to sneak through Congress a bill forgiving some $70 million in back taxes owed to the Federal Government. The then-head of Southern Pacific, the old robber baron Huntington, was nothing if not direct; he personally accosted Bierce on a street, informing him that every man had his price, and bluntly asked what Bierce’s price would be. Bierce’s reply is reputed to have been: “A check for $70 million, made payable to my good friend, the Treasurer of the United States;” eventually, that check was written. From this point, his life slid downhill, due as much to his own flawed character as anything else. By 1913 he was seventy-one years old and in constant pain; divorced by a wife he had genuinely loved, who could no longer tolerate his repeated infidelities. One beloved son had murdered a friend in a sordid fight over a girl, before turning the weapon on himself; another had quietly drank himself into an early grave; his daughter wanted nothing to do with him. Telling some people he intended to go to Mexico to join a revolution, and others that he intended to throw himself into the Grand Canyon, he disappeared; no trace of his fate has ever been found. He would have undoubtedly been amused by the mystery he left behind.

BRIG. GEN. JEFF. C. DAVIS

COMMANDER XIVTH CORPS

Jefferson C. Davis (1828–1879) Davis was an enlisted man in the Mexican American war, granted a commission on the basis of his lunatic bravery. He was a lieutenant at Fort Sumter at the time of the Confederate attack, and can literally be said to have seen combat from the first to the last day of the war. His courage and ability led to his rapid promotion to brigadier general. However, in September of 1862 he had an argument with his immediate superior, Major General William Nelson, and shot the unarmed Nelson to death. Mysterious political influence kept formal charges from ever being brought against Davis; but further promotion was out of the question. He commanded the XIVth Corps during Sherman’s March; in a cold-blooded but necessary decision, he did indeed cut loose a pontoon bridge before numerous escaped slaves could flee Confederate cavalry, as described in this novel. He was in perpetual bad health, probably from liver disease; but it was noted that whenever combat loomed Davis was out of his sickbed and at the front. After the war he reverted to his permanent rank of Colonel. When the last major Indian revolt in California broke out, he was placed in charge of subduing the rebellious Modocs. He did so with such brutality that there were no further Indian disturbances in California.

MAJ. GEN. JOSEPH HOOKER

COMMANDER XXTH CORPS

Joseph Hooker (1814–1874) Hooker was an extremely brave officer with considerable military ability, but he had two flaws: he seemed incapable of not backstabbing his superiors at every opportunity, and he thought he was a better general than he actually was. Although promoted no less than three times for bravery during the Mexican War, when it ended he resigned his commission and went to California to pursue various business interests, uniformly unsuccessful. When the Civil War broke out, his bravery and ability caused him to be rapidly promoted, despite the fact he was disliked by many in the higher ranks of the Union Army. When Ambrose Burnside was awarded command of the Army of the Potomac, Hooker was furious, feeling the job was rightly his. He began a whispering campaign against Burnside that tainted the morale of the army and ruined whatever effectiveness Burnside had; and after a series of heartbreaking defeats command of the army was taken from Burnside and handed to Hooker. Hooker proceeded to suffer a defeat at Chancellorsville every bit as bad as one of Burnside’s defeats; Hooker was relieved of his command and sent west with two army corps to help Grant at Chattanooga. There Hooker did surprisingly well, as he did during the early stages of Sherman’s March. However, Hooker’s pride and arrogance caused his final downfall at the very moment he was beginning to recover some of his military reputation. After McPherson’s death, Hooker felt he should get the vacant command; instead, Sherman gave it to Oliver Howard. Enraged, Hooker threatened to resign, expected the threat would make Sherman give him the command. It did not; Sherman accepted his resignation, and Hooker played no further part in the war. By 1866 Hooker had developed some mental impairment, either from a stroke or disease; he was retired from the army, and spent the remainder of his life an invalid. There is no indication that Hooker was ever disloyal to the Union; however, his relentless backstabbing and scheming causes me no guilt in making him my fictional villain.

MAJ. GEN. JOHN LOGAN

COMMANDER, XVTH CORPS

John D. Logan (1826–1886) Logan was a Pro-War Democratic congressman when hostilities opened; that was such a rare bird that Lincoln rewarded the untrained Logan with a general’s commission. Unlike most of Lincoln’s political generals, Logan showed not only bravery but considerable leadership ability and tactical flair. He commanded the XVth Corps throughout Sherman’s March. After the war, he converted to the Republican Party, serving as United States Senator from Illinois from 1871 until his death, running unsuccessfully for the Vice-Presidency in 1884.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES B. McPHERSON

COMMANDER, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE

James B. McPherson (1828–1864) McPherson was a brilliant officer who graduated first in his class from West Point. His sunny disposition kept most from being jealous of his rapid promotion by Grant. Expressing doubts over the horrors of war inflicted on civilians, he nonetheless provided brilliant service until he was killed leading his men in a counterattack during the siege of Atlanta. Grant burst into tears upon learning of his death.

MAJ. GEN. OLIVER OTIS HOWARD

REPLACED HOOKER AS COMMANDER, XXTH CORPS

Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909) Howard was a mathematics instructor at West Point when the war broke out; he rapidly attained the rank of colonel. In 1862 at the Battle of Fair Oakes he lost his arm while leading his brigade in a desperate charge; for his bravery he was not only promoted to general, but awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was given command of the XIth Corps in the Army of the Potomac. His Corps did not perform well at Chancellorsville or Gettysburg, due more to the inexperience of his troops and plain bad luck than any inadequacy in his military abilities. Transferred to Sherman’s army he did much better, and upon McPherson’s death was given command of the Army of the Tennessee; he and his army performed superbly for the remained of the war. After the war he was placed in charge of the Freedmen’s Bureau, an organization devoted to trying to help recently freed slaves to self-sufficiency; he also helped organize the first university dedicated to African Americans, later renamed Howard University in his honor. A devout Christian and a sincere believer in the equality of all races, he worked hard at the Freedmen’s Bureau, but ultimately without success; the stubborn resistance of white Southerners and the post-war Democratic Party doomed his efforts. Later he would be commandant of West Point, and retire at the rank of major general.

MAJ. GEN. HENRY SLOCUM

REPLACED AS COMMANDER, XXTH CORPS

Henry Slocum (1827–1894) Slocum was a West Point graduate who left the prewar army to practice law. When hostilities broke out he joined the volunteers and was rapidly promoted; by the time of Gettysberg he was with the Army of the Potomac, commanding its XII Corps. After the Battle of Gettysberg he was attacked for lack of leadership, although his performance was no worse than many of the Union generals there, and better than some; it would seem that his transfer from the Army of the Potomac was due as much to army politics as to any perceived deficiencies as a general. Slocum certain proved himself to be a very able commander while he was in charge of Sherman’s XXth Corps. After the war he spent the remainder of his life in various business and political enterprises in his native New York.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN

COMMANDER, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) Sherman probably suffered from what we call bipolar disorder or manic depression; his wild mood swings were legendary. There was no effective treatment for that disease in the nineteenth century, which makes his career all the more remarkable. For good or for ill, he was the first modern proponent of “total war”, regarding the civilian population and the economy of the enemy as legitimate targets. He had no illusions about war; when in later life an admirer said how glorious and romantic it all must have been in the Civil War, he snarled “War is hell! It is organized murder; you cannot define it in terms harsher than I!” Yet at the end of the war, he was completely opposed to punishing the South in any way; if they would simply swear allegiance to the Union, bygones were truly bygones, as far as the terrible Sherman was concerned. After the war, he was repeatedly mentioned as a possibility for the Presidency; despite the fact that his beloved brother was a senator, or perhaps because of that, he had complete contempt for politics, and repeatedly stated he had no interest in the White House. His sincere denials were often taken for coyness, and his name kept cropping up as a draft possibility. Therefore, swallowing for once his burning hatred of reporters, he convened what we would call a press conference, and uttered the phrase “If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve!” There was no further talk of drafting Sherman to run for the Presidency. Even by the standards of the Civil War, Sherman’s bigoted feelings against blacks were embarrassing in their intensity and crudity. However, during the war and later as General-in-Chief of the army, he witnessed how black soldiers were every bit as good as white, and was too intelligent to discount the evidence of his eyes. By the time of his retirement from the army in 1884, he was calling for racial integration of the armed forces; Congressional opposition made that impossible for another 65 years. Perhaps a man should be judged more by where he ends than where he begins.

George H. Thomas (1816–1870) Thomas was often described as having the appearance and dignity of a Roman proconsul. His devotion to duty was absolute; he did not give himself a single day of leave in the entire four years of the Civil War. He had been a child living in the area of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion when it occurred. His father died mysteriously about the time of that rebellion. Despite his many ties to Virginia, Thomas did not hesitate in affirming his loyalty to the Union. He gained the first significant Union victory of the war at Mill Springs in January 1862, a victory that essentially ended Confederate hopes for taking Kentucky. He was a corps commander under Rosecrans at Chickamauga; his determined, resolute leadership of his men saved the army from complete destruction after Rosie fled the field. When General Sherman set forth on his march through Georgia, he sent Thomas back (along with frankly second-rate units) to defend Tennessee from counterattacks by the elusive army of John Hood. Hood then placed Thomas under siege at Nashville. Grant ordered Thomas to counterattack; but Thomas refused to do so until he had collected enough men and cavalry to make such a counterattack decisive. An impatient Grant set out for Nashville to personally relieve Thomas of command. However, before he got there Thomas finally moved, utterly smashing Hood’s army and destroying it for good as an organized force. As a reward, Thomas was promoted to major general in the regular army. After the war he was assigned to command several districts, ending up in San Francisco where among many things he directed the landscaping of the sand dunes of the Presidio which makes it such a beautiful place to this day. Although he and his only brother were reconciled after the war, his two sisters (whom he had essentially raised) refused to have any contact with him, except for an insulting request that he change his name. His feelings can perhaps be guessed from the fact that before his death he destroyed all of his personal papers, and refused to utter a word about family matters. He never wrote his memoirs, saying only “All that I did for my government is matters of history, but my private life is my own and I will not have it hawked about for the curious.”