15 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in Civil War leaders, news, speakers
John Marszalek, professor emeritus at Mississippi State University, said that William Tecumseh Sherman, despite his modern-day reputation, was the South’s “best friend” because he advocated a “hard war” and a “soft peace.”
John Marszalek on William Tecumseh Sherman as the “South’s best friend” from Jim Stovall on Vimeo.
Marszalek spoke to the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable on July 12, 2016 about the general whom many in the South and elsewhere consider a 19th century terrorist.
12 Tuesday Jul 2016
Historian John Marszalek spoke to the Roundtable on Tuesday, July 12, about William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general whose march through Georgia in 1864 brought a “hard war” to the civilian population.
William Tecumseh Sherman
The event still echoes in the minds of Americans.
But Marszalek called Sherman the “South’s best friend.”
KCWRT.org invites readers to participate in an open forum about William Tecumseh Sherman. You may have been present to hear Marszalek’s presentation. If so, let us know what you think.
If you weren’t able to attend, we still invite comments. You may want to respond to something one of the commenters has said, or you may have opinions of your own. Either way, we would like to hear from you.
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08 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in Civil War leaders, speakers
Tags
John Marszalek, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, Shiloh, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman
The members of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable will have to wait until Tuesday (July 12, 2016) to find out what historian John Marszalek has to say about William Tecumseh Sherman being “the South’s best friend.”
Before then, however, we can read a bit of what Marszalek has written about Sherman.
Here are some excerpts from Marszalek’s biography John F.. Sherman : A Soldier’s Passion for Order.
This from the Prologue:
William Tecumseh Sherman, photo by Matthew Brady
The destructive methods Sherman employed in the march to the sea were controversial, but he was no villain; he was one of the great military leaders of the Civil War. He knew how to outmaneuver a major Confederate army and how to destroy the Confederate will. He was an appealing individual, whom soldiers, family, and friends idolized. As a major public figure, he was in demand for both the office of the presidency and small social gatherings and public speeches. He impressed his contemporaries, influenced his age, and left a name for posterity.
06 Wednesday Jul 2016
Many people in the South, whether familiar with the Civil War or not, recoil at the mention of Gen. William T. Sherman.
William Tecumseh Sherman
The negative image of the man who wreaked havoc in the Carolinas and made “Georgia howl” persists to this day. But there is more to this story than first meets the eye. Sherman had many close relationships with Southerners before, during, and after the war. He spent most of his life after his 1840 graduation from West Point in the South, and just before the war began he was superintendent of the Louisiana Military Seminary, the forerunner of today’s Louisiana State University.
At the close of the war, this leading practitioner of “hard war” became the strongest advocate for a “soft peace,” so much so that he was roundly denounced by Stanton, Halleck and many Northern newspapers for the lenient peace terms he offered Joe Johnston.
26 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in news, speakers, William Tecumseh Sherman
Tags
Assault at West Point, Civil War, generals, John Marszalek, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman
John F. Marszalek, the Giles Professor Emeritus of History at Mississippi State University, will be the speaker for the July meeting of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.
John Marszalek
Marzalek’s topic will be “William Tecumseh Sherman: The South’s Best Friend.”
Marzalek is the author of a number of books, including three on the life and career of Sherman.
The talk will begin at 8 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, at the Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike. The cost for just attending the talk is $5; students may attend for free. Dinner is at 7 p.m. and costs $17 for non-members of the roundtable and $15 for members. Those wishing to attend should RSVP by noon, Monday July 11, by calling 865-671-9001.
Marzalek began teaching at MSU in 1973 and retired in 2002. He served as director and mentor of MSU’s Scholarship Program.
23 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in news, William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman will be the topic of John Marszalek, the July speaker for the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.
To help us prepare for John’s talk (you can find out more about it on our events page), I asked John to provide a reading list, and he kindly consented. Here is what he sent:
SHERMAN: A SOLDIER’S PASSION FOR ORDER was first published by the Free Press, then in paperback by Vintage Press, and most recently in paperback by Southern Illinois University Press.
From the Library Journal:
That Sherman was a troubled soul who sought to make his family appreciate his trials and triumphs is evident in the small cache of Sherman letters published for the first time in Joseph Ewing’s Sherman at War (Morningside, 1992). The new letters notwithstanding, Marszalek’s psychobiographical musings about Sherman’s inner self doubtless will cause some historians to blush. But the rich historical contextual material on everything from Western finances, Indian wars in Florida and the West, and Civil War military policy make Marszalek’s Sherman real and powerful. Highly recommended.
– Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph’s Univ., Philadelphia
SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA, paperback, published by McWhiney Foundation Press (distributed by Texas A and M University Press).
SHERMAN’S OTHER WAR, THE GENERAL AND THE CIVIL WAR PRESS with Memphis State University Press, but more recently a paperback by Kent State University Press.
Knoxville Civil War Roundtable 