Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation

by Bennett Parten Narrated by Jonathan Beville

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A fresh take on a pivotal moment in American history, rigorously researched and recounted in incredible detail that deepens our understanding of the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction.

A groundbreaking account of Sherman's March to the Sea-the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy-told for the first time from the perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman's march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

In the fall of 1864, Gen. William T. Sherman led his army through Atlanta, Georgia, burning buildings of military significance-and ultimately most of the city-along the way. From Atlanta, they marched across the state to the most important city at the time: Savannah.

Mired in the deep of the South with no reliable supply lines, Sherman's army had to live off the land and the provisions on the plantations they seized along the way. As the army marched to the east, plantation owners fled, but even before they did so, slaves self-emancipated to Union lines. By the time the army seized Savannah in December, as many as 20,000 enslaved people had attached themselves to Sherman's army. They endured hardships, marching as much as twenty miles a day-often without food or shelter from the winter weather-and at times Union commanders discouraged and even prevented the self-emancipated from staying with the army. Racism was not confined to the Confederacy.

In Somewhere Toward Freedom, historian Bennett Parten brilliantly reframes this seminal episode in Civil War history. He not only helps us understand how Sherman's March impacted the war, and what it meant to the enslaved, but also reveals how it laid the foundation for the fledging efforts of Reconstruction. When the war ended, Sherman and various government and private aid agencies seized plantation lands-particularly in the sea islands off the Georgia and South Carolina coasts-in order to resettle the newly emancipated. They were fed, housed, and in some instances, taught to read and write. This first real effort at Reconstruction was short-lived, however. As federal troops withdrew to the north, Confederate sympathizers and Southern landowners eventually brought about the downfall of this program.

Sherman's march has remained controversial to this day. But as Parten reveals, it played a significant role in ending the Civil War, due in no small part to the efforts of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who became a part of it. In Somewhere Toward Freedom, this critical moment in American history has finally been given the attention it deserves.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Somewhere Toward Freedom is one of the most innovative studies of American emancipation in the Civil War we have ever seen, from the March to the Sea in Georgia and well beyond. An epic tale of movement, of collisions with nature, of military history of a new kind in the annals of American warfare, and of the great human drama—full of loss and tragedy and confusion—of an evolving freedom for former slaves across a vast landscape.”
—David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass

"In compelling prose, Parten dramatizes how Sherman's March catalyzed the Civil War's social revolution, as Southern Blacks fought 'their own version of the war' in the name of powerful visions of freedom. Rarely does a history book so completely and persuasively recast an iconic event. A must-read for all those who seek to understand the Civil War's meaning and legacy."
—Elizabeth R. Varon, author of Longstreet

"Stunningly original and comprehensive, this book boldly challenges the conventional understanding of a supposedly well-known episode in US History.

Whereas historians have written at length about Sherman’s March to the Sea, Parten offers a startling analysis of thousands of enslaved people who ran to the army, followed the army, and in due course turned his March through Georgia into a march of liberation.

Lucid and thoroughly researched, the book grapples with the social, cultural, and political details of the March. Ultimately, Parten redefines Sherman’s March to the Sea from a 'total' war of destruction into a war for emancipation and freedom.

This valuable—indeed indispensable—work will transform the way we think about the Civil War."
—Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln and Justice Deferred

“A well-known episode in Civil War history viewed from a fresh, and illuminating, perspective.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Elizabeth R. Varon

"In compelling prose, Parten dramatizes how Sherman's March catalyzed the Civil War's social revolution, as Southern Blacks fought 'their own version of the war' in the name of powerful visions of freedom. Rarely does a history book so completely and persuasively recast an iconic event. A must-read for all those who seek to understand the Civil War's meaning and legacy."

David W. Blight

Somewhere Toward Freedom is one of the most innovative studies of American emancipation in the Civil War we have ever seen, from the March to the Sea in Georgia and well beyond. An epic tale of movement, of collisions with nature, of military history of a new kind in the annals of American warfare, and of the great human drama—full of loss and tragedy and confusion—of an evolving freedom for former slaves across a vast landscape.

Library Journal

★ 12/01/2024

In a raw display of military power, General Sherman's March to the Sea during the American Civil War took over 60,000 troops from Atlanta to Savannah and ravaged the Georgian countryside. In his first book, historian Parten (Georgia Southern Univ.) argues that Sherman's campaign became one of liberation. From the beginning, enslaved people flocked to Union lines. Eventually, over 20,000 formerly enslaved people joined Sherman's march, often providing crucial information about Confederate troop movements, terrain, and labor. By the end of 1864, thousands of starved and ill-clothed formerly enslaved people arrived in Port Royal, South Carolina, where Northern abolitionists, in conjunction with army officials, attempted to settle them on abandoned Sea Island plantations and provide titles to the land. By September 1865, former Confederates demanded their land be returned. What began as an incredible opportunity for freemen turned to bitter disappointment as the federal government failed to secure the newly won rights of formerly enslaved people. Promises of economic and material security, along with land grants, never materialized, as Congress focused on other issues. VERDICT This important work highlights a little-known dimension of Sherman's march and will be of interest to readers of Civil War and emancipation history.—Chad E. Statler

Kirkus Reviews

2024-10-25
Vigorous history of Sherman’s March to the Sea, viewed less as a military campaign than as a “veritable freedom movement.”

When William Tecumseh Sherman’s army arrived at Atlanta in 1864, it found itself a magnet for thousands of enslaved people who left surrounding plantations and found refuge among the blue-clad soldiers. By Georgia historian Parten’s count, something like half a million such enslaved people crossed into U.S. lines. Sherman was not enthusiastic about them, less interested in emancipation than in crushing the secessionist rebellion. As Parten writes, Sherman was even less interested in the prospect of enlisting Black soldiers in the Union army: “With Atlanta within reach and the end of the war coming into view, he held that now wasn’t the time to insert new soldiers into the mix. He also couldn’t let go of the idea that enslaved people would serve the army best as laborers.” Though Ulysses S. Grant held similar views, urging Sherman to send Black men north to Virginia to build siegeworks around Richmond, the army finally relented and enrolled Black soldiers—an important step in later securing full citizenship rights. Parten examines and dismantles certain myths about the March to the Sea, discarding the “lost cause” view that Sherman had unleashed savage war on the civilian population; instead, he holds, Sherman reserved his wrath for the slaveholders and the Confederate military—which, at one critical battle, turned out to be “little more than a sad assemblage of old men and young boys.” Parten also uncovers some unsavory aspects of racism among the Union forces, including one general’s habit of pulling up bridges so that the train of formerly enslaved people who followed after him would not be able to cross—which, in one horrific instance, led to the murder of many at the hands of rebel fighters.

A well-known episode in Civil War history viewed from a fresh, and illuminating, perspective.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191926414
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/21/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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