WITH SHERMAN TO THE SEA

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1960

Subtitled A Drummer's Story of the Civil War and with a foreword by Elizabeth Yates, these reminiscences of a boy's three years with Sherman were told by the author, then in his nineties, to a former book editor for the Christian Science Monitor, who has recast them in the third person and added a distinct flavor of femininity. Unlike the drummer of William Diamond's Drum, who proudly beat his drum alone, ""Cord"" Foote was one of many drummers in a drum corps. Born in Flint, he enlisted as a drummer with the Michigan 10th Infantry in 1862, the day after his 13th birthday, and was first sent with the regiment to Tennessee, where he endured months of camp boredom and homesickness with interludes of fear and hilarity. Ordered farther South, beating his drum on the long marches, he heard guns but never fired them and watched the burning of Atlanta; under his adored ""Uncle Billy"" Sherman he marched, foraging on the way, to the Sea and Savannah, where he was mustered out of service and sent home to Flint, where he died at the age of 95. Lacking the true smell of war found in Grant Moves South, which covers much the same ground, these ""as-told-to"" memoirs are filled with private thoughts, padding, and soldier talk which smacks of the school-room rather than the army camp. The best parts of the book are the descriptions of Sherman's relations to his men. Not for seasoned Civil War buffs and too long for its subject, this book should appeal to descendants of Sherman's soldiers and to 'teen age readers of Civil War history.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION