Autumn, 1864, and the Civil War has ground to a bloody stalemate. Frustrated by its slow and costly advance, the North looks for a way to cut the South in two and bring the war to an end. Told from the unique perspective of three participants, this novel brilliantly captures the personal tragedy and costly heroism which followed in the wake of General William Tecumseh Sherman's infamous march from Atlanta to the sea. Nicholas J. Whiteman is a Captain in Sherman's army, a history buff caught in the maelstrom of history in the making. He is the conscience of an army that had lost its conscience, pillaging and burning its way across the South, and a witness to the dark heart of war--and humanity--in a moment of searing emotional intensity that will change him forever. Anne Saunders Baker lost her husband at Shiloh and her modest home to the looting of the advancing Yankee army. Now she wanders through the scarred and devastated landscape, a woman alone, hoping to defend all she has left--her life--with a soldier's iron will. And, finally, there is the General himself: harsh, outspoken, uncompromising, who dared to take upon his shoulders the burden of a mission that will both glorify and condemn him to history and leave him one of the most misunderstood figures of the war--a man whose unparalleled brutality had one goal: to save lives. Never before has this fateful crossroads in our history been rendered in such intimate detail and with such exquisite honesty. "Sherman's March" takes its place among the greatest novels of the Civil War and introduces Cynthia Bass as a powerful new voice in American fiction.

"From the Trade Paperback edition."