The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans

From the moment the Civil War began, partisans on both sides were calling not just for victory but for extermination. And both sides found leaders who would oblige. In this vivid and fearfully persuasive book, Charles Royster looks at William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson, the men who came to embody the apocalyptic passions of North and South, and re-creates their characters, their strategies, and the feelings they inspired in their countrymen. At once an incisive dual biography, hypnotically engrossing military history, and a cautionary examination of the American penchant for patriotic bloodshed, The Destructive War is a work of enormous power.

Charles Royster is a historian, a teacher, and an author. He served as the Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University and is the recipient of the Bancoft, Parkman, and Lincoln Prizes. His works include Light-Horse Harry Lee, The Destructive War, and A Revolutionary People at War. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.