Last year I reposted the "Memorial Day Archives" which gives an account of General William Tecumseh Sherman's Army of the West joining the Grand Review in Washington in May 23 and 24th, 1865.
But this year there is an addendum to the post which comes from a history book I read earlier this year--Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation (2025) by Bennett Parten.
As you would expect there are details about Sherman's March to the Sea, first to Savannah and then up through the Carolinas ending with the Joseph E. Johnston's surrender to Sherman in April, 1865. But the main thrust of the book is the logistics, and the little-known history of how the newly freed slaves joined the Army (or followed the Army). Some worked for the Union Army as cooks and builders and others were women and children (refugees) that followed near the Union Army, but were subject to deathly harassment by Confederate cavalry. Parten does not sugar-coat the suffering endured by the enslaved peoples.
What ties it into Memorial Day, is that the book closes with Sherman's Army of the West marching through the streets of Washington D.C. during the Grand Review, but Parten adds to its historical significance because behind Sherman's army were the freed families that had followed Sherman from Georgia through the Carolinas and Virginia had joined the parade. In the words of one observer, it was "more touching in some ways than the proud passing of soldiers."
In the Epilogue, Parten summarizes the campaign differently than militarily. He writes, "...like Yorktown, Gettysburg and Selma, Sherman's March to the Sea was a landmark moment in the history of American freedom."
A more complete review of the Parten book can be read if you scroll down at Reading Notes 2025.
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