Interesting period source about the march

[Silas]

Saw this today while browsing google books and thought I'd pass it on :

The Story of the Great March: From the Diary of a Staff Officer (http://books.google.com/books?id=UQoTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPR5,M1) by Bvt. Maj. George Ward Nichols, aid-de-camp to General Sherman (1865).

Two chapters which caught my attention are :

Chapter 5, Breaking Camp - A Day's March - The Bivouac ; and
Chapter 7, Wayside Incidents in Georgia - An Original Character - Cock fighting.

It's a little flowery and romantic like many books of the time, but it sheds some light on common things not found in the big books about the march.

[Eric Tipton]

Silas:

Thanks so much for tracking that down. We will certainly take a look. We encourage everyone to read first-hand accounts of the march. Like Silas says here, there are many vignettes that occurred on a day-to-day basis that are much more valuable than the general accounts.

[bhutton]

Thanks for reminding me to read this book, I bought it awhile ago and put it aside,I found it again after reading your post and started reading it last night. From the copyright it looks to have been written in 1865, so I assume his recollections were fairly fresh in his mind.

[Old Salt]

Got the book thorugh the library and read the two chapters 5 & & first and now reading the rest. Sounds like the cock fight was short lived until they got hungry and ate the loser.

[BrettKIllinois]

The henry Hitchcock's book is another good one (letters and Diarys) Henry was on Sherman's staff aswell.

Marching With Sherman (http://books.google.com/books?id=_zGxABgGulsC&dq=marching+with+sherman&pg=PP1&ots=oxvmAnn1KJ&source=bn&sig=bX34_Q1d2bbyNQz8f3IoqpC527E&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result)