The Fiery Trail: A Union Officer's Account of Sherman's Last Campaigns

University of Tennessee Press Hardcover with 238 pages and b/w illustrations. - Major Thomas W. Osborn was chief of artillery in the Federal Army of the Tennessee. His journal an letters were written during Sherman's campaigns from Atlanta to Savannah and through the Carolinas. Osborn's eyewitness account of the Civil War is significant particularly for its dispassionate social commentary and for his insights into General W.T. Sherman and O.O. Howard. The major was, as his remarks attest, a keen observer of officers, of the army rank and file, and their areas of operation. He soberly recorded the devastation and the reasons for the campaign. He also reflects the antipathy toward South Carolina that prevailed among the men and their commanders, writing with strange mixture of admiration and contempt. The editors' notes, including excerpts from other contemporary accounts, perfectly complement Osborn's narrative.