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Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 18601865. Edited by Brooks D. Simpson and Jean V. Berlin. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pp. xx, 948. $45.00.)
William Tecumseh Sherman must have set a world's record for obsessive-compulsive orality. He hardly bothered to sleep, and awake, when not chewing cigars, he was monologing to all and sundry, and when not chattering, he was writing letters. In retirement his idea of a fun Sunday was to write fifty friends and strangers, and even during the Civil War, when he was engaged in terrorizing his enemies, his literary production was stupendous. Not merely quantitatively was his output striking, as he wrote with considerable originality, insight, and wit. Because he rarely stopped to think twice or to edit his thoughts, he revealed vast shoals of his subconscious thoughts and emotions, especially angry ones. Almost anyone else...