Sympathy for the Devils

I've never read a book on the US Civil War before wherein all the principal characters were praised, all their positive attributes placed consistently in the limelight. But that has been an impossible-not-to-notice feature of Jay Winik's highly informative "April 1865; The Month That Saved America." This opus even has something good to say about penultimate "Bad Guy," John Wilkes Booth! Jefferson Davis? Not an absolute tyrant and irascible sadist; not JUST the cruel villain who wanted and DID drag the war out for weeks and months beyond what any "Sane Leader" would have done. Jeff Davis was not JUST a defender of that incalculable evil, Slavery pure and simple. He read Greek and Latin, you know. President Davis was a scholar who had a fine appreciation of French and Spanish Literature. He loved poetry, too. Did you know there's even a middle school named for the Confederate President in West Palm Beach? Ah well, that's NOT the same as say, "Adolf Hitler Career Academy," not the same at all! Ulysses S. Grant? Not simply a ham-fisted, reckless "butcher" who lost the staggering total of 100,000 Union soldiers within just a few brief months during the last year of the conflict. Who lost 7000 of his soldiers to an insane, suicidal frontal assault against Lee's cannon at Cold Harbor... all in the space of seven short minutes! (Though at least Grant expressed regret for Cold Harbor in his memoirs, another very fascinating read.) But Grant loved animals, horses especially - he could brook no mistreatment of our equine brothers and sisters. And General Grant actually HATED the sight of blood; all his meat had to be practically charred before he'd touch it. General Grant USUALLY kept his drinking under control. Really. To be sure, it was Grant and Sherman and Lincoln who won the war for the North, bloody and horrific as the slaughter they (and their Rebel counterparts) engendered WAS. That brings us to the person of... General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was not (merely?) the "Monster" who bestowed upon History the cold honest phrase "War is Hell." And he really wasn't JUST the first modern strategist, which this tome argues. Sherman was a much more complex individual than the man who laid waste the better part of Georgia, whose troops raped women and burned cities. And who remained steadfastly unrepentant. General Sherman restrained his formerly pillaging troops, upon pain of death, from looting and burning when they reached North Carolina. Better late than never. Sherman was fair (too fair, as things turned out) and generous, magnanimous in victory, the day he received the surrender of Joe Johnston's Army of the Tennessee. And he restrained his formerly pillaging troops, upon pain of death, from looting and burning when they reached North Carolina. Better late than never. Even Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate Raider and Murderer Supreme, comes in for faint praise. "That Devil Forrest" flouted the "Laws of War" which "civilized" 19th Century Generals like Robert E. Lee, to his credit, tried to enforce. His atrocities were widespread and infamous. Forrest was later a co-founder of the Ku Klux Klan, but Jay Winik still finds some good things to say about the South's "greatest" guerrilla warrior. And greatest Forrest was, in the sense of "formidable." I've enjoyed and learned a lot from "April 1865." But I'm left wondering... perhaps I should describe the work as a "multiple hagiography?" Were I a successful author, I doubt very much whether I'd continually find a soft spot for famous figures responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. No matter how remunerative such praise might seem. Seems to me heaping accolades upon generals shouldn't be the most common literary inclination. Moreover, when it comes to the pestilential subject of WAR... surely there exists some kind of understated human need to STOP GLORIFYING MASS VIOLENCE UTILIZED AS A MEANS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION. Even arguably necessary mass violence, like the Civil War. This has been my first full-length book report posted on Facebook. Not too fancy but I expect I'll have occasion for further revisions. Next week's topic : "Meet the Rockefellers' warm, fuzzy kittens!" http://books.google.com/books?id=gUfZxiau_fgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=1865+the+year+that+saved+america&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ISYiU9yILYaIygG6qoG4Bg&ved=0CC0Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=1865%20the%20year%20that%20saved%20america&f=fals