The Destructive War

Charles Royster’s “The Destructive War” Partisans on both sides of the Civil War demanded not only victory but eradication from the outset. And leaders who would comply were discovered by both sides. Charles Royster examines William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson, the men who came to represent the apocalyptic passions of North and South, and reimagines their personas, tactics,

and the emotions they evoked in their fellow citizens in this colorful and terrifyingly powerful book. The Destructive War is a powerful novel that simultaneously combines an insightful dual biography, hypnotically fascinating military history, and a sobering analysis of American nationalism’s propensity for patriotic bloodshed.