"General William Tecumseh Sherman: a flesh-and-blood man obscured by his larger-than-life myth. Here, we have the chance to glimpse the human side of Sherman through the private journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, his former aide-de-camp. With an eye for details, Dodge recounts daily life with the famous general. Editor Wayne R. Kime's insightful commentary and annotations place Dodge's writings in context and make clear their importance.". "In summer 1883, General Sherman took Dodge with him on a 10,000-mile inspection tour across the northern tier of territories, on to the Pacific Northwest, south through California, and east through the Southwest to Denver. Dodge had no idea his journals would ever become public, so he wrote openly about his companions and their interactions, terrain and natural wonders, conditions of military posts, life in civilian communities, and what the future seemed to hold for the region and its changing population."--BOOK JACKET.