When the troops reach Savannah, they spare the city. Later, Sartorius is called to Washington, DC to become a personal physician to President Lincoln himself. Eventually, he seduces Emily, but their relationship is as devoid of passion as Sartorius himself. He carries his medical hacksaw with him everywhere he goes. He has seemingly shut himself off from the horrors of war he has seen and attended to. In the meantime, both Pearl and Emily become assistants to Colonel Wrede Sartorius, a surgeon who is talented but emotionally cold and distant. She decides she will hand-deliver this letter to his family in the North, breaking the news of his death in person and telling them his story. After Clarke is killed in action, Pearl finds an unsent letter to his family among his possessions. A Union officer, Clarke, notices Pearl as well, and helps to protect her. Sherman spots Pearl but mistakes her for a white drummer boy, perhaps displacing his grief over his own dead son in his error. The company is soon joined by Arly and Will, two buffoonish Confederate soldiers who decide to disguise themselves as part of the Union Army. Both Emily and Wilma have nowhere else to go.
In Milledgeville, Georgia, Emily Thompson and her former slave Wilma join the march after Emily’s wealthy father dies. They are unsure of what the future holds for them or what their options are. Those in the South who have nowhere to flee to begin to tag along behind the troops in the final battles and skirmishes of the war. As the soldiers continue to march, following Sherman’s orders that they live off the land-which means robbing and plundering from the places they pass through, leaving rubble and destruction in their wake-their company grows. The light-skinned Pearl, a former slave herself, has nowhere to go with the plantation destroyed, so she follows Sherman and his 60,000 troops as they leave the razed plantation, along with the rest of Fieldstone’s suddenly liberated slaves. Left behind is Pearl, John Jameson’s biracial daughter with one of his slaves. They have already taken their most prized possessions with them. The plantation’s owners, John and Mattie Jameson, are already gone, having fled to Savannah. In the first scene, Sherman’s troops are burning Fieldstone, a plantation in Georgia, to the ground, and looting the house’s contents. The book opens in late 1864 to a scene demonstrating Sherman’s “total war” strategy that targeted Southern plantations and entire cities as well as Confederate soldiers on the battlefield. Critics, editors, and librarians alike have called Doctorow one of the most significant American novelists of the 20th century. His other notable works include Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The Book of Daniel.
The novel comes near the end of Doctorow’s celebrated career as a writer of historical fiction. Doctorow tells the story through multiple small vignettes from a multitude of characters, all of whom revolve in some way around Sherman and the strategic decisions he makes. Doctorow, is a 2005 historical fiction novel about General Sherman and his march through the South near the end of the American Civil War.
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