E.L. Doctorow on Sherman and 'The March'

For years, E.L. Doctorow thought that Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia and the Carolinas near the end of the Civil War would make for a gripping work of fiction."That particular occasion, so devastating, so uprooting of an entire civilization, seemed to me a possible basis for a novel," Doctorow says. He was inspired to write The March after reading Sherman's memoirs. Sherman was"a wonderful writer," the author says."He and Grant were both wonderful writers. You don't find generals today who write that well."