The Forgotten Act

Book excerpt: On January 12, 1865, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters Stanton met with a group of twenty freed African Americans in the city of Savannah Georgia. The purpose of the meeting was to gain an understanding of the way the men viewed their future as a free people. The result of this meeting was General Sherman's "Special Field Order Number 15."An Order which provided the emancipated people with a foundation on which to begin their new way of life. General Sherman's plan for the order and his own views on abolition have been under attack since its conception. The Forgotten Act is a comprehensive and in depth study of the circumstances and controversy around General Sherman's views of the freed people and his belief in the cause and future of the Field Order.