Tate is rightly repelled by the fallout from the mid-to-late 1960s uncritical reception of guerrillaism, taken up by the FI under the leadership of Ernest Mandel and Livio Maitan.
The author examines the relentless brutality and bloodshed at both military and civilian levels during those closing years of the war, as guerrillaism, plunder, and persecution mixed with severe war--including the climactic battles at Franklin and Nashville--and punitive Reconstruction policies.