Part One: Georgia; Chapters 1 through 5 Summary

The March, a novel by E. L. Doctorow, follows the lives of several diverse characters as they navigate the last few months of the Civil War. Freed slaves like Pearl, the beautiful teenage daughter of a slave and her master, follow the Union Army as it marches north from Georgia, meeting along the way white Southern refugees whose homes have been destroyed, loyal Unionists and Confederates, famous generals, and a host of others whose lives are forever changed by the bloody end of the war.

The book opens on the grounds of Fieldstone, a Georgia plantation in the path of General Sherman's march through the South. Mattie and John Jameson, having already sent their most prized belongings to a safe location, are preparing to flee with their two sons before Sherman's army arrives to burn...