Love not war for Sherman?

By Clive Barnes

New York Times Service

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NEW YORK Of all the Civil War generals on the Union side, presumably Grant was the most successful, but surely Sherman, that ice-cold professional, that intellectual soldier, that passionless strategist, was the most interesting.

That certainly seems to be the view of Thomas Babe, who in his play "Rebel Women" at the Newman Theater of Joseph Papp's Public Theater complex, he takes as his theme the impact of Sherman's army, and Sherman himself, on the women left in a com.andeered mansion during Sherman's march to the sea following the sacking of Atlanta.

The narrative is at times diffuse, but the character of Sherman is steel-etched in blood, and his depiction of a momentous sexual confrontation between Sherman and a Southern matron, four months pregnant, is nothing short of superb theater, perfect in its

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psychological motivation.

Babe's Sherman announces: early on that "I have no passion for war," and it soon becomes evident that this iceberg of a general has really no passion for anything except when he finally gives in to a woman, his passion becomes coldly unbroidled.

A most gracefully gifted cast has been gathered here. David Dukes, who we last saw exhilarat ingly filling in for John Wood in "Travesties," makes a most impressive Sherman.

As the woman who loves him against her loyaler judgment, Kathryn Walkzr gives a most spirited performance. A flightly Deborah Offner and a gentlemen-rapscallion John Glover were fine as a pair of prudent young lovers; Leora Dana seemed perfect as the southern matriarch-martinet, and Mandy Patinkin and Petzr Weller also proved impressive as a couple of homosexual Union officers.