Tango01 | 22 Jun 2014 11:19 p.m. PST |
of a Desperate Man. "The Tennessee Campaign of November and December 1864 was the Southern Confederacy's last significant offensive operation of the Civil War. General John Bell Hood of the Confederate Army of Tennessee attempted to capture Nashville, the final realistic chance for a battlefield victory against the Northern juggernaut. Hood's former West Point instructor, Major General George Henry Thomas, led the Union force, fighting those who doubted him in his own army as well as Hood's Confederates. Through the bloody, horrific battles at Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville and a freezing retreat to the Tennessee River, Hood ultimately failed. Civil War historian James R. Knight chronicles the Confederacy's last real hope at victory and its bitter disappointment." From here link Hope you enjoy!. Amicalement Armand |
ACWBill | 23 Jun 2014 4:55 a.m. PST |
The ultimate work on this subject is Wiley Sword's Embrace an Angry Wind. It was later released under the name the Conderacy's Last Hurrah. In either case his work is the standard by which other books on this subject are measured. |
15th Hussar | 23 Jun 2014 5:09 a.m. PST |
I will at least look at this book when I get to the library and on the high speed computers later today, but Sword's book is a fantastic single tome effort on the subject. |
Cerberus0311 | 23 Jun 2014 9:00 a.m. PST |
Last real hope of victory? Capture Nashville as the last realistic hope of a battle field victory? I hope that statement is blurbed and not part of the books thesis. If it is part of the thesis then the book is more or less a fantasy. |
Tango01 | 23 Jun 2014 10:54 a.m. PST |
Many thanks for your guidance ACWBill!. Amicalement Armand |
Trajanus | 23 Jun 2014 11:10 a.m. PST |
The Desperate Venture of A Deluded Man is more like it! |
DisasterWargamer | 23 Jun 2014 6:17 p.m. PST |
An article by Wiley Sword in advance of his book was what got me into the civil war period – the picture he painted led to an ongoing fascination with the Battle of Franklin. A couple of other books on the topic For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin by Eric Jacobson The Battle of Franklin (TN): When the Devil had Full Possession of the Earth by James Knight |
Cleburne1863 | 24 Jun 2014 3:33 a.m. PST |
To be fair, it did say "battlefield victory," not "winning the war." He had a chance to achieve something at Spring Hill, and even at Nashville itself had he not wasted his army in the assault on Franklin. It wouldn't have won the war, but it didn't have to end with the disintegration of his army either. |
Trajanus | 24 Jun 2014 11:50 a.m. PST |
Well somebody loves Hood and not Wiley Sword, apparently! link |
ACWBill | 24 Jun 2014 12:39 p.m. PST |
Sword presented Hood as he was in 1864. His war wounds and his apparent addiction to Laudanum made an already agressive Hood into a vindictive and reckless leader just when caution was the requirement. The winds of interpretation blow steadily and in all directions. I have read many accounts of Hood's performance during ths 1864 Tennessee Campaign and most are highly critical of his actions at Franklin and Nashville. In fact, when one weighs the gravity of his failures as an Army leader, it is very hard to come up with an arguement that makes him look any better. I am in the classical interpretation camp on this issue. |
Trajanus | 24 Jun 2014 1:29 p.m. PST |
In fact, when one weighs the gravity of his failures as an Army leader, it is very hard to come up with an arguement that makes him look any better. Well, that would be my take on it also. Did he destroy the Army of Tennessee? Yes or No Its a hard task to convince me it was anyone else! |
GoodOldRebel | 30 Jun 2014 3:01 p.m. PST |
Hood had already started the process
.bludgeoning his own army of Tennessee almost to death on Sherman's yankees in the battles around Atlanta? it must surely stand as a testament to the heroism and sense of duty of those Regiments who mad that charge at Franklin after such mishandling? |