The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

by Wiley Sword

Overview

Following the fall of Atlanta, rebel commander John Bell Hood rallied his demoralized troops and marched them off the Tennessee, desperately hoping to draw Sherman after him and forestall the Confederacy's defeat. But Sherman refused to be lured and began his infamous "March to the Sea," while Hood charged headlong into catastrophe.

In this compelling dramatic account of a final and fatal invasion by the Confederate Army of Tennessee, Wile Sword illuminates the missed opportunities, senseless bloody assaults, poor command decisions, and stubborn pride that resulted in 23,500 Confederate losses—including 7,00 casualties in one battle—and the pulverization of the South's second largest army.

Sword follows Hood and his army as they let an early advantage and possible victory slip away at Spring Hill, then engage in a reckless and ill-fated frontal attack on Franklin, often called the "Gettysburg of the West." Despite that disaster, Hood refuses to yield and presses on the Nashville and a two-day bloodbath that unhinges what is left of his battered troops—the worst defeat suffered by any army during the war.

Telling the story from both the Confederate and the Union perspectives, Sword pursues personalities as well as battles and troop strategy. He portrays Hood as a gutsy yet irresponsible leader—"a fool with a license to kill his own men"—whose valiant but rapidly dwindling troops were no match for the methodical General George G. Thomas and his better prepared—and entrenched—Union army. Hood, however, was not entirely to blame for Confederate failures, says Sword, who shows how decision making and actions—both good and bad, logical and chaotic—by key players on both sides helped determine the battles' outcomes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700606504
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	10/18/1993
Series:	Modern War Studies
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	513,077
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wiley Sword is the author of eight books including Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863 and Embrace an Angry Wind for which he received the 1992 Fletcher Pratt Award. His book President Washington's Indian War was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize and Western Heritage Prize. He was educated at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

1. A Sharp Wind is Blowing

2. A Cupid on Crutches

3. Dark Moon Rising

4. The President’s Watchdog

5. Too Much Lion, Not Enough Fox

6. Affairs of the Heart

7. Courage versus Common Sense

8. Words of Wisdom

9. Who Will Dance to Hood’s Music?

10. Old Slow Trot

11. In the Best Spirits and Full of Hope

12. Playing Both Ends Against the Middle

13. The Spring Hill Races

14. Listening for the Sound of Guns

15. A Hand Stronger than Armies

16. Do You Think the Lord Will Be with Us Today?

17. One Whose Temper is Less Fortunately Governed

18. Tell Them to Fight—Fight like Hell!

19. The Pandemonium of Hell Turned Loose

20. Glorified Suicide at the Cotton Gin

21. Where Is the Glory?

22. There is No Hell Left in Them—Don't You Hear Them Praying?

23. The Thunder Drum of War

24. Forcing the Enemy To Take the Initiative

25. Gabriel Will Be Blowing His Last Horn

26. The Sunny South Has Caught a Terrible Cold

27. Let There Be No Further Delay

28. Matters of Some Embarrassment

29. Now, Boys, Is Our Time!

30. I Shall Go No Farther

31. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

32. Where the Grapes of Wrath Are Stored

33. Crying Like His Heart Would Break

34. A Retreat from the Lion's Mouth

35. The Cards Were Damn Badly Shuffled

36. The Darkest of All Decembers

37. Epilogue: The Twilight’s Last Gleaming

Order of Battle, Confederate Army of Tennessee

Order of Battle, Federal Army

Reference Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Sword compellingly recreates the heroism, missed chances, political backbiting, and flawed rebel leadership underlying the outcome at these killing grounds. . . . Narrated with brisk attention to the nuances of strategy—and with measured solemnity over the waste of life in war."—Kirkus Reviews

"A blockbuster. . . . Narrative history at its best."—Edwin C. Bearss, chief historian, National Park Service

"Civil War history superbly reported by a master storyteller. Thoroughly researched, rich in drama and detail, rendered in vivid colors with flesh-and-blood characters—just as it occurred."—Rod Gragg, author of Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher

"By far the best book written on Hood's Tennessee campaign. Sword’s description of the Confederate tragedy at Franklin is superb; it could serve as a model for painting combat in words."—Albert Castel, author of Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864

"A masterful combination of historical fact and human interest . . . both brilliantly informative and deeply moving."—Richard Wheeler, author of Sherman’s March

"This is the fullest, most judicious narrative produced to date on the mortal wounding of the Confederacy's second principal army. The book also ranks among the best narratives of Union activities in that climactic campaign for control of Tennessee."—James Robertson in the Richmond News Leader

"The best book ever written on the campaign. There is no way anyone can write a better one."—Thomas Y. Cartwright, Curator, The Carter House, Franklin, Tennessee

From the Publisher

Reprint of the HarperCollins edition published in 1992 under the title Embrace an Angry Wind, and winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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