The Cavalries In The Nashville Campaign

Author : Dennis W. Belcher
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476675996
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Cavalries in the Nashville Campaign written by Dennis W. Belcher and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-05-18 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nashville Campaign, culminating with the last major battle of the Civil War, is one of the most compelling and controversial campaigns of the conflict. The campaign pitted the young and energetic James Harrison Wilson and his Union cavalry against the cunning and experienced Nathan Bedford Forrest with his Confederate cavalry. This book is an analysis of contributions made by the two opposing cavalry forces and provides new insights and details into the actions of the cavalry during the battle. This campaign highlighted important changes in cavalry tactics and never in the Civil War was there closer support by the cavalry for infantry actions than for the Union forces in the Battle of Nashville. The retreat by Cheatham's corps and the Battle of the Barricade receive a more in-depth discussion than in previous works on this battle. The importance of this campaign cannot be overstated as a different outcome of this battle could have altered history. The Nashville Campaign reflected the stark realities of the war across the country in December 1864 and would mark an important part of the death knell for the Confederacy.

Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781985383807
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Franklin-Nashville Campaign written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the campaign written by generals and soldiers on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Never had there been such an overwhelming victory during the Civil War - indeed, never in American military history." - Wiley Ford's comment on the Franklin-Nashville Campaign As Sherman began his infamous march to the sea, Lincoln instructed Grant to redirect General George H. Thomas' efforts back to Tennessee to protect Union supply lines and stop the offensive mounted by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hood had broken away from Atlanta and was trying to compel Sherman to follow him, thus diverting him from his intended path of destruction. With Sherman marching east toward the sea, he directed Thomas to try to block Hood around Nashville. In late November, the Army of the Ohio, being led by Thomas' principal subordinate John Schofield, all but blindly stumbled into Hood's forces, and it was only through luck that some of them had not been bottled up before they could regroup together. Receiving word of Union troop movement in the Nashville area, General Hood sent for his generals while attempting to hold off Schofield's advance. Hood knew that if Schofield reached Thomas' position, their combined armies would number more than twice his. Though the Confederates successfully blocked Schofield's route to Nashville, the Union general managed to execute an all-night maneuver that brought him to Franklin, about 18 miles south of Nashville. On November 30, the Union army began digging in around Franklin, and that afternoon Hood ordered a frontal assault on the dug in Union army which deeply upset his own officers. After repeated frontal assaults failed to create a gap in the Union lines, Schofield withdrew his men across the river on the night of November 30, successfully escaping Hood's army. Meanwhile, Hood had inflicted nearly 8,000 casualties upon his army (men the Confederacy could scarcely afford to lose), while the Union lost about a quarter of that. Despite practically wrecking his army, which was now only about 25,000 strong, Hood marched his battered army to a position outside Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up defensive positions while awaiting reinforcements from Texas. On December 1, General Thomas sent word to Grant that he had "retired to the fortifications around Nashville until I can get my cavalry equipped," a reference to the fact that Forrest's cavalry had more than double the manpower of the Union cavalry. But Thomas also added that "if Hood attacks our position, he would be seriously damaged, but if he makes no attack until our cavalry can be equipped, [I] or General Schofield will move against him at once." The following day Grant wired back, "If Hood is permitted to remain quietly about Nashville, you will lose all the road back to Chattanooga, and possibly have to abandon the line of the Tennessee. Should he attack you it is all well; but if he does not, you should attack him before he fortifies. Arm and put in the trenches your quartermaster's employees, citizens, etc." Even with Grant constantly urging him forward, Thomas held back for nearly two weeks, partly because of a bad ice storm, and his delay nearly resulted in having Grant remove him from command. When it was clear reinforcements wouldn't arrive by December 15, Thomas finally devised a complex two-pronged attack that feinted at Hood's right flank while bringing overwhelming force on the left flank. During the two day battle, Thomas effectively destroyed Hood's command, inflicting about 8,000 more Confederate casualties while losing less than half that. Upon reaching his headquarters at Tupelo, Mississippi, General Hood requested to be relieved of command rather than be removed in disgrace.

Author : Michael Thomas Smith
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313392358
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The 1864 Franklin-Nashville Campaign written by Michael Thomas Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This appealing narrative history of one of the Civil War's most pivotal campaigns analyzes how the western Confederate army under John B. Hood suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of George H. Thomas's Union forces. Ideal for general readers interested in military history of the Civil War as well as those concentrating on the western campaigns, The 1864 Franklin-Nashville Campaign: The Finishing Stroke examines how the strategic and tactical decisions by Confederate and Union commanders contributed to the smashing Northern victories in Tennessee in November–December 1864. The book also considers the conflict through the lens of New Military History, including the manner in which the battles both affected and were affected by civilian individuals, the environment, and common soldiers such as Confederate veteran Sam Watkins. The result of author Michael Thomas Smith's extensive research into the Civil War and his recognition of inadequate coverage of the final western campaigns in the existing literature, this work serves to rectify this oversight. The book also questions the concept of the outcome of the Civil War as being essentially attributable to superior Northern organization and management—the "organized war to victory" theory as termed by its proponents.

Author : Jerry Keenan
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476609063
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Wilson's Cavalry Corps written by Jerry Keenan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The famed fighting force of Union General William T. Sherman was plagued by a lack of first-rate cavalry--mostly because of Sherman's belief, after some bad experiences, that the cavalry was largely a waste of good horses. The man Grant sent to change Sherman's mind was James Harrison Wilson, a bright, ambitious, and outspoken young officer with a penchant for organization. Wilson proved the perfect man for the job, transforming a collection of independent regiments and brigades into a fiercely effective mounted unit. Wilson's Cavalry, as it came to be known, played a major role in thwarting Confederate General Hood's 1864 invasion of Tennessee, then moved south for the celebrated capture of Selma, Montgomery, and Columbus. Despite such success, it is this book that is the first overall history of the Cavalry Corps. In addition to meticulous description of military actions, the book affords particular attention to Wilson's outstanding achievement in creating an infrastructure for his corps, even as he covered the Federal flanks in the withdrawal to Franklin and Nashville.

Author : Mark Lardas
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472819837
Total Pages : 97 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Nashville 1864 written by Mark Lardas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1864, the Confederate army abandoned Atlanta and were on the verge of being driven out of the critical state of Tennessee. In an attempt to regain the initiative, John Bell Hood launched an attack on Union General Sherman's supply lines, before pushing north in an attempt to retake Tennessee's capital Nashville. This fully illustrated book examines the three-month campaign that followed, one that confounded the expectations of both sides. Instead of fighting Sherman's Union Army of the Tennessee, the Confederates found themselves fighting an older and more traditional enemy: the Army of the Cumberland. This was led by George R. Thomas, an unflappable general temperamentally different than either the mercurial Hood or Sherman. The resulting campaign was both critical and ignored, despite the fact that for eleven weeks the fate of the Civil War was held in the balance.

Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781512040937
Total Pages : 54 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Greatest Civil War Battles written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting by generals and soldiers on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Never had there been such an overwhelming victory during the Civil War - indeed, never in American military history." - Wiley Ford's comment on the Franklin-Nashville Campaign As Sherman began his infamous march to the sea, Lincoln instructed Grant to redirect General George H. Thomas' efforts back to Tennessee to protect Union supply lines and stop the offensive mounted by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hood had broken away from Atlanta and was trying to compel Sherman to follow him, thus diverting him from his intended path of destruction. With Sherman marching east toward the sea, he directed Thomas to try to block Hood around Nashville. On November 30, the Union army began digging in around Franklin, and that afternoon Hood ordered a frontal assault on the dug in Union army which deeply upset his own officers. Hood stressed the necessity of defeating Schofield's forces before Thomas could arrive, though some historians believe his decision to mount a frontal attack was a rash decision made out of fury at the fact Schofield had escaped his grasp. Either way, after repeated frontal assaults failed to create a gap in the Union lines, Schofield withdrew his men across the river on the night of November 30, successfully escaping Hood's army. Meanwhile, Hood had inflicted nearly 8,000 casualties upon his army (men the Confederacy could scarcely afford to lose), while the Union lost about a quarter of that. Despite practically wrecking his army, which was now only about 25,000 strong, Hood marched his battered army to a position outside Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up defensive positions while awaiting reinforcements from Texas. On December 1, General Thomas sent word to Grant that he had "retired to the fortifications around Nashville until I can get my cavalry equipped," a reference to the fact that Forrest's cavalry had more than double the manpower of the Union cavalry. But Thomas also added that "if Hood attacks our position, [we] would be seriously damaged, but if he makes no attack until our cavalry can be equipped, [I] or General Schofield will move against him at once." The following day Grant wired back, "If Hood is permitted to remain quietly about Nashville, you will lose all the road back to Chattanooga, and possibly have to abandon the line of the Tennessee. Should he attack you it is all well; but if he does not, you should attack him before he fortifies. Arm and put in the trenches your quartermaster's employees, citizens, etc." Even as Grant sniped at him, Thomas held back for nearly two weeks, partly because of a bad ice storm, and his delay nearly resulted in having Grant remove him from command. When reinforcements didn't arrive by December 15, Thomas finally devised a complex two-pronged attack that feinted at Hood's right flank while bringing overwhelming force on the left flank. During the two day battle, Thomas effectively destroyed Hood's command, inflicting over 6,000 more Confederate casualties while losing less than half that. Upon reaching his headquarters at Tupelo, Mississippi, General Hood requested to be relieved of command rather than be removed in disgrace. The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Battle of Nashville analyzes the events leading up to the important Union victory and the end of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Battle of Nashville like never before.

Author : Steven E. Woodworth
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 0809334534
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Tennessee Campaign of 1864 written by Steven E. Woodworth and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few American Civil War operations matched the controversy, intensity, and bloodshed of Confederate general John Bell Hood’s ill-fated 1864 campaign against Union forces in Tennessee. In the first-ever anthology on the subject, The Tennessee Campaign of 1864, edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear, fourteen prominent historians and emerging scholars examine the three-month operation, covering the battles of Allatoona, Spring Hill, and Franklin, as well as the decimation of Hood’s army at Nashville. Contributors explore the campaign’s battlefield action, including how Major General Andrew J. Smith’s three aggressive divisions of the Army of Tennessee became the most successful Federal unit at Nashville, how vastly outnumbered Union troops held the Allatoona Pass, why Hood failed at Spring Hill and how the event has been perceived, and why so many of the Army of Tennessee’s officer corps died at the Battle of Franklin, where the Confederacy suffered a disastrous blow. An exciting inclusion is the diary of Confederate major general Patrick R. Cleburne, which covers the first phase of the campaign. Essays on the strained relationship between Ulysses S. Grant and George H. Thomas and on Thomas’s approach to warfare reveal much about the personalities involved, and chapters about civilians in the campaign’s path and those miles away show how the war affected people not involved in the fighting. An innovative case study of the fighting at Franklin investigates the emotional and psychological impact of killing on the battlefield, and other implications of the campaign include how the courageous actions of the U.S. Colored Troops at Nashville made a lasting impact on the African American community and how preservation efforts met with differing results at Franklin and Nashville. Canvassing both military and social history, this well-researched volume offers new, illuminating perspectives while furthering long-running debates on more familiar topics. These in-depth essays provide an expert appraisal of one of the most brutal and notorious campaigns in Civil War history.

Author : James L. McDonough
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 9781572333222
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Nashville written by James L. McDonough and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's forces ravaged Atlanta in 1864, Ulysses S. Grant urged him to complete the primary mission Grant had given him: to destroy the Confederate Army in Georgia. Attempting to draw the Union army north, General John Bell Hood's Confederate forces focused their attacks on Sherman's supply line, the railroad from Chattanooga, and then moved across north Alabama and into Tennessee. As Sherman initially followed Hood's men to protect the railroad, Hood hoped to lure the Union forces out of the lower South and, perhaps more important, to recapture the long-occupied city of Nashville. Though Hood managed to cut communication between Sherman and George H. Thomas's Union forces by placing his troops across the railroads south of the city, Hood's men were spread over a wide area and much of the Confederate cavalry was in Murfreesboro. Hood's army was ultimately routed. Union forces pursued the Confederate troops for ten days until they recrossed the Tennessee River. The decimated Army of Tennessee (now numbering only about 15,000) retreated into northern Alabama and eventually Mississippi. Hood requested to be relieved of his command. Less than four months later, the war was over. Written in a lively and engaging style, Nashville presents new interpretations of the critical issues of the battle. James Lee McDonough sheds light on how the Union army stole past the Confederate forces at Spring Hill and their subsequent clash, which left six Confederate generals dead. He offers insightful analysis of John Bell Hood's overconfidence in his position and of the leadership and decision-making skills of principal players such as Sherman, George Henry Thomas, John M. Schofield, Hood, and others. Within the pages of Nashville, McDonough's subjects, both common soldiers and officers, present their unforgettable stories in their own words. Unlike most earlier studies of the battle of Nashville, McDonough's account examines the contributions of black Union regiments and gives a detailed account of the battle itself as well as its place in the overall military campaign. Filled with new information from important primary sources and fresh insights, Nashville will become the definitive treatment of a crucial battleground of the Civil War. James Lee McDonough is retired professor of history from Auburn University. He is the author of numerous books on the Civil War, including Shiloh--In Hell Before Night, Chattanooga--Death Grip on the Confederacy, and War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville.

Author : Winston Groom
Publisher : Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1555847846
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Shrouds of Glory written by Winston Groom and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of Forrest Gump examines Confederate general John Bell Hood’s fateful maneuvers in the final moments of the Civil War. In Shrouds of Glory, acclaimed novelist and historian Winston Groom introduces readers to the courageous but reckless Hood, prematurely thrust into the spotlight by a combination of destiny and fate. Witness the unlikely rise of this young Confederate, who graduated forty-fourth out of a class of fifty-two at West Point, as he overcomes the nearly fatal amputation of his shattered leg and eventually devises a strategy to turn the tide of the war. Weaving together eyewitness accounts, journal entries, military communiqués, and newspaper headlines, Groom recreates the war from the charged battlefields to the general’s tent where Grant, Sherman, Lee, and others plotted their unorthodox strategies. He paints vivid portraits of the major players in the conflict, revealing the character, the faults, the emotions, and most of all the doubts that molded the course of the war. “Storytelling with energy, surprise, freshness, power, and yes, art.” —Chicago Tribune “Meticulously reconstructed . . . shows us the war in all its savagery.” —Los Angeles Times “An excellent introduction into a complex campaign.” —Publishers Weekly

Author : Stephen Z. Starr
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807132934
Total Pages : 638 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Union Cavalry in the Civil War written by Stephen Z. Starr and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this volume Stephen Z. Starr brings to a triumphant conclusion his prize-winning trilogy on the history of the Union cavalry.The War in the West provides accounts of the cavalry's role in the Vicksburg Campaign, the conquest of central Tennessee, Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas. Starr never neglects the numerous difficulties the cavalry faced: equipment shortages, inadequate weapons, unsuitable organization, and inept use of the cavalry by many members of the Union high command. And he never ignores the cavalry's own contributions to its failures. He convincingly demonstrates that in the end, in the battle of Nashville and in the Selma Campaign, the Union cavalry proved enormously effective. With this final volume Starr's objective remains "the portrayal of the life and campaigns of the Union cavalry as they were experienced and fought by its troopers and officers."