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Battle of Franklin: The Death Angel's Last Harvest

The Battle of Franklin (30 November 1864) was a major battle in the western theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In his push to liberate Nashville from Northern occupation, Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood invaded Tennessee and cornered a Union army under Major General John M. Schofield at the town of Franklin. Despite finding the enemy strongly entrenched, Hood launched a massive frontal assault, sending 20,000 men across two miles (3.2 km) of open field with minimal artillery support. The result was catastrophic, as 6,200 of his men were killed or wounded, including twelve generals, turning Franklin into one of the worst Southern defeats of the war.

The March Through Tennessee

On 21 November 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee wended its way north into the state that had given it its name. The men were tired and gaunt, an army of scarecrows whose threadbare uniforms, worn-out and faded, hung loosely on their battered bodies and did little to protect against the early winter chill. Many went barefoot, marching over dirt roads that had been churned to mud by the recent torrential rainstorms. Others had empty haversacks, sucking on sugarcane or hickory nuts to ward off the gnawing sense of hunger. But despite these hardships, the 39,000 men of the Army of Tennessee were determined. They were going home – home to a land ravaged by three years of brutal warfare, home to a state that had been occupied by the Yankee invader for nearly as long. Home to see their mothers, their friends, their sweethearts. Few could have realized that some of the worst horrors that the war had to offer still awaited them in the soft, green fields of their own backyards.

Lieutenant General John Bell Hood rode at the head of this ragtag army, strapped into his saddle, his wooden prosthetic leg fixed in its stirrup. Although the war had taken its toll on his body – he had lost his right leg at Chickamauga, the use of his left arm at Gettysburg – and although he had recently failed to prevent the fall of Atlanta, Hood was not the sort of man to give up. With the fate of the Southern Confederacy balancing on a knife's edge, and with his own demoralized army in danger of disintegrating by means of desertion, Hood knew that he had to win a decisive victory fast. His plan was to capture Nashville – a major supply and manufacturing center – before pushing on into Kentucky, perhaps as far as the banks of the Ohio River. He expected that this success would rally 20,000 reinforcements to his banner, which he would use to march into Virginia to the aid of General Robert E. Lee, whose own beleaguered army was under siege at Petersburg. It was a desperate plan bordering on fanciful. Yet it was all that Hood had.

Standing between the tattered Confederate army and Nashville were 60,000 Union soldiers under the overall command of Major General George H. Thomas. Luckily for Hood, these Yankee soldiers were not all in one place; Thomas himself was in Nashville with 30,000 men while his subordinate, Major General John M. Schofield, was at Pulaski with the other 30,000, about 75 miles (120 km) away. If Hood could get in between these two Union armies and destroy each in isolation before it had the chance to join forces with the other, then the road to Nashville – and beyond – would lie wide open. With this goal in mind, Hood set out for Columbia, a riverside town approximately halfway between Thomas and Schofield. For days, the Confederates embarked on a grueling 70-mile forced march, moving through freezing sleet and driving rain. When they got to Columbia, however, they were dismayed to find a blue line of Federal troops already entrenched on the northern side of the Duck River. Schofield had guessed Hood's intentions and had gotten to Columbia first, having made better time by crossing over the shorter, easier roads from Pulaski.

For the next several days, scattered skirmishing could be heard along the Duck River as the rebels vainly searched for a place to cross. Finally, on 28 November, Confederate cavalry troopers under the infamous Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest forded the river to the east of the town, giving the Southerners a toehold on Schofield's side of the river. Considering himself outflanked, Schofield decided to pull his men back to the town of Franklin, where he would dig in as he awaited support from Thomas. The next morning, having found that the Federals had stolen away in the night, Hood ordered a pursuit, sending Forrest on ahead to pin the Yankees down. On 29 November, around 11 a.m., Forrest's cavalrymen engaged a Union infantry division at Spring Hill, skirmishing with them for hours to buy time for the rest of Hood's army to show up. Hood did not arrive until 3:45 p.m., at which point everything fell apart; due to a series of miscommunications, the rebels were unable to inflict serious damage. After fending off a late afternoon attack by a Confederate division under Major General Patrick Cleburne, the Union army once again slipped away into the night, headed toward its original destination of Franklin.

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Atlanta Campaign: The Bloody Struggle for Georgia During the US Civil War

The Atlanta Campaign (7 May to 2 September 1864) was a major military campaign in the western theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It saw a large Union force under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman invade Georgia, constantly outmaneuvering the Confederate Army of Tennessee, until he came to the strategically significant city of Atlanta. After several bloody battles, Sherman captured Atlanta on 2 September, delivering one of the final death blows to the Confederate States.

Background

In the spring of 1864, as the American Civil War entered its fourth and final year, both the Union and Confederate sides braced themselves for what promised to be yet another grueling and blood-soaked campaign season. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of the Union armies, hoped to break the fighting strength of the Southern Confederacy with a series of coordinated offensives across multiple fronts – while he remained in Virginia to square off against Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Grant entrusted command of the western theater of operations to his favorite subordinate, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. Grant instructed Sherman to invade Georgia and capture the city of Atlanta, a major supply and railroad center, the fall of which would seriously cripple the Confederate war effort. Sherman was also ordered to destroy the Confederate Army of Tennessee, led by General Joseph E. Johnston, and to "get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their resources" (quoted in Foote, 318).

Sherman was all too ready to comply. A tall, lanky man with a close-cropped, rust-red beard and a personal intensity that tended to exhaust those in his presence, he quickly set about preparing the campaign. His invasion force consisted of 98,000 men, spread out across three separate armies: the 60,000-man Army of the Cumberland, under Major General George H. Thomas, a burly Virginian who had stayed loyal to the Union and was known for his steadfastness under fire; the 25,000-man Army of the Tennessee under Major General James B. McPherson, a young West Point graduate and protégé of Sherman's; and the 13,000-man Army of the Ohio under Major General John M. Schofield. To keep such a large army supplied and fed, Sherman hoped to utilize the railroads from his base at Chattanooga but knew that he could live off the land if need be, writing Grant that "Georgia has a million inhabitants. If they can live, we should not starve" (ibid).

The opposing army – the Confederate Army of Tennessee – was meanwhile entrenched atop Rocky Face Ridge, a 20-mile (36-km) long bastion that defended the rebel supply chain to Atlanta. Its commander, General Johnston, knew that he could not hope to match Sherman in strength of numbers. Indeed, by the end of May, Johnston had only 65,000 men spread out across three infantry and one cavalry corps. Instead, he would use the topography of northern Georgia to his advantage. Consisting of steep mountains and swift rivers, the terrain greatly favored defense, leading Johnston to rely on seeking out defensive ground and goading Sherman into attacking him. While this may have been prudent, it did nothing to dispel Johnston's reputation as an overly cautious commander. One story highlighting his timidity circulated through the army camps – sometime before the war, he had been invited on a duck hunting trip, but despite his reputation as an expert marksman, he never fired his gun during the entire hunt. "The bird flew too high or too low – the dogs were too far or too near – things never did suit exactly. He was…afraid to miss and risk his fine reputation" (quoted in McPherson, 744).

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John Bell Hood: The Most Aggressive Confederate General

John Bell Hood (1831-1879) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Known for his aggressive style of leadership, he initially led the famous Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia before being promoted to division command and, ultimately, to the command of the Army of Tennessee in the western theater. He was severely wounded several times, losing the use of his left arm at the Battle of Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863) and losing his right leg a few months later at the Battle of Chickamauga (19-20 September). In late 1864, he oversaw the disastrous Franklin-Nashville Campaign, for which he has been heavily criticized. Hood survived the war, dying of yellow fever on 30 August 1879.

Early Life

Hood was born on 29 June 1831 in Owingsville, a small town in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. He was the son of John Wills Hood, a prosperous doctor, and his wife, Theodosia French Hood, and had several older brothers and sisters. Unlike his well-mannered siblings, Hood was a rebellious child whose "indifference to social customs and academics kept him frequently in trouble" (Sword, 7). His antics greatly annoyed his father, who once lost his temper with the boy and told him that if he could not behave, then he should "go to the nearest gate post and butt brains out" (ibid). He received a modest education at a subscription school in rural Kentucky, but he was a poor student and received low grades. However, thanks to the influence of his maternal uncle, a US congressman, he managed to gain acceptance into the prestigious Military Academy at West Point in 1849.

At West Point, Hood was well-liked by his fellow cadets, who affectionately referred to him as 'Sam'. His classmates included future Civil War generals James B. McPherson (1828-1864) and John M. Schofield (1831-1906), both of whom would one day oppose him on the battlefield, and the school's superintendent at the time of his graduation was none other than Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), his future commanding general. Hood performed quite poorly at West Point, scoring low grades, particularly in the field of mathematics. During his senior year alone, he received 196 demerits, coming only four demerits shy of expulsion. Nevertheless, he managed to graduate in the summer of 1853, ranking 44th in a class of 52. Breveted a second lieutenant, he was briefly assigned to an infantry post in California before joining the newly formed 2nd US Cavalry Regiment in Texas in 1855.

Hood got his first taste of combat on 20 July 1857, when his detachment of 25 men was ambushed by a larger party of Comanche warriors. He was wounded during the initial attack when an arrow shot through his left hand and lodged in his horse's bridle. Thinking quickly, he simply snapped off the arrow shaft and rallied his men before leading a countercharge that drove off the Comanches. He was promoted to first lieutenant in August 1858 and, in 1860, was offered a position as chief cavalry instructor at West Point – his proven skill in the field had clearly balanced out his poor academic record. Hood, however, declined the offer, preferring active field duty to the classroom.

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Battle of Nashville: The Bitter End of the Army of Tennessee

The Battle of Nashville (15-16 December 1864) was the last major battle in the western theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). After suffering a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Franklin (30 November), Lieutenant General John Bell Hood led the once-proud Confederate Army of Tennessee onward in a desperate attempt to capture Nashville, a major supply and manufacturing center. He clashed with a 55,000-man Union army under Major General George H. Thomas a few miles south of the city, and, after a brutal two-day battle, the rebel lines crumbled. At Nashville, the Army of Tennessee was neutralized as an effective fighting force, bringing an end to the war in the West.

The Killing Fields of Franklin

A pale sun clawed its way into a frosty sky on the morning of 1 December 1864, shining its light over a carpet of bloodied corpses in the fields outside Franklin, Tennessee. Mere hours before, these fields had been alive with the blaring of bugles and the banging of drums, the clatter of musket fire and the roar of artillery, the thunderous footfalls of thousands of soldiers and the bitter screams of the dying. Now, as the morning mists dissipated, an eerie silence hung over the town of Franklin, broken only by the distant rush of the Harpeth River and the ambient calls of birds. Presently, details of weary Confederate soldiers went out with spades and shovels to get to work burying the dead, pouring dirt over the heads of men who had been their friends and comrades.The Battle of Franklin

The Battle of Franklin had been the culmination of a ten-day Confederate invasion of Tennessee. Lieutenant General John Bell Hood had led 39,000 rebel soldiers across the Tennessee River, with wild dreams of liberating Nashville from Union occupation before pushing up through Kentucky to plant the Confederate flag on the banks of the Ohio River. All that stood in their way were two Union armies of 30,000 men each – one was under Major General George H. Thomas at Nashville, the other under Major General John M. Schofield, 75 miles away (120 km) at Pulaski. Hood hoped to destroy each of these Union armies piecemeal before they had a chance to join forces. He went after Schofield first – after failing to trap him, first at Columbia, then at Spring Hill, Hood finally cornered him at Franklin. Although he found Schofield's army strongly entrenched, Hood decided to attack anyway, ordering his men to embark on a frontal assault over two miles (3.2 km) of open ground with minimal artillery support. The result was catastrophic: the Confederates lost 6,200 men killed or wounded, including 55 regimental officers and 12 generals. It was one of the most devastating Southern defeats of the war.

Having held off Hood's assault at the cost of only 2,300 losses of his own, Schofield slipped away during the night. On 1 December, as the battered Confederates spent the day burying their dead, Schofield's tired troops marched into Nashville and linked up with General Thomas, bringing the total number of Union soldiers in the city to just about 55,000 men. Nashville had been occupied by the Union since February 1862, and, in the intervening two and a half years, the Yankees had worked to improve the city's defenses. By now, they had built a seven-mile-long (11 km) line of fortifications that formed a semicircle around the southern and western sides of the city, while the mighty Cumberland River served as a natural barrier on the northern and eastern sides. For Hood's weakened army to attack Nashville against these odds seemed borderline suicidal. Yet the yellow-bearded, one-legged Confederate general felt he had no other choice – if he were to retreat from Tennessee now, his demoralized army would surely melt away from desertion. So, Hood pressed on, arriving outside Nashville on 2 December. Rather than laying siege, he decided to goad the enemy into coming out of their fortifications and attacking him. He staked out a position to the south of Nashville and dug in, forming a four-mile-long (6.4 km) defensive line of his own. The rebel soldiers then hunkered down to await the attack that would decide the fate of the war in the West.

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John Bell Hood: Le plus agressif des généraux confédérés

John Bell Hood (1831-1879) était un général confédéré durant la guerre de Sécession (1861-1865). Connu pour son commandement au style agressif, il commença par diriger la célèbre brigade du Texas au sein de l’armée de Virginie du Nord, avant d’être promu commandant de division, puis commandant de l’armée du Tennessee sur le théâtre Ouest de la guerre. Il fut grièvement blessé à plusieurs reprises, perdant l’usage de son bras gauche pendant la bataille de Gettysburg (1-3 juillet 1863), puis sa jambe droite quelques mois plus tard, pendant la bataille de Chickamauga (19-20 septembre). Fin 1864, il supervisa la désastreuse campagne de Franklin-Nashville, pour laquelle il fut vivement critiqué. Hood survécut à la guerre, et mourut de la fièvre jaune le 30 août 1879.

Campagne Franklin-Nashville: Le crépuscule de la confédération sudiste

La campagne Franklin-Nashville (septembre-décembre 1864) fut la dernière opération militaire majeure sur le théâtre occidental de la guerre civile américaine (1861-1865). Après la chute d'Atlanta, bastion sudiste, aux mains des forces de l'Union, le général confédéré John Bell Hood marcha avec son armée sur le Tennessee afin d’interrompre les lignes de ravitaillement ennemies et de libérer Nashville de l'occupation nordiste. Ce fut un pari désespéré qui se solda par un échec cuisant lors des batailles de Franklin (30 novembre) et de Nashville (15-16 décembre). À la suite de cette campagne, l'armée du Tennessee de Hood cessa d'exister en tant que force de combat efficace, mettant ainsi fin à la guerre dans l'Ouest.

Bataille de Nashville: Une fin amère pour l'Armée du Tennessee.

La bataille de Nashville (15-16 décembre 1864) fut la dernière grande bataille de la guerre de Sécession (1861-1865). Après la défaite catastrophique subie à Franklin le 30 novembre, le lieutenant général John Bell Hood mena ce qui restait de l'Armée confédérée du Tennessee dans une tentative désespérée de s’emparer de Nashville, centre stratégique de production et de ravitaillement. Face à lui, l’armée de l’Union, forte de 55 000 hommes, était commandée par le major général George Henry Thomas et positionnée à quelques kilomètres au sud de la ville. Après deux jours de combats d’une extrême violence, les lignes confédérées cédèrent. À Nashville, l’Armée du Tennessee fut anéantie en tant que force combattante, ce qui mit un terme à la guerre dans l’Ouest.

Campagne d'Atlanta: La lutte sanglante pour la Géorgie pendant la guerre de Sécession

La campagne d'Atlanta (du 7 mai au 2 septembre 1864) fut une campagne militaire majeure sur le théâtre occidental de la guerre de Sécession (1861-1865). Elle vit une importante force de l'Union, sous le commandement du major général William Tecumseh Sherman, envahir la Géorgie, en déjouant constamment les manœuvres de l'armée confédérée du Tennessee, jusqu'à ce qu'il n'arrive à la ville stratégique d'Atlanta. Après plusieurs batailles sanglantes, Sherman s'empara d'Atlanta le 2 septembre, portant l'un des derniers coups fatals aux États confédérés.