Much to complex a subject, CW, to be reduced to a yes or a no. I abstain.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Can anybody recommend a good book on this? My supply of literature on the Western campaigns in very inadequate.. like 0 Living in VA it was much easier to study about that being able to go to the battlegrounds and such. With all these TN posts lately I think its time for me to bone up on it a bit... long past time more likely
__________________ "In mortal combat, a man may and will become so infuriated by the din and dangers of a bloody fight that his heart will turn to stone and his every de sire [be] for blood."
John Hadley, 7th Indiana after the battle at Port Republic
One of the better researched and better documented books is:
for CAUSE for COUNTRY
A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin
Eric A. Jacobson and Richard A. Rupp
O'More Publishing
423 South Margin Street
Franklin, TN 37064
2006
Eric Jacobson.. as in the Eric Jacobson that posts on this sight??
__________________ "In mortal combat, a man may and will become so infuriated by the din and dangers of a bloody fight that his heart will turn to stone and his every de sire [be] for blood."
John Hadley, 7th Indiana after the battle at Port Republic
The same, Dred. It has the advantage of being one of the newest books out on the subject. Wiley Sword, Embrace an Angry Wind, and James Lee McDonough/Thomas L. Connelly, Five Tragic Hours, were the trade standards until Eric's book.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
By the time Hood invaded Tennessee, the war was strategically over.
Bercause he went to Tennessee, Hood left Georgia undefended. His losses and retreat from Atlanta, allowed Sherman's army to sever the Army of Northern Virginia from much needed supplies in Alabama. It allowed Sherman to further destroy rails east of Atlanta, cutting Virginia off from the supply depot in Macon and increase the total unlikelyhood that Alabama supplies could ever get to Lee.
Hood conducted a campaign, a winter campaign, without the essential supplies needed by an offensive army.
He made a disasterous attack at Franklin, and attempted to make in all folly, a seige of Nashville.
When Hood's army cracked at Nashville, an army was lost with most of its artillery, never to be replaced. Hood's failed offensive meant a shorter war, and an earlier demise of Lee's army and the Confederacy.
Late in the war, General Joe E. Johnson wrote of a court of inquiry, about Hood's actions in Tennessee. The war was nearing its end. Hood would never get a very public analysis.
It would be an heirloom passed to the believers of the lost cause. The forgotten, disasterous winter war in Tennessee - Hood's War.
He was a fearless leader. A warrior in the truest sense of the term. American Knight Errant!
But military strategist ....... No.
"Get 'em up, John! Take 'em in there and push 'em." ... and he did, too.
Lost Two Limbs doin' it.
He should never have been put in command of the Army of Tennessee. NEVER! He was a Lumberjack, Not a Carpenter.
Actually he was a medical doctor's son and a socialite. The social part had a lot to do with his blessing by Jeff Davis. Yes, he sent lots of folks into battle without a bunch of thought or workable strategy.
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
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Hood's TN Campaign 
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