I'd be cautious with McWhiney, though I haven't read the Bragg book. I have heard repeatedly from discussion of it though that McWhiney was just really sick of Bragg by the end of that project (to be fair, who can blame him?) and it shows.
Connolly and Cozzens (I'd recommend Cozzens' Valley CampaCreckod, ign book as well) are both good to have. I'd recommend O. Edward Cunningham (Shiloh and the Western Campaign) and/or Timothy Smith (Conquer or Perish) on Shiloh, with a further recommendation for all of Smith's western campaign books. I'd also recommend Earl Hess and William Shea's book on Pea Ridge and Shea's book on Prairie Grove (Fields of Blood).
I'd get Dave Powell and Eric Wittenberg's book on Tullahoma and Powell's trilogy on Chickamauga, though if you just want one volume on Chickamauga, go with Powell's Maps of Chickamauga. I also like Powell's analysis of Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga, titled Impulse of Victory.
I'm not sure what you're driving at here, if you've read Pollard and his contemporaries here, you already know this. I only mention it in the above post because while there's some common myths out there that originate from the Lost Cause (for instance, that Longstreet disobeyed orders to attack at sunrise at Gettysburg, that one comes straight from Early and Pendleton), I haven't even seen a serious claim that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a remarkably humane slave trader before.
Breckod, thanks very much -- all incredibly helpful. Cozzens I know (and also have his book on Corinth and Iuka); not Timothy Smith, but volumes on the individual campaigns are what I am really after (two to three on each is my usual preference). I do have the "Maps of Chickamauga," and hope there will be more from Savas Beattie focused on the Western Theater. Shiloh and Stones River come to mind immediately. Rosecrans always interested me, a personality as well as general. I have the Varney books on Grant and Rosecrans, but honestly don't know enough to have any sort of considered or thoughtful opinion. The book on Grant at Chattanooga also looks like the very thing I was seeking. While not the greatest admirer of Grant, he obviously had a genius for modern warfare of the industrial and logistical nature -- it could be argued that he was its first and still one of the more brilliant practitioners. (A very different skill set than those of Gen Lee, which is why debates about "who was better" are, to me, pointless.) I've always thought the "butcher" appellation unfair (Rhea provided a good argument against it in the Overland volumes). If anyone deserves it, it would be Hood at Atlanta and Franklin.
Earl Hess I know and like; his book on Bragg was a good corrective to the poor man's negative press. As alluded above, Wittenberg's book on Sheridan read a bit too much like a legal brief for me, and really accentuated the negative, with every action of Sheridan cast in a negative like. I do understand the issues with his personality, and I doubt I'd want to sit down for a beer with him, but he would appear to have been quite skilled as both an infantry and cavalry commander. I'll investigate the other volumes you recommended
Yes, McWhiney did abandon poor Bragg around 1862 (and I agree, who can blame him?), and a grad student finished Vol .II. (I have both, they're in the to-read pile). Also regarding McWhiney, his "Cracker Culture" underwhelmed me; I think he overstated fairly dramatically the "Celtic" influence in the South. In general, I think the "Scots Irish" settlement was more prevalent in Appalachia than the Deep South; one datapoint does not provide anything, but my people, who came in through Virginia in the 1670s and then migrated further South, originated in the West of England. I think that pattern of settlement was described in the "Seeds of Albion" book (I forgot the author). That said, there was a significant Irish presence in the Deep South, not as much as in NY or Boston, but it was more than generally recognized; Co. I in my great great grandfather's regiment (8th Alabama) was the Irish company, dockworkers from Mobile with Irish officers. I don't know that there was a dedicated Irish Brigade, like Meagher's lads (although wasn't there one from Tennessee?) And one also remembers Richard Dowling and his Irish cronies of the Jeff Davis Artillery who fought at the Sabine Pass.
But I digress - as someone observed, this is a thread about Forrest and I'm guilty of hijacking it into distant fields, and I should go elsewhere. My sincere apologies to all - I'll do my level best to skedaddle. thanks to all for an interesting discussion.
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