Battle of Nashville book

Many years ago I quite enjoyed Shrouds of Glory by Winston Geoom covering Franklin and Nashville. However, he's a novelist interested in history and his subsequent history books have contained a number of frustrating errors.

The Franklin-Nashville literature in general is hindered by the blind hatred for Hood. It hinders many authors from being objective in their analysis.
 
Unfortunately, the best book still available on the Battle of Nashville is Stanley Horn's "Decisive Battle of Nashville" written many years ago. I say unfortunate because there is a lot of new material available now, and although there are some minor inaccuracies in Horn's book, it is the best by far.
I am a little late to this thread but I appreciate that book recommendation. Making a second visit to Nashville this November. I have read several books about Franklin but nothing in-depth about Nashville. I want to know more about it for this visit. Just ordered that book at Abebooks for a grand total of $4.17.
 
Unfortunately, the best book still available on the Battle of Nashville is Stanley Horn's "Decisive Battle of Nashville" written many years ago. I say unfortunate because there is a lot of new material available now, and although there are some minor inaccuracies in Horn's book, it is the best by far.
Agree. Nashville by James Lee McDonough is much more recent (2004), but it's the usual superficial McDonough style and really doesn't add much to Horn - which, as you point out, is seriously dated.
 
Funny you should ask, this just came out on Amazon: Blood for Blood at Nashville

Smaller Blood for Blood Cover.jpeg
 
I highly recommend a new book by Dennis Belcher, The Cavalries of the Nashville Campaign. Even though it focuses on cavalry, the book provides an excellent overview of the maneuvering prior to Nashville, including all cavalry clashes, the Spring Hill and Murfreesboro affairs, the Battle of Franklin, and the Retreat. At the risk of oversimplification, the decisive action that collapsed the Confederate left flank and routed the army was due in some measure to Wilson's dismounted cavalry, so the book has a very good treatment of that aspect of the battle. Almost a microhistory. Ironically, it is because Wilson's troopers were dismounted that the rout was not complete; the time it took to re-mount and begin the pursuit gave the Confederates the breathing room to both escape without total catastrophic losses and organize some semblance of resistance.

The Battle of Nashville Trust is a rich source of information and reference materials about the battle, including many books, some of which are not all that well known. https://www.battleofnashvilletrust.org/
 
It's kind of funny that when I lived in Nashville I lived less than a mile from rebout #4. Where my great grandfather Isaac Mason fought with Lumsden's Battery. Many of my neighbors had found mini-balls in their yard. I am looking forward to reading some of these books listed in this thread.
 
Wiley Sword is highly regarded, but he's also one of the worst offenders in the Hood Haters club.

That's OK.

Sword was a good writer, the book in question flows like a thrilling novel. I think the book's original title, Embrace an Angry Wind, was superior to its current one. Anyway, as a book, it's by far the best I read on the subject and I still try to keep somewhat current on western theater books. The rest of the rebellion...eh.

Sword wrote a fine book on the neglected Old Northwest Indian War, you know-- Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, St. Clair, Anthony Wayne--that one. It's called President Washington's Indian War.
 
Long time since I read this but I remember it was pretty good.


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Yes. I believe this book is the best single treatment of the retreat. But the most in depth treatment is the combination of Belcher’s book from Nashville to Columbia and Gen. John Scales’ book on Forrest from Columbia, where Forrest assumed command of the rear guard, to the Tennessee River.
 
I bought that book upon its release and it was so full of errors of fact, not interpretation, I returned it as defective and got my money back.
Really!!! That bad??
I guess I didn't know enough to catch them.

I've purchased some recent books on the Italian Campaign of WW2 and found some errors in them. One listed the wrong German division---one that wasn't even in Italy. I never did read the entire book. I think it only sold because of the title and the recommendation by Bob Dole. Anyone want it?
 
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