Franklin Union Numbers for Franklin

[Luke Freet]

I have been doing some note taking on the Franklin-Nashville Campaign for a potential stream with @SeanMichaelChick sometime this August/September. I realize I have a bevy of notes on the Confederate numbers in the campaign. Union numbers are...finicky. We have broad numbers for the corps but there's no details on the strength of divisions like we have with the Confederates. There are some brigade and regimental figures found throughout the O.R. reports, but those are sparce and inbetween.

I wonder if anyone has gotten around to doing an in-depth study on the strength of Schofield's force during the Pulaski-Columbia-Spring Hill-Franklin stage of the campaign.
Here's a WIP google doc I'm making covering both Union & Confederate forces at Spring Hill & Franklin. Any suggestions would be welcome, though they should be backed with sources. Also, this is just for Franklin & Spring Hill (plus the fighting around Columbia). Nothing on Nashville or Murfreesboro or the retreat, that I wanna cover later.

Battle of Spring Hill/Franklin OOBs, Strengths & Losses

Union Union OOB Schofield’s Command (~33500 officers & men): MG John M. Schofield Fourth Army Corps (16966 officers & men; 34 total guns): MG David Stanley (w November 30th); BG Thomas J. Wood 1st Division: BG Nathan W. Kimball 1st Brigade: Col. Isaac M. Kirby 21st Illinois Infantry: Capt. Wil...

docs.google.com

 

[bdtex]

I would imagine that @EricAJacobson could be of some help with this project.

 

[Luke Freet]

I have been doing some note taking on the Franklin-Nashville Campaign for a potential stream with @SeanMichaelChick sometime this August/September. I realize I have a bevy of notes on the Confederate numbers in the campaign. Union numbers are...finicky. We have broad numbers for the corps but there's no details on the strength of divisions like we have with the Confederates. There are some brigade and regimental figures found throughout the O.R. reports, but those are sparce and inbetween.

I wonder if anyone has gotten around to doing an in-depth study on the strength of Schofield's force during the Pulaski-Columbia-Spring Hill-Franklin stage of the campaign.
Here's a WIP google doc I'm making covering both Union & Confederate forces at Spring Hill & Franklin. Any suggestions would be welcome, though they should be backed with sources. Also, this is just for Franklin & Spring Hill (plus the fighting around Columbia). Nothing on Nashville or Murfreesboro or the retreat, that I wanna cover later.

Battle of Spring Hill/Franklin OOBs, Strengths & Losses

Union Union OOB Schofield’s Command (~33500 officers & men): MG John M. Schofield Fourth Army Corps (16966 officers & men; 34 total guns): MG David Stanley (w November 30th); BG Thomas J. Wood 1st Division: BG Nathan W. Kimball 1st Brigade: Col. Isaac M. Kirby 21st Illinois Infantry: Capt. Wil...

docs.google.com

I'm also a bit confounded in the O.R. returns for Thomas' department, that for both November 20th & 30th, Schofield's Twenty-Third Army Corps contained no field artillery. Was Schofield's entire artillery arm concentrated in the 34 guns of Stanley's Fourth Army Corps? If so, Hood's artillery outnumbered Schofield's around 3-to-1.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

One perspective to consider.

Jacob Cox wrote in 'The Battle of Franklin' (see https://archive.org/details/battleoffranklin00coxj/page/210/mode/1up?view=theater @ p.210), that the aggregate strength of Schofield's entire force present for duty on Nov. 30 was 29,234.

 

[bdtex]

One perspective to consider.

Jacob Cox wrote in 'The Battle of Franklin' (see https://archive.org/details/battleoffranklin00coxj/page/210/mode/1up?view=theater @ p.210), that the aggregate strength of Schofield's entire force present for duty on Nov. 30 was 29,234.

If that's correct, the 2 armies at Franklin were at least as evenly matched as most major Civil War battles.

 

[Saruman]

I have seen the battle of Franklin listed as 27,939 Union vs 26,897 Confederate in an old encyclopaedia.

This link has the same figures, so there must be an original reference somewhere. They are very specific figures.

This Month in the Civil War — 160 Years Ago | The Amboy Guardian

www.amboyguardian.com

 

[Nathan Stuart]

If that's correct, the 2 armies at Franklin were at least as evenly matched as most major Civil War battles.

Interestingly, Jacob Cox in his writings (ibid., @ p. 209) estimated the total strength of Hood's army at between 42,000 to 43,000, which was a massive over-estimate.

But Hood assailed the Federal works at Franklin with about 18,000 infantry of Cheatham's and Stewart's corps (supported by only two batteries of artillery) and after dark (three hours later) by the addition of four brigades of about 4,000 men from Johnson's division in Lee's corps, making the total participants in the attack at about 22,000. This meant the strength of the Confederate attacking force was almost 25% less than Cox's estimate of total Union defenders present. Thought that's a significant disparity between the opposing forces. But agree, these differences were not untypical, and seemed to be lower than for many of the major engagements of the war.

 

[DanSBHawk]

But Hood assailed the Federal works at Franklin with about 18,000 infantry of Cheatham's and Stewart's corps (supported by only two batteries of artillery) and after dark (three hours later) by the addition of four brigades of about 4,000 men from Johnson's division in Lee's corps, making the total participants in the attack at about 22,000. This meant the strength of the Confederate attacking force was almost 25% less than Cox's estimate of total Union defenders present. Thought that's a significant disparity between the opposing forces. But agree, these differences were not untypical, and seemed to be lower than for many of the major engagements of the war.

Weren't some of Schofields troops already on the north side of the Harpeth River at the time of the battle? If the numerical disparity between the sides was not significant, that makes me wonder why Thomas didn't come down with whatever force he had available, and make Franklin the site of the main battle.

 

[Luke Freet]

Interestingly, Jacob Cox in his writings (ibid., @ p. 209) estimated the total strength of Hood's army at between 42,000 to 43,000, which was a massive over-estimate.

But Hood assailed the Federal works at Franklin with about 18,000 infantry of Cheatham's and Stewart's corps (supported by only two batteries of artillery) and after dark (three hours later) by the addition of four brigades of about 4,000 men from Johnson's division in Lee's corps, making the total participants in the attack at about 22,000. This meant the strength of the Confederate attacking force was almost 25% less than Cox's estimate of total Union defenders present. Thought that's a significant disparity between the opposing forces. But agree, these differences were not untypical, and seemed to be lower than for many of the major engagements of the war.

the issue with Union numbers is that while on paper Schofield had five infantry division and Wilson's cavalry command (about 4-5 brigades at this time), Wood's Division and Wilson's cav were on the opposite side of the Harpeth. I wanna know how large each division of Fourth & Twenty-Third Corps were for that specific reason.
Certainly, at the very least, the Union & Confederate numbers were close to even, and highly likely that Hood attacked a superior force (though most of the attack was focused on Twenty-Third Corps' front).