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Title: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville (Modern War Studies) by Wiley Sword ISBN: 0-7006-0650-5 Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.05 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Marvelous Military and Human History
Comment: Sword's book is a marvelous written chronicle of the destruction of Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee. The authors ability to weave the horror of war into a detailed military history is especially enticing. This is combined with a keen analysis of the triumphs and failures of the leaders on both sides of the conflict.
The Last Hurrah is the story of the Confederacy's last and probably best chance to reclaim Tennessee and Kentucky for the South and to possibly bring the war once more to Northern soil. But more than that it is also the story of poor leadership on behalf of the Confederate General Hood and the political pressure on Union General Thomas to bring the battle to Hood. Sword, chronicles the planning of Hood's offensive and his miscalculation that the supplies to feed, cloth and arm his army could be obtained through a rail link and from the land that they were invading. This mistake perhaps doomed the campaign given that this was a winter campaign and the Confederate soldiers were often without shoes and blankets.
The best part of the book focuses on the battles of Franklin and Nashville. While Sword does a fine job in detailing the battles themselves as well as the strategy and tactics utilized by the respective Generals, he shines in discussing the human effects of the battles. The slaughter at Franklin and the Confederate charge against a heavily defended Union line, without the benefit of significant supporting artillery, makes one shudder. In reading the depiction of the casualties the horror of the war and the human costs were brought home.
Where Sword also excels is in his critique of the leaders of both sides. Sword obviously is a fan of General George Thomas. On the other hand he is very critical of General Scofield's conduct at Spring Hill and latter at Franklin and Nashville. Scofield's generalship would have led to the destruction of his army during the retreat from Spring Hill to Franklin but for the ineptitude of his Confederate counterparts. His conduct at Nashville, and his failure to commit his troops, probably allowed what remained of the Confederate Army to escape.
Sword's worse criticism was justly saved for Hood. The criticism was well deserved, especially for the decision to make the frontal assault at Franklin and again at Nashville. His poor generalship and inability to take the advise of Nathan Bedford Forrest led to the loss of almost two thirds of his army.
All in all this is a fine book and a must read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Thorough History of A Most Violent Campaign
Comment: Wiley Sword writes well of the tumultuous battles between JB Hood's Confederate Army of Tenessee and General George Thomas's Federal troops in one of the most bloody and calamitous of all Civil War campaigns.
The battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville occurred concurrently with Sherman's March to the Sea and Grant's investiture of Petersburg. Although overshadowed by the latter, Sword is of the opinion that Thomas's eventual destruction of the Confederacy's western army was central to the Union's victory in our Civil War. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but for savagry of combat, quirks of personality, and impact of military politics, its tough to beat.
The Battle of Franklin featured a Confederate charge that was arguably more costly and viscious than Pickett's at Gettysburg. The Battle of Nashville featured a Union attack that was more thorough in it's success than perhaps any other similar scale engagement. In the aftermath of the Battle of Spring Hill, lady luck smiled upon the Union more brightly than when she delivered Lee's "cigar orders" to McClellan before Anteitam.
General's Hood, Thomas, Cleborne, Schofield and other principals are fascinating characters whose personalities figured large in their conduct during the campaign. Sword does a good job of describing these figures as men, providing enough backgorund to allow the reader to understand their motives and actions during the story.
This was a desperate winter campaign fought by Hood. Sword correctly portrays him as a man elevated beyond his command capacity. His soldiers valient and full of heart. Hood's lack of tactical finess wastes them against the breastworks of Franklin. He then marched them to confront Thomas's growing federal legions at Nashville. A cold, ragged army enduring snow, sleet and sub zero temperatures was perhaps tempermentally ill suited to withstand the onslaught of Thomas's superior numbers. When the final battle came, it removed an entire army from the Civil War Chessboard.
Sword is an engaging writer and this intersting story moves along. The book is thorough but not boring. The only weaknesses were the maps -- I did not think there were enough and some of the ones provided were not detailed enough to allow an easy visualization of the action. Sword also sometimes does not identify commanders as Union or Confederate, which can be confusing at the division or brigade level when one is relatively unfamiliar with these armies.
All in all, this in a very good book about a fascinating Civil War campaign.
Rating: 1
Summary: Could Illiteracy Be a Blessing?
Comment: After enduring the torture of reading The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, for the first time in my life I think that illiterate people might actually have an advantage over the rest of us.
Elsewhere among these reviews are those who praise Sword's book for it's "insight" and "convincing argument" that Confederate commander Gen. John Bell Hood was a madman, despised by his subordinates, who had ascended to command through a combination of luck, political posturing, and backstabbing his previous superior, Gen. Joseph Johnston.
Like the children of Hamelin being led by the Pied Piper, readers of Sword's shameful work, enthralled by his fluent and expressive writing, gulp Sword's red cool-ade of errors, omissions, and lies. Sword's stylish and cunning writing is as hypnotic as Mein Kampf and the Turner Diaries, yet equally disgraceful.
F. Lee Bailey and Johnie Cochrane could learn a few things from Sword's prowess at presenting factual and presentational illusions.
Sword included quotes from every soldier who hated Hood while concealing the quotes of all who loved him, thereby causing the reader to infer that all the soldiers hated Hood. Sword likewise gives the podium of his pages to all of the Confederate generals who dissaproved of Hood's tactics and decisions, while concealing the numerous commanders who praised Hood's character and generalship, both before and during the ill-fated Tennessee Campaign.
Sword attacks Hood's personal character on every conceivable level. Again, Sword's modus operendi is to reveal and conceal. Indicting Hood for betraying Joseph Johnston during the Dalton to Atlanta retreat, Sword manifests Hood's letters to Richmond authorities that criticized Johnston's tactics. However Sword chooses to secrete from the readers the letters of many other Johnston subordinates who were likewise distressed at Johnston's strategy, or lack thereof. Sword victimizes his more gullible readers by leading them to believe that Hood was Johnston's only subordinate who was critical of his tactics, and that Hood must have been posturing to replace Johnston.
Sword disgracefully accuses Hood of murder-literally and figuratively-by asserting that Hood, in a fit of incoherent rage, intentionally ordered his army to it's certain destruction at Franklin. While revealing witnesses who described Hood as angry, Sword nonetheless conceals from the readers the firsthand accounts of multiple witnesses who described Hood as contemplative and tranquil while pondering his decision to attack.
To make a convincing argument against Hood, Sword merely silences Confederate presidents, cabinet secretaries, governors, generals, soldiers and civilians. The only qualification of credibility that a source requires in Sword's book is that he must criticize General John Bell Hood.
Sword's book sets historical scholarship and journalistic integrity back a thousand years.
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Title: Five Tragic Hours: The Battle of Franklin by James Lee McDonough, Thomas L. Connelly ISBN: 0870493973 Publisher: Univ of Tennessee Pr Pub. Date: November, 1983 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Modern War Studies) by Albert E. Castel ISBN: 070060748X Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River by Peter Cozzens ISBN: 0252062299 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga by Peter Cozzens ISBN: 0252065956 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Shrouds of Glory : From Atlanta to Nashville: The Last Great Campaign of the Civil War by Winston Groom ISBN: 0671562509 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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