"The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War."
Federal casualties in the battle were 387 killed, 2,562 wounded, and 112 missing. As only a few of the Confederate units submitted reports on the battle, Confederate casualties are difficult to ascertain. [Maj. Gen. George H.] Thomas reported capturing 4,561 prisoners in the battle itself, with an unknown number captured during the retreat. One historian made an educated guess that 2,500 Confederates were killed and wounded at Nashville....
The Battle of Nashville marked the effective end of the Army of Tennessee. Historian David Eicher remarked, "If [Lt. Gen. John Bell] Hood mortally wounded his army at Franklin, he would kill it two weeks later at Nashville." Although Hood blamed the entire debacle on his subordinates and the soldiers themselves, his career was over.....
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Hood had been a competent corps commander, but was utterly incompetent leading an army. In the five battles around Atlanta against Sherman he managed to make a large army a small one. This campaign just finished the destruction started 5 months earlier.
Worthless useless battle. Foolish Confederate general.
The South would have been much better off with Forrest in command.
He knew when to hold em, knew when to fold em, knew when to walk away, knew when to run...
Saying that Confederate General Hood's "career was over" after this defeat in December 1864 fails to acknowledge the larger truth that by April 1865 all their careers would be over.
Thomas was under intense pressure from Grant and Lincoln to attack Hood. Grant was ready to replace him for lack of results. The Rock of Chickamauga moved his army, well, like a rock.
But in this case history rewarded the slow, cautious general; Hood bashed his army against the rock that was Thomas's army. Only then did Thomas switch over to an advance.
Hood was a disaster incarnate having made every bad decision a General could possibly make since June, 1864 when he replaced Johnston for his strategic retreats into Atlanta, and instead began his three useless frontal assaults on Sherman going outside the fortifications around Atlanta.
He was a crazy Episcopalian Bishop pretending to be a warrior. God save us from such jackasses that destroy good men.
After losing Atlanta at Jonesboro on August 31 the idiot surrendered Atlanta and took his army around Sherman back north into Tennessee to "cut off Sherman." Sherman said thank you and took off to Savannah living off the land .
Hood was so badly defeated that he proceeded to punish his Army commanding it to make two more useless frontal assaults on Yankee armies holding the high ground and using repeating rifles.
@Traditionalguy
John Bell Hood wasn't an Episcopalian Bishop, perhaps you are thinking of General Leonidas Polk? He WAS a bishop, and was famous for having vehement disagreements with his commander General Braxton Bragg, and was killed in the Atlanta Campaign against Gen. Serhman.
John Bell Hood was a bold and truly fine Division and corps commander; serving competently in the Seven Days battles, and the Battle of Gettysburg (where he was wounded, losing the use of his arm). He was instrumental in the great confederate victory at the Battle of Chikamauga, leading the assault into a gap of the Union lines, but he was again wounded, this time having his leg amputated at the hip. He was unfortunately not suited for the independent command of an Army, and his career ended ignominiously. But he was always a fine subordinate, when commanded well.
Thanks for the correction Amichel. My memory had the names crossed. The Episcopal church is innocent.
This was the same excuse given by Rick Pitino, Nick Saban and other successful college coaches whose teams in the pros stunk
I think Thomas was that war's most underrated general. And Union success in the West was what ultimately doomed the Confederacy, regardless of how long Lee could hold out in the east.
That would have been a horrifying time to be fighting in either of those armies. It must have taken an incredible amount of will to fight in those battles.
It has been 150 years since the United States have had a major war in the homeland.
This is very unusual as things go around the world.
Yep, Grant was getting a bit testy with "Ole' Slow Trot's" delays - waiting for the weather to turn a bit warmer. Gen. John Logan was enroute with orders to replace Thomas if he (Thomas) had not got it on by the time Logan arrived.
And well said, Hagar @12:44.
Get you some Bruce Catton books from Amazon, and get hooked on the Civil War.
Grant got so annoyed with Thomas's perceived slowness that he planned to replace him and was on his way by train to Nashville to replace him with Black Jack Logan.
But Thomas couldn't move because of a severe ice storm, so when it abated he attacked.
He destroyed Hood.
It has been 150 years since the United States have had a major war in the homeland.
This is very unusual as things go around the world.
Indeed. Even England has had war on it's homeland as recently as 1945.
That would have been a horrifying time to be fighting in either of those armies. It must have taken an incredible amount of will to fight in those battles.
Nah. Once you get started you keep going. I'd pick World War I with senseless charges against machine guns and entrenched enemies as taking an incredible amount of will.
By the time he reached Franklin, Hood was probably out of his mind with laudanum and opiate painkillers. He was personally brave, and an excellent, hard-hitting brigade or division commander, when he had someone like Longstreet do his thinking for him.
And he very nearly outwitted Rosencrans at Columbia, who only escaped a trap before the battle of Franklin by getting lucky with some sleepy Confederate sentries who let him steal a night march past their positions to escape.
Forrest, a magnificent cavalry commander, famously told Hood at Franklin, "If you were a whole man I would thrash you."
It was Forrest who saved the remnants of the Confederate Army in their miserable barefoot retreat from Nashville, by having his cavalry fight a masterful delaying action to cover the withdrawal of Hood's infantry. People still study Forrests' actions that week as an exercise in How To Do It Right. Not Hood. Forrest.
Hood was practically soused on pain meds most of the time.
The Battle of the Somme might be the single most pointless waste of life ever in military history.
As the 11 British divisions walked towards the German lines, the machine guns started and the slaughter began. Although a few units managed to reach German trenches, they could not exploit their gains and were driven back. By the end of the day, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties, of whom 20,000 were dead: their largest single loss. Sixty per cent of all officers involved on the first day were killed.
It has been 150 years since the United States have had a major war in the homeland.
I guess you could say so because Hawaii and Alaska weren't states in December 1941 and June 1942, respectively.
My dad still has a rental house on the Nashville line, 2nd day, on Shye's Hill. I know the area intimately well. I highly recommend any visitors go to The Hermitage, the historic home of President Thomas Jackson, which served as Hood's headquarters during the battle.
I also very much recommend visiting the Carter House, on the Franklin battlefield - one of the more moving, personal displays/preservations of American history I've ever been to. The women will like it, too. It's not just a battlefield tour.
You can go into the basement the terrified Carter Family hid in during the battle, as the fighting raged around them, cannonballs tore through their house above, and the bayonet fighting took place just outside their door.
After the battle, they heard that their son, Confederate Captain Todd Carter, was wounded on the battlefield, so the went out among the thousands of wounded and dead to find him. They found him, and brought him home, grievously wounded, to die a few days later in his own bed... which is also still there, or the bedroom is, reconstructed as it was in 1864.
One thing I thought I knew for sure was that beards like that would never again be a thing.
@Hammond, I prefer McPherson. (Anybody interested in buying Battle Cry of Freedom should be sure to use the Althouse portal.)
I bet ya'll didn't know that Nathan Bedford Forest went on to be a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan!
A number of generals on both sides of the Civil War grew beards to disguise how young they were. John Bell Hood was only 33. Sherman and Grant were in their 40's.
@Jason, you don't mean Andrew Jackson, do you? Thomas Jackson was better known by his nickname "Stonewall."
I'd recommend the Carter House also, and the Carnton Mansion as well, where you can still see the blood stains from surgery. It's amazing how many people driving through the battlefields around Nashville have no idea what they are passing through.
oops. yes... ANDREW!!! Sorry!
I bought a house on Granny White Pike in the mid 90s. Some of the battles were fought along that road. The previous owners told us that, when they re-arranged the location of the driveway, they had to take out an old oak. In doing so, they discovered a skeleton sitting high in the branches. The Sheriff was called, but wasn't too concerned - Turns out, the skeleton had been a Confederate soldier. When they had to move, the soldiers would put their wounded or dead buddies into the trees in the hopes they would find a way to survive, or at least not be stripped by the Yankee soldiers. We also found a lot of minie balls in the yard.
I figured somebody on this thread would "bite" on my profile pic.
Alex,
A Grand Wizard? Are you sure about that? He was doubtlessly involved, and was a prominent community leader among Democrats, but it's not certain that he ever held that title.
Nevertheless, betcha didn't know Forrest moved to use his influence to dissolve the Klan, as it existed before 1870 or so. Forrest also spoke out publicly and forcefully for racial reconciliation, arguing that loyal southern blacks where his friends, and he theirs, and if they are oppressed, he would ride to their defense.
Betcha didn't know that these people weren't cartoon characters you can mold to fit your preferred narratives. Forrest, Lee, Grant, Sherman, Johnston, and all the rest of them, were complicated, multi-faceted and intelligent people who don't quite fit conveniently into the molds you'd like to create for them.
Betcha didn't know that history is more complicated than you thought it was.
Betcha didn't know that lots of people know more history than you do.
You betcha.
"Nah. Once you get started you keep going. I'd pick World War I with senseless charges against machine guns and entrenched enemies as taking an incredible amount of will."
That would have been awful too--both types of battle basically favored the defense, and featured commanders who were slow to realize that (or simply couldn't think of any other way, or had to do suicidal charges for political reasons). But battlefield medicine had to be better in WWI.
Thinking about things like that make me very grateful to have never had to experience that.
The Confederacy would have been better served if more of their generals were foolish and stupid. It was a preordained thing that the North would win. Superior generalship just prolonged the agony. Hood's blunders ultimately saved Confederate lives. If only Lee had been dumber, how much suffering the South would have been spared.
Saying that Confederate General Hood's "career was over" after this defeat in December 1864 fails to acknowledge the larger truth that by April 1865 all their careers would be over.
Not really true. The Egyptian monarchy hired a bunch of ex-Confederates like Loring, and some of the younger generals like Wheeler returned to the Union flag for the Spanish-American War. Wheeler was supposedly prone to cussing out the Spanish as "Yankees" when his blood was up.
He was a crazy Episcopalian Bishop pretending to be a warrior.
Unless Hood had some personal biography I'm unaware of, I think you're confusing him for General Leonidas Polk (famously a pre-war Episcopal bishop turned officer), who was killed at Pine Mountain, just before Hood received army command. Although from everything I've read about Polk, he would have been an equally bad army commander.
And he very nearly outwitted Rosencrans at Columbia, who only escaped a trap before the battle of Franklin by getting lucky with some sleepy Confederate sentries who let him steal a night march past their positions to escape.
Schofield, not Rosecrans. Rosecrans was sidelined in the department of the Missouri by this part of the war.
Everyone likes to talk up Forrest, but it seems like it's a lot easier to be a brilliant general when you're just running a division or a small, agile independent army like Forrest's cavalry forces or Jackson's Valley army. They didn't have to worry so much about logistics and other vitals which weighed down the major theatre armies.
Get you some Bruce Catton books from Amazon, and get hooked on the Civil War.
Interesting memories. Catton is buried in the family plot maybe a hundred feet from my mother's family plot, in Michigan. In his autobiographical "Waiting for the Morning Train", he tells of watching the GAR vets marching, and how that caused him to get interested in the Civil War. My grandfather, whose best friend growing up was Catton's younger brother, instead went into the Army. And, his grandfather (my great-great) was one of the GAR vets that Catton mentioned in that autobiography. Probably because of that connection, we grew up with all of Catton's books around the house.
That's right... it was Schofield. it's been a while. I read all three volumes of Lee's Lieutenants by D.S. Southall Freeman, 20 years ago. I was quite the geek then!
Apparently I'm getting rusty!
Jason - I'm just finishing up Shelby Foote's 3 volume "The Civil War". I know that Nathan Bedford Forest was considered a genius.
William - the South never had a chance being overwhelmed by Union superiority in manpower, manufacturing, railroads, foreign trade and the indomitable will of Abraham Lincoln. He was a ruthless motherfucker.
"... and it was a brutal military truth that there were men who were marvelous with a regiment but could not handle a brigade, and men who were superb with a division but incapable of leading a corps. No way of predicting it..."
Source: The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara, p. 95
There's a good case to be made that George Thomas was the greatest general in the Union army. He never lost a battle, won them all with relatively low casualties, smashed two rebel armies and was named the Rock of Chickamauga.
His sin was he accepted lower positions than his rank, in the interest of focusing on winning the war, and he died soon after the war so that his tormenters were able to craft their version of the war at his expense.
Some say the war was fought over slavery. Some say it was fought over states' rights. Both are only partly right.
The real reason for the war is that the men were tired of nagging wives and wanted to leave home. That's right. We had 600,000 men die for the right to grow a beard. If you look at history, the beard went back out of fashion when the veterans of that war all died from old age.
I say it's time to bring back our right to be unmolested by nagging women and grown beards again. But I hope we can find a less bloody way to assert that right again. "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would enjoy it too much," was a quote by Lee. It's little known that he was referring to his own facial hair.
Hood, who fought at Gettysburg, learned nothing from Pickett's Charge about sending men to attack entrenched positions via full frontal assault. He was with the Army of Tennessee when Sherman tried it against Johnston at Kennesaw Mountain, only to fail. He'd also seen it at Fredericksburg when Burnside failed against Lee. Yet he still relied on the full frontal assault at Franklin and Nashville, wasting his men's lives. The full depth of his failure came when, after he led the Army of Tennessee to slaughter in Tennessee, the soldiers themselves and the Confederate public clamored for the army to be given back to Joe Johnston who, despite his Fabian tactics of retreat and defense, kept his men alive to fight another day - - and still killed Yankees while doing so.
One of the best treatments of this regional war is "The Army of Tennessee by Horn" 1941. It is a treat to read about the retreat to Chattanooga by someone not a Bragg apologist. Davis lost the war by keeping Bragg in charge. If Longsteet was put in command after Chickamauga the Union would have been at great risk. The western Generals and men saved the bacon of the New England guys.
Sherman believed that Joseph Eggleston Johnston was the most dangerous Confederate commander. The two actually became lifelong friends after the war.
Johnston was a wiley pro. So was Sherman, alas for Johnston.
And so was Lee, though Lee had a major streak of audacity that Johnston didn't have. Sometimes you need it. When it works out, you're a genius. When it doesn't work out, well, the enemy gets a vote, too.
At the end of the day, Hood had little chance of taking Franklin, but he did anyway. Nobody hit harder than Hood.
If you know the landscape between Franklin and Nashville, you know there is a pass between the hills just south of Brentwood. you have to go through to retreat or advance on Nashville. Hood had the chance to attempt to turn the Yankee position and march on that pass, which would have forced the Federals to withdraw. Maybe he should have done that (or maybe his Army would have been attacked and destroyed on the march as it turned past Franklin, or he would have left his baggage exposed. Who knows?) Or maybe he should have just walked away. When he got to Nashville, though, and found Thomas had dug in and set himself, Hood had no chance of carrying the city. Maybe he could have fixed Thomas in place, at best (Thomas would have overwhelmed Hood, sooner or later), or turned his army around, put Forrest between Thomas and his own infantry, and marched away. As it was, that's what the battered remnants of his army had to do anyway.
"If only Lee had been dumber, how much suffering the South would have been spared."
If Lee had been dumber the war would have ended in 1862 without freeing the slaves. Richmond would have fallen to McClellan in 1862 and that would have been the end. But would "the South" have suffered less if slavery had not been ended? Who is a Southerner?
And also I always think that it interesting that 600,000 slaves were brought into the 13 colonies that became the United States and 600,000 men died in the Civil War over the future of the slaves in that country. Maybe that war was subject to "preforedestination" as Huck Finn would say
"I think Thomas was that war's most underrated general. And Union success in the West was what ultimately doomed the Confederacy, regardless of how long Lee could hold out in the east."
Sherman knew that Thomas, in spite of his "slows" would handle Hood with no trouble and turned his back on Hood to head into Georgia on the "March to the Sea."
Sherman is probably America's greatest general with the possible exception of Washington.
I love Washington. The man got his ass kicked all the way to Yorktown!
Too many people underestimate Grant. Yes, he turned on the meat grinder in the Overland campaign, but that was the sure way to defeat Lee.
Grant had tremendous maneuver warfare chops when the situation called for it, as he demonstrated at Vicksburg and later when he took command at Chattanooga. A terrific exercise in command.
I would like to have been present with his army in 1864, when fresh after getting his flank crushed by the indomitable Longstreet and suffering what anyone else would have called a defeat in the Wilderness, his troops formed up and instead of facing the rear and marching back up the road they came down, just as they had a dozen times before under a dozen lesser commanders, they got a left face, and marched at Lee's army. Both sides had to know it wouldn't be long, when Lee figured out that Grant had not been psychologically beaten. He was different than the others. A different breed.
What followed was a nightmare, but it was Grant's preferred version of the nightmare, not Lee's.
"I love Washington. The man got his ass kicked all the way to Yorktown!"
But, he kept his army together. Winning the last battle (even with French help) is what makes great generals.
Wellington comes to mind.
Grant had tremendous maneuver warfare chops when the situation called for it...
And with the end-run around Richmond to Petersburg - but Baldy Smith tossed it away giving Beauregard time to man the lines. Added another year to the war.
Robin-
How do you have a skeleton in an oak tree in your yard and not notice it?
And how was it still there after 150 years?
Is y'all foolin?
It's the South. Everyone has skeletons in the trees. It's not something we discuss.
Grant does suffer from a meat grinder reputation, undeservedly. But Sherman was a mad man and set off on a foolish trip that was just a bigger version of JEB Stuart's incessant rides around the enemy.
The march to Georgia didn't accomplish much strategically but it did make people talk about Sherman. The war was won by Grant along the Mississippi, and by Grant in Virginia.
Sherman's best accomplishment was to leave Tennessee so that Thomas could finally get something done there. Where he went wasn't of much consequence.
The march to Georgia didn't accomplish much strategically but it did make people talk about Sherman.
Sherman's bold move of operating deep within enemy territory and without supply lines is considered to be revolutionary in the annals of war.[1] Eicher, p. 768.
I love Washington.
The man would kill you in your sleep on Christmas!
Skyler, Sherman's March to the Sea was a brilliant application of the old "cutting the Gordian Knot" method of dealing with an intractable problem. Namely, once he took Atlanta, he was stuck over a hundred miles down a massively vulnerable rail line from his nearest water-born line of communication, with a large army-in-being in the vicinity and scads of enemy cavalry available for endless raids on his exposed communications. The *only* way he could exploit his position was to stop trying to occupy Georgia and force the enemy to defend it instead.
Thus he sent two-fifths of his divisions back to Tennessee under Schofield and Thomas to get them closer to the reliable riverine supply lines, and collect all those exposed pennypacket defensive pickets strung out along the railroad, to defend Tennessee. The rest he led on a moderately paced journey of discovery - the citizens of Georgia discovering that their armies couldn't move fast enough to protect them from the enemy, their armies discovering that they couldn't stop and force to battle an enemy without lines of supply or inclination to fight it out head to head, in open country.
Sherman found a way to turn a crippling logistical weakness into an overwhelming strategic advantage, while inflicting a killing blow at the enemy's morale. That's pure genius, and American generals have been trying and failing to replicate anything like it ever since.
Sherman's aim was to march up the Confederate Atlantic coast, destroying ports and rail centers as he marched except as necessary to supply his own army (which by that time could be done by sea, as well), and link up with Grant.
By heading to the coast and milder weather, Sherman could continue to move and campaign year round. Had he remained inland, his wagons and troops would have had a hard time campaigning in the icy hills and mountains.
The only Confederate hope was that Johnston could get there first and the united armies of Lee and Johnston could make use of interior lines and defeat the approaching vise arms, one at a time.
That would have been the end of the Army of Northern Virginia, but by early spring 1865 desertion and starvation were taking care of that. I'm sure a lot of Confederate soldiers of all ranks knew that Sherman was on the march from Savannah.
Johnston proved himself still very dangerous at Bentonville, even driving an entire Federal Corps or two from the field after a well-timed attack. But he didn't have the strength to take the losses, even where he scored tactical victories. Appomattox was not the end of the war. Johnston could still maneuver, and he finally surrendered a month after Lee did.
Not a full month... a couple of weeks, that is. Lee surrendered on April 9, Johnston on the 26th.
Jason wrote:
" ....I know the area intimately well. I highly recommend any visitors go to The Hermitage, the historic home of President Thomas Jackson, which served as Hood's headquarters during the battle......... "
The Hermitage is located 10 miles EAST of Nashville and was deep behind Federal lines during the battles. If Hood was HQ'd there, no wonder Rebs lost....better chance that Hood spent a night in President James K Polk's Columbia, TN home during the campaign
Ach, you're right... I'm thinking "Travellers Rest," which I used to drive by all the time.
It's been 20-25 years. I'm due for a road trip.
Ann, as one of the authors of the Wikipedia article I want to thank you for mentioning the Battle of Nashville. I've been quoting you all these years and so I'm honored that you're quoting me today!
There is a lot of misinformation running through the comments, especially from people who claim to be from Middle Tennessee. If you would like to read some accurate accounts (and also see photos from our sesquicentennial program this last weekend) go to the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society's website,
http://www.bonps.org/
Thanks and you're welcome, Dopey.
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