DK - The American Civil War

FRANKLIN AND NASHVILLE

The collapse of Hood’s Tennessee

Campaign spelled the end of major

fighting in that state—and very different

ends for the two commanding generals.

TENNESSEE CONCLUSION

In early January 1865, General Hood would

tender his resignation, his career now in

ruins. In March, General Thomas would

receive the “Thanks of Congress” for his

victory at Nashville.

END OF AN ARMY

The Army of Tennessee’s demoralized survivors

—those who didn’t head for home after the

disaster at Nashville—were continually

harried by Union forces as they retreated south.

They might have been completely destroyed

were it not for Major General Nathan Bedford

Forrest and his cavalry who kept much of the

pursuit at bay. Many soldiers limped barefoot

through the ice until they reached Tupelo,

Mississippi. In March 1865, when they joined

General Johnston for the last campaign in the

Carolinas 310–11 ❯❯, they mustered only

4,500—ten percent

of the force that Hood

belonged to the Carter family. Desperate had commanded.

hand-to-hand fighting spilled over

fences into the gardens. Nightfall

brought no letup in the frenzy; it only

raged the more spectacularly along the

main line of breastworks, where for

hundreds of yards men standing three

or four deep in the bloody ditches fired

at each other over the parapet as

quickly as they could be handed loaded

rifles. One man described the muzzle

flashes in the dark as “but one line of

streaming fire.” The inconclusive battle

sputtered to a halt by 9 p.m. At

midnight a whispered order was

passed down the Union line:

“Fall in.” The Federals slipped

away before dawn, heading

north for Nashville, carrying

at least 13 Confederate

battle flags but leaving

behind 2,500 casualties,

including most of their

seriously wounded.

Confederate losses

Daylight revealed a

scene of appalling

carnage. One man recalled

how the dead were

piled “one on the other

all over the ground” and

especially how numerous

horses “had died game on

the gory breastworks.” The

Confederates buried 1,750 of

their mangled comrades on

the field that day. Around

3,800 wounded crowded the

makeshift hospitals. Hood

had lost nearly a third of his

available infantry; some

regiments counted upward of 64 percent

casualties. No less than 12 generals

and 54 regimental commanders had

been killed or wounded—a captain

becoming the most senior ranked

officer in some brigades.

Nevertheless, Hood soon had the

survivors marching north on Nashville

too. General George H. Thomas had

assembled at least 55,000 Union troops,

including Schofield’s battered army,

behind the city’s daunting fortifications.

The Confederate Army of Tennessee

entrenched itself in a range of low

hills 4 miles (6.4km) to the south,

inviting Thomas to attack. For two

weeks, when not shivering through

ice storms, the opposing sides glared

at each other.

Thomas attacks

General Ulysses S. Grant was on the

point of relieving Thomas for inactivity

when the weather improved. On

December 15 Thomas struck. As the fog

lifted that morning, the Confederates saw

the long blue lines, flags flying, moving

toward them. Union artillery fired a

barrage so deafening that individual

guns could not be distinguished. Hood’s

men repulsed the assaults on their

front; but that was only a diversion.

The Federals turning their left flank

were the real striking force. They

swarmed over fields and stone walls

taking one Rebel position after another,

capturing 16 guns and a thousand

prisoners before winter darkness

halted their momentum. That night

Hood withdrew to another set of

bluffs, where his weary soldiers cut

trees and entrenched in the dark.

Dawn revealed an imposing

new line of Confederate works

curving over a steep 3-mile

(4.8-km) front.

Union surge

Gray clouds and cold rain

had arrived by the time

Thomas’s attack again

got underway. On the

Confederate right, the

Federals struggling

upward were slaughtered

in terrible profusion. But

to his left, Hood’s line had

been sited too far up the

slope; the defenders could

AFTER

“The death-angel was there to

gather its last harvest. It was the

grand coronation of death.”

PRIVATE SAM WATKINS, 1 TENNESSEE INFANTRY, ON THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN

Union defense

Nashville was occupied by Union forces in 1862, and

the city’s defensive centerpiece was the star-shaped Fort

Negley. Two years later, Nashville was among the most

impressively fortified cities in the United States.

not train their guns on the enemy until

it was too late. Hood’s left began giving

way, and when the Union cavalry got

into its rear, it broke. Panic spread like

wildfire. Down the line exultant

Federals seized guns, ammunition,

flags, and thousands of dazed

Confederates. Entire divisions melted

away, soldiers fleeing to the rear

ignoring their officers’ cries to rally. It

was as decisive a victory as any in the

war. The Army of Tennessee, once

among the proudest in the Confederacy,

had reached the limit of its endurance.

Its men fled down the Franklin Pike in

the rain. Later that night, Hood was

observed “much agitated and affected,

pulling his hair with his one hand and

crying like his heart would break.”

Tennessee State Capitol

Modeled after a Greek Ionic temple, the Tennessee

State Capitol building in Nashville was completed in

1859 and was one of the tallest structures in the United

States at the time of the Civil War.

General George H. Thomas

Born in Virginia, the stalwart Thomas

remained loyal to the Union during the

Civil War, for which he was permanently

ostracized by members of his family.