Featuring the longlost diary of Major General Patrick R. Cleburne Few American Civil War operations matched the controversy, intensity, and bloodshed of Confederate general John Bell Hood's illfated 1864 campaign against Union forces in Tennessee. In the firstever anthology on the subject, The Tennessee Campaign of 1864, edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear, fourteen prominent historians and emerging scholars examine this operation, covering the battles of Allatoona, Spring Hill, and Franklin, as well as the decimation of Hood's army at Nashville. Essays focus on the high casualty rates among the Army of Tennessee's officer corps, the emotional and psychological impact of killing on the battlefield, and military figures such as generals Ulysses S. Grant and George H. Thomas, among others. The U.S. Colored Troops fought courageously in the Battle of Nashville, and the book explores their lasting impact on the African American community. The volume includes the transcript of Confederate major general Patrick R. Cleburne's revealing lost diary, which he kept until his death at Franklin, and provides a rare glimpse of civilian experiences in Franklin, Nashville, and the TransMississippi West. Two essays on Civil War battlefield preservation round out the collection. Canvassing both military and social history, this wellresearched volume offers new, illuminating perspectives while furthering longrunning debates on more familiar topics. These indepth essays provide an insider's view into one of the most brutal and notorious campaigns in Civil War history.

In September 1864, the Confederate army abandoned Atlanta and were on the verge of being driven out of the critical state of Tennessee. In an attempt to regain the initiative, John Bell Hood launched an attack on Union General Sherman's supply lines, before pushing north in an attempt to retake Tennessee's capital Nashville. This fully illustrated book examines the three-month campaign that followed, one that confounded the expectations of both sides. Instead of fighting Sherman's Union Army of the Tennessee, the Confederates found themselves fighting an older and more traditional enemy: the Army of the Cumberland. This was led by George R. Thomas, an unflappable general temperamentally different than either the mercurial Hood or Sherman. The resulting campaign was both critical and ignored, despite the fact that for eleven weeks the fate of the Civil War was held in the balance.

This is the first book-length work on wartime race relations in Tennessee, and it stresses the differences within the slave community as well as Military Governor Andrew Johnson’s role in emancipation. In Tennessee a significant number of slaves took advantage of the disruptions resulting from federal invasion to escape servitude and to seek privileges enjoyed by whites. Some rushed into theses changes, believing God had ordained them; others acted simply from a willingness to seize any opportunity for improving their lot. Both groups felt a sense of dignity that their slaves initiated a change; they lacked the power and resources to secure and expand the gains they made on their own. Because most disloyal slaves supported the Union while most white Tennesseans did not, the federal army eventually decided to encourage and capitalize upon slave discontent. Idealistic Northern reformers simultaneously worked to establish new opportunities for Southern blacks. The reformers’ paternalistic attitudes and the army’s concern with military expediency limited the aid they extended to blacks. Black poverty, white greed, and white racial prejudice severely restricted change, particularly in the former slaves’ economic position. The more significant changes took the form of new social privileges for the freedmen: familial security, educational opportunities, and religious independence. Masters had occasionally granted these benefits to some slaves, but what the disloyal slaves wanted and won was the formalization of these privileges for all blacks in the state.

The Nashville Campaign, culminating with the last major battle of the Civil War, is one of the most compelling and controversial campaigns of the conflict. The campaign pitted the young and energetic James Harrison Wilson and his Union cavalry against the cunning and experienced Nathan Bedford Forrest with his Confederate cavalry. This book is an analysis of contributions made by the two opposing cavalry forces and provides new insights and details into the actions of the cavalry during the battle. This campaign highlighted important changes in cavalry tactics and never in the Civil War was there closer support by the cavalry for infantry actions than for the Union forces in the Battle of Nashville. The retreat by Cheatham's corps and the Battle of the Barricade receive a more in-depth discussion than in previous works on this battle. The importance of this campaign cannot be overstated as a different outcome of this battle could have altered history. The Nashville Campaign reflected the stark realities of the war across the country in December 1864 and would mark an important part of the death knell for the Confederacy.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.