The 2nd Battle of Franklin, Tennessee

[Valin]

Civil War Trust

After the fall of Atlanta on September 1, 1864, General John Bell Hood and the 30,000-man Army of Tennessee raced into Tennessee, hoping to divert William T. Sherman’s attention from the tender underbelly of the Confederacy by threatening his supply base at Nashville. Sherman did not take the bait, and instead dispatched General John Schofield’s Army of the Ohio, 30,000 strong, to protect Nashville while the rest of Sherman’s army simply left their supply line behind and marched to the Atlantic coast, forcibly securing whatever they needed to sustain themselves from the Confederate citizens in their path.

25,000 Union soldiers under George Thomas were entrenched in Nashville. If Schofield could reach them before Hood, then he would enjoy a commanding numerical advantage on the battlefield. Hood’s hopes for a successful campaign rested on defeating Schofield before the two forces joined. After a month of sparring along the Tennessee and the Duck Rivers, on November 28 Hood managed to divide Schofield’s army and surround a portion of it in the riverside town of Columbia, Tennessee.

 

Unfortunately for Hood, miscommunication and confusion in the Confederate ranks meant that his trap failed to snap shut. In what became known as the Battle of Spring Hill, Schofield managed withdraw his force to Franklin mostly unscathed. Spring Hill was a catastrophic missed opportunity—half of Schofield’s army passed within earshot of Confederates camped along the road that night without being brought to battle. As his army filed into Franklin Schofield reformed his brigades into an imposing defensive line.

 

Hood woke up on the 29th “wrathy as a rattlesnake.” The failure at Spring Hill was infuriating—at a council of war that morning he went so far as to accuse the army of cowardice. He ordered a pursuit to Franklin, where he would have one more chance to pulverize Schofield before he reached Nashville.

 

But Franklin did not offer the same possibilities as Spring Hill. Instead of attacking a surrounded and outnumbered enemy, the 20,000 Confederates at Franklin faced a frontal assault over two miles of open ground against a roughly equal foe entrenched behind three lines of breastworks and abatis. Unmoved by his lieutenants’ objections, Hood ordered the assault. The two-mile long butternut line stepped off at 4 P.M.

 

(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]

Mar 28, 2010

The guide at Carter House, Franklin, TN is the best I have ever witnessed. He brings alive the Civil War Battle of Franklin, TN and for a over an hour keeps his audience keenly interested in the story of the soldiers and citizens where were thrown in together for five hours of bloody battle in which 10,000 were killed. In this clip he ends his presentation with the story of four soldiers who survived this battle and the impact that their progenitors had as a result. He is so passionate about this battle that you couldn't help but get drawn in and at the end of his talk he clearly emotionally spent. I believe his name is Rob, but unfortunately I did not get his full name. More information and some professional videos can be found here: http://www.carter-house.org/