Decisions at Franklin

ANDREW S. BLEDSOE is an associate professor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is the author of Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War and coeditor, with Andrew F. Lang, of Upon the Fields of Battle: Essays on the Military History of the American Civil War

"The Battle of Franklin pitted beleaguered Confederate general John Bell Hood against US general John Schofield and his Army of the Ohio. The Army of Tennessee had nearly twenty thousand men when they began assaulting the US's fortified positions around Franklin. While Hood forced the Army of the Ohio to retreat to Nashville, his losses were considerable, and he would face a fortified Army of the Ohio yet again. Hood's defeat in the subsequent battle of Nashville shrunk the Army of Tennessee to less than ten thousand men and effectively neutralized the army for the remainder of the Civil War. Intended for the Command Decisions in America's Civil War series, this book examines the decisions that shaped the way the Battle of Franklin unfolded. Rather than offering a history of the battle, Bledsoe focuses on the critical decisions, those decisions that had a major impact on both Federal and Confederate forces in shaping the progression of the battle as we know it today"