Two days of fighting that ended a Confederate invasion of Tennessee in 1864, and effectively destroyed the army that had launched that invasion (American Civil War). That invasion had been launched by General John Hood after the fall of Atlanta. He hoped that by moving north he would force the Union army under General Sherman to retreat from Georgia to deal with the threat to its supply lines. Instead, Sherman had already decided to abandon those supply lines, and take 62,000 of his men east to the Atlantic coast. The rest of the army was sent north under General Thomas, to oppose Hood.
Hood had crossed into Tennessee with 40,000 men. Thomas had 60,000 men, although 30,000 of them were rather scattered around the southern part of the state, protecting the long lines of communication across the mostly hostile state. However, Hood had missed two chances to trap most of those troops (under General Schofield). In frustration he had launched a frontal assault on Schofield at Franklin (30 November). There, he had suffered massive casualties, including five dead Generals, and at least 5,000 other losses (probably more, maybe as many as 7,000).
Read Full Article »