Franklin 150th: Artillery Hell

One of the things often remembered about Gen. John Bell Hood’s attack is that it was made without artillery support. Like many of the aspects of Franklin, this isn’t entirely true. In fact, there were a few batteries present, one of which was Guibor’s Missouri Battery. The following is the harrowing account of Franklin from […]

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Franklin 150th: “I never saw the dead lay near so thick.”

It was a near-run thing—John M. Schofield’s Federals steadily marching down the Columbia Pike towards Franklin through the night of Nov. 29 while sitting close to their camp fires were the Confederates of John B. Hood. The two former West Point roommates, Schofield and Hood, were now pitted against each other as they battled through […]

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Franklin 150th: To Die Like Men

It had all led to this: Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, known as the “Stonewall of the West,” galloped up to his brigade commanders assembled on top of Breezy Hill, just south of the little town of Franklin, Tennessee. “He seemed greatly depressed and fully realized, as did every officer present, the desperate nature of […]

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Franklin 150th: The McGavocks, Carnton, and the Battle of Franklin

In the late afternoon of November 30, 1864, 30,000 Confederate troops, under General Hood’s direction, made an attack on General Schofield’s federal defenses in Franklin, Tennessee.  With up to 10,000 casualties in the five hour engagement, scores of dead and wounded were left on the battlefield or carried to make-shift field hospitals in and around […]

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Franklin 150th: The Last Thing He Ever Saw….

William Decatur Mintz, known as Dee, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, to a respectable farming family, but like many young me, he saw opportunity on the frontier. Dee ended up in Little Rock, Arkansas, when the Secession Crisis began, and when Arkansas called for troops, he enlisted in what became Company C of […]

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Give the Gift of War!

Almost everyone who reads this blog has some interest in the American Civil War, even if it is only that a household member is a Civil War buff. With the holidays upon us, ECW will offer a short series of reviews featuring gift suggestions for the Civil Warrior in your life–or for you, in case […]

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The Madden Creek Massacre, 150 years ago today

One hundred and fifty years ago today, a small incident occurred in the mountains of southeast Tennessee that became known as the Madden Creek Massacre. The incident served as an example of Sherman’s maxim that “War is Hell” and typified the ugly and almost forgotten war-within-a-war that sprang up in the mountainous regions of the South.

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Battle Scarred–a Special Exhibition at Carnton Plantation Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Franklin

When the call at ECW went out for articles concerning the Battle of Franklin, I immediately went to the website for the Battle of Franklin Trust http://www.battleoffranklintrust.org/boft.htm. I have been visiting quite a few Civil War websites recently, and am beginning to be a bit critical of those that “work” and those that lead one […]

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Hood Remembered: The Sesquicentennial

Today, ECW is pleased to welcome guest author Sam Hood. Sam Hood is a descendant of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood and author of the forthcoming The Lost Papers of John Bell Hood. He has also written a biography of his ancestor, John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of a Confederate General, based […]

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