Yankees claimed they won the Battle of Franklin; the Confederates
believed they were the victors. Each side displayed courage (and in some
cases cowardice) amid appalling slaughter, while employing outstanding
tactical maneuvers and committing elementary strategical errors. These
facts raise numerous important questions.
Why, for example, did Union Gen. Wagner disobey orders at a crucial
point in the battle, and why did Confederate Gen. Hood place his most
brilliant fighter, Nathan Bedford Forrest, on the far right where he
knew he would have almost no impact? Why did Union Gen. Schofield
callously leave his dead and wounded on the battlefield the following
day, and why, strangely, did Gen. Hood attempt to renew the battle on
the morning of December 1? Why did Federal soldiers wantonly shoot down
and kill Confederate Gen. John Adams when they could have easily
captured him instead, and why at Franklin was the casualty rate for
Confederate officers and infantrymen the highest of any known modern
battle? These and a thousand other issues have long perplexed those with
a sincere interest in both this particular battle and American Civil War
history.
What then is the full and true story of the sanguinary conflict that
took place in Middle Tennessee on November 30, 1864, the day after the
mysterious Battle of Spring Hill and two weeks before the one-sided
Battle of Nashville? What really happened during this violent engagement
on the Plain of Franklin, rightly called by soldiers the "Valley of
Death," where the earth was so "red with blood" that it poured over the
fields in "rivulets," where in some places the bodies lay three layers
deep, and where one could walk across the entire battlefield upon
corpses without one's feet ever touching the ground?
Award-winning author, historian, and Franklin resident Colonel Lochlainn
Seabrook addresses these concerns in his captivating book The Battle of
Franklin: Recollections of Confederate and Union Soldiers, a detailed
chronicle of nearly 30 eyewitness accounts by military men who were on
the field of action that brisk Autumn day. Col. Seabrook, some of whose
Confederate cousins were present, also furnishes narratives by
civilians, clergy, women, and even children who lived through the
conflict, providing additional context to a battle which, like
Nashville, neither side had intended to fight.
The author-editor includes nearly 200 rare illustrations and photos to
accompany the footnoted text, along with an introduction, battle
statistics, 19th-Century maps, appendices, and a bibliography. The
Battle of Franklin is part of Col. Seabrook's trilogy, "Hood's
Tennessee Campaign" series, which includes his popular companion books
The Battle of Spring Hill and The Battle of Nashville. All three are
available in paperback and hardcover.
Acclaimed neo-Victorian scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, whose literary works
range from astronomy to zoology, is one of the most prolific and
well-respected writer-historians in the world today. A descendant of the
families of Alexander H. Stephens, John S. Mosby, Edmund W. Rucker, and
William Giles Harding, he is known by literary critics as the "new
Shelby Foote" and the "American Robert Graves," and by his fans as the
"Voice of the Traditional South." The Sons of Confederate Veterans
member is a Kentucky Colonel, a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson
Davis Historical Gold Medal, and the author and editor of nearly 100
educationally enlightening books (currently). His voluminous writings
have introduced hundreds of thousands to vital facts that have been left
out of our mainstream books. A 7th generation Kentuckian of Appalachian
heritage and the 6th great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford, Col. Seabrook
is the author of the international blockbuster Everything You Were
Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!
