The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Battle of Franklin

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Patte Shaughnessy

"'Pickett's charge at Gettysburg' has come to be a synonym for unflinching courage in the raw. The slaughter-pen at Franklin even more deserves the gory honor." (Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee)

As Sherman began his infamous march to the sea, Lincoln instructed Grant to redirect General George H. Thomas' efforts back to Tennessee to protect Union supply lines and stop the offensive mounted by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hood had broken away from Atlanta and was trying to compel Sherman to follow him, thus diverting him from his intended path of destruction. With Sherman marching east toward the sea, he directed Thomas to try to block Hood around Nashville.

In late November the Army of the Ohio, being led by Thomas' principal subordinate, John Schofield, all but blindly stumbled into Hood's forces, and it was only through luck that some of them had not been bottled up before they could regroup together. Receiving word of Union troop movement in the Nashville area, General Hood sent for his generals while attempting to hold off Schofield's advance. Hood knew that if Schofield reached Thomas' position, their combined armies would number more than twice his. Though the Confederates successfully blocked Schofield's route to Nashville, the Union general managed to execute an all-night maneuver that brought him to Franklin, about 18 miles south of Nashville.

On November 30, the Union army began digging in around Franklin, and that afternoon Hood ordered a frontal assault on the dug-in Union army, which deeply upset his own officers. Hood stressed the necessity of defeating Schofield's forces before Thomas could arrive, though some historians believe his decision to mount a frontal attack was a rash decision made out of fury at the fact that Schofield had escaped his grasp.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Good but should have been proofed before making it available.

The reader mispronounced both Johnston’s and Schofield’s name. Other than that was good listening to and learned insights into the battle.

This is a good book, but…

Any additional comments?

The narrators miss pronunciations are exasperating. Didn’t anyone listen to this book before it was published? Every time she miss pronounces someone’s name I cringe and it happens extremely frequently.

Also there is a lot of duplicate information between this book and the battle of Nashville. These two books should be combined as one.

On the plus side I have a much better appreciation of General Thomas than I did before.

I would say buy the book if you like the subject but grit your teeth every time you hear someone’s name butchered.

Learning experience

Did not match or compare in detail other references in collection, but stands on it's own merits.

A Real Disappointment of a historically rich story

In the first place if you are going to cover a historical subject of any kind, please take the time to be sure the narrator is pronouncing the main characters names properly. Secondly pulling out sections of quotes from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Volume 4, and using it as dialogue leaves much to be desired . Out of the total one hour run time about 15 minutes was spent on The Battle of Franklin . I agree that some background is needed to understand the battle but the subject is The Battle of Franklin and the majority of the text should cover that subject which is rich in data on its own .