December 16 note on the Battle of Nashville

Just a quick thought here, as I have limited time right now.  I mentioned yesterday that we would touch base on this story again, so I want to throw it out there.  Especially as it's one of my favorites from the Civil War.

Anyhow, yesterday we talked about how JB Hood and his army were "besieging" Nashville, where General George Thomas and his army were gathering.  Thomas, you may recall, was building up his forces and supplies, in order to do a number on Hood.  But you also recall that Thomas's boss, US Grant, was getting antsy.  Yesterday, not only did he have a replacement for Thomas enroute to Nashville, but he had himself decided to leave Virginia and go out there to see what the heck Thomas was up to.  (I should note that Grant was not a huge fan of Thomas, even though Thomas was probably his best battlefield commander). 

So Thomas and his troops finally attacked yesterday, and basically ended the "siege", driving the Confederates a couple miles back from their positions, to a point where they spent the night of the 15-16 preparing for what they knew was coming.  And on the morning of the 16th, IT CAME.  Thomas hit them, and he hit them harder than probably any Rebel army had been hit.  Oh, it took a little while, but the end was never in doubt.  And when the end came, it came hard.  The entire Confederate position collapsed, and the entire army headed south as fast as their little feet could move them.  When they finally got away to Alabama (or was it Mississippi?), there were only about 10,000 men left.  By contrast, when they headed north, there were 40,000.  Now not all of them fell in the battles- a fair number thought about it on the way back, and decided that they didn't want to play anymore, and thus headed for home, wherever that was. 

In the end, the entire Confederate Army of Tennessee was disbanded- proof of what a great job Thomas did on it.  The Confederacy just decided to leave things there as they were, and see if they could use bits and pieces of the Army elsewhere.

Bruce Catton, who you might have noticed I think kinda highly of as a historian, wrote a great conclusion to his chapter on Hood's final campaign.  In it, he wrote that Thomas has gone down in history as "The Rock of Chickamauga"- the general who could never be driven out of a defensive position, but who wasn't much on the offense.  And Catton notes that it's a description that might be accurate.  However, he also points out that there were only two occasions in the entire War where a major Confederate army was attacked in a prepared position, and driven out in defeat, utterly routed.  Both times, the Union general who launched the decisive blow... was George Thomas.

So perhaps you begin to understand why I think of Thomas as arguably America's finest army commander. 

For more info, find a biography of Thomas, read Catton's "This Hallowed Ground", or find any books on the Battle of Nashville. 

(And by the way, the other time that Thomas drove a Rebel army out of their position was at the Battle of Chattanooga, in 1863.)

Hopefully I'll have the chance to blog more tonight, but it doesn't look good.  Sorry.