3350 - The Confederacy's Last Offensive: Hood's Tennessee Campaign of 1864 (Charlie Richards)
Course Description
Instructor: Charlie Richards
In September of 1864, while the battered Confederate Army of Tennessee recuperated from the unsuccessful defense of Atlanta, President Jefferson Davis visited the army and met with its commander, General John B. Hood. The two men agreed that the Army of Tennessee could not stay immobile while Sherman rested his army within the defenses of Atlanta. So, the two men agreed upon an offensive action: Hood and the Army of Tennessee were to march north, cross the Chattahoochee west of Atlanta, and continue northward, threatening Sherman’s supply line. Hood and Davis believed that Sherman would be compelled to follow, and that Hood could then find favorable ground to fight a defensive battle, perhaps in the vicinity of Gadsden, Alabama.
At first, the movement was successful. Sherman did follow Hood’s army, but declined to engage in a pitched battle, waiting to see what Hood might do. At some point, Hood abandoned the original plan and developed a much more grandiose concept: he and his army would invade Tennessee, capture Nashville, and then march into Kentucky, “to the banks of the Ohio River.” What followed was a series of blunders and disasters, battles of unmatched intensity and bloodshed, decisive victory for the Union defenders of Tennessee, and the virtual destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
In this course we will examine the original plan, Hood’s early wandering through North Georgia and Northern Alabama, a costly detour to Decatur, Alabama, the eventual but very late movement into Tennessee, the Spring Hill Affair, the terrible Battle of Franklin, the Battle of Nashville, the retreat of the mortally wounded Army of Tennessee, and Hood’s inevitable removal from command.
Bio: Charles M. Richards – B.A. in English from Davidson College in 1970, J.D. from Emory Law School in 1975. Retired from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office in 2013 after 34 years of service in various capacities, first in civil litigation, and later as a prosecutor and Director of the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Study of Civil War history has been a lifelong interest of mine. Born in Decatur, and have lived in Atlanta all my life. Married to the former Peg McGinty, also a native Atlantan, for 55 years. Two children, and nine grandchildren.