The Battle of Franklin pitted two flawed generals against each other: Union General John Schofield was too pompous; Confederate General John B. Hood, too stubborn.
But when they met on the battlefield, it was Hood’s flaws that came to the fore. Scott Longert, a former park ranger from James A. Garfield National Historic Site, explains how and why Hood and his “head of wood” ordered a charge more fatal than Pickett’s. He also tells how the Battle of Franklin spelled the end of the Army of Tennessee.
Our Civil War series continues at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at our Main Branch. We’ll discuss what Christmas was like in a Civil War camp. As always, the talk is free and open to all.
By the way, if you’re interested in Civil War history, several talks in our Civil War series can be viewed online in their entirety, including:
- Antietam: The Deadliest Day in US History
- The Atlanta Campaign
- Gettysburg
- Juneteenth
- The Fourteenth Amendment
- The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
- Life & Legacy of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
- Civil War Archaeology
- Cycloramas as Art, Entertainment & Memorial
- 60 Years of Service: The Life of Admiral David G. Farragut
- Bennett Place: The Final Surrender of the Confederacy
- Ulysses Grant the Election of 1868
- The History of the Medal of Honor
- Burying the Dead after a Civil War Battle
- James A. Garfield & the First Decoration Day
- Prelude to Fort Sumter: The Mexican-American War
- Ambrose Burnside: An Innovator in Firearms & Facial Hair
- Warriors to the White House – Civil War Generals that Became President
- General Winfield Scott Hancock
- the Civil War and the Grand Army of the Republic
- from Civil War to Civil Rights
- political cartooning during and after the Civil War
- the Civil War and USS Michigan