by Jeffrey Schaffer

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 27, 2009

On November 30, 1864, General John B. Hood faced a critical decision which would hasten the end of the Civil War. He had invaded Tennessee after the loss of Atlanta in order to force General Sherman to leave Georgia and fight him further north. In order to do this, he needed to inflict severe damage on the Union Army occupying Tennessee. The Union Army was in the overall command of General George Thomas, headquartered in Nashville. He had concentrated troops from all over the state to oppose Hood's invasion; he would have nearly 25,000 in

Nashville itself and another 20,000 under General Schofield in Colombia to the south of Nashville. Hood's army numbered just over 40,000 and his plan was to attack and destroy General Schofield's command before he had a chance to unite with General Thomas.

After forcing Schofield to leave Colombia, Hood nearly trapped and destroyed Schofield's army at Spring Hill. Schofield was saved, however, through a combination of hard marching of his troops and fatal indecision of the Confederate corps and division commanders. The Union Army found itself in deep trouble when it reached Franklin because the bridges crossing the Harpeth River had been burned and the river was high and too deep to cross. This meant his army was trapped by the banks of the river until the bridges could be repaired. Schofield had his men dig defensive breastworks around the city; if General Hood were to assault him here and break through his defensive line, he would have nowhere to retreat to and would be compelled to surrender his command.

General Hood understood this as well when he surveyed the scene on November 30th. One of his three corps had not yet arrived at the field and most of his artillery was not up yet. If he attacked now, it would very well be a bloody fight; yet if he won he could crush Schofield's army and arrive at Nashville resupplied and with a larger force. If he delayed, then Schofield might very well slip away and he would have to fight Thomas with equal numbers of troops behind even greater defensive works.

Hood knew it was a desperate gamble, but this was the only chance he would get. At four p.m., with the sun setting in the west, General Hood ordered two corps under Generals Chethem and Stewart to assault the Union breastworks. Advancing over open ground without artillery support, the outer divisions of Bate, Loring and Walthall came under intense fire and suffered heavy casualties. In the center, Union General George Wagner had positioned

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