Shrouds of Glory by Winston Groom

Author:Winston Groom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 1995-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

11

Franklin, Tennessee

And so the Army of Tennessee followed behind Schofield, angry, sullen, and frustrated. Private Bill Pollard, of the 20th Tennessee, felt “desperate” and was hoping “the enemy would run upon us so that I could fight to the death-spent.” In stark contrast to the army’s mood, it was a pleasant autumn morning, the final day of November 1864. The pike wound through lovely pastoral valleys glowing with the last reds, yellows, and browns of dying foliage. On the hillsides sat white farmhouses with a few grazing cattle and sheep and fields of corn and wheat, and streams shimmered in the sunlight.

Stewart’s corps, with the enraged Hood at its head, led the way, followed by Cheatham and by Lee, who was struggling to catch up from Columbia. Captain Joseph Boyce, near the front of the column, remembered that citizens, “nearly all old people or boys too young for military service, and any number of enthusiastic young ladies, lined the fences, cheering [them] and crying out: ‘push on, boys; you will capture all of the Yanks soon. They have just passed here on the dead run.’” This might have heartened the men somewhat, but in the high command there was rancor and unease and hard feelings.

Hood gave stern instructions that morning: “If there is but a company in advance, and if it overtakes the entire Yankee army, order the captain to attack it forthwith.” Back down the column, Pat Cleburne, wearing a new gray uniform and his favorite old cap with faded gold braid, was riding apart in the fields with General Brown, who had already endured a personal dressing down from Hood that morning. In a letter to Cheatham after the war, Brown remembered the Irishman telling him “with much feeling” that he had heard Hood was trying to put the blame on Cleburne for the Spring Hill business. Brown replied that he had “heard nothing on that subject” and said that he hoped that Cleburne was mistaken. But Cleburne told him, “No, I think not; my information comes through a very reliable channel.” Cleburne, Brown remembered, was “quite angry and evidently was deeply hurt” and stated that he would demand a full investigation. At this point a courier from either Hood or Cheatham arrived with orders, ending the discussion. On parting, Cleburne told Brown, “We will resume this conversation at the first convenient moment.”

The enigma of the Confederate failure at Spring Hill was to remain in deep and seething controversy long after the war. At the time, Hood blamed his generals, specifically Cheatham, Cleburne, Bate, and Brown, as well as the soldiers themselves for what he believed was an aversion to attack breastworks. The generals, in turn—as well as many of the men—blamed Hood; after all, he was in command. Schofield himself, many years later, summed up his fortunate escape this way: “Hood was in bed all night and I was in the saddle all night.”

In the end, there was enough blame to be shouldered all around. Cleburne seems

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