Promotional Information

This text won both the Fletcher Pratt award and the Jefferson Davis award.

About the Author

Thomas L. Connelly, professor of history at the University of South Carolina for many years, was the author or coauthor of numerous books on the Civil War, including The Politics of Command: Factions and Ideas in the Confederate Strategy (LSU Press, 1982, 1998), The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society (Knopf, 1977; LSU Press, 1978), and God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause and the Southern Mind (LSU Press, 1982, 1995).

Reviews

A well-researched, well-written account of the disastrous end of the Army of Tennessee.-- "New York Times Book Review"

Thomas Connelly follows the Army of Tennessee from the renewed offensive of General Braxton Bragg, which began near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in late 1862, to the lingering days of retreat and defeat in North Carolina in 1865. With meticulous research and careful interpretation, he traces this army's actions as it dramatically defends but loses mile after mile in battle after dreary battle in the 'heartland' of the South--thus sealing the Confederacy's doom. . . . This book is destined to join the library of Civil War military classics. . . . It may be equaled by historians writing about the Civil War in the West, but it will not be surpassed.-- "American Historical Review"

With this work, Connelly takes a place in the forward ranks of Civil War historians, North and South. His grasp is sure, his prose superb. . . . [The book] has an abundance of fresh viewpoints, reveals an intimacy not only with the records and books but also with the terrain of the battlefields and campaigns, and shows a clear insight into the characters of important generals.-- "Florida Historical Quarterly"