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| Joined: | Tue Sep 6th, 2005 |
| Location: | West Virginia USA |
| Posts: | 51 |
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PC:
JEJ wasn't a pompous ass that might be the big difference.
Comparing the charge at Franklin to Pickett's charge
19,000 vs 12,500 men
4 miles over open ground vs. one mile
No artillery barrage to speak of vs. one-two hour barrage to soften up the enemy.
Lasted five hours after CS reached US lines vs over in 20 minutes.
Everyone gets choked up about Pickett's Charge but the AoT's efforts seem amazing to me. More of that eastern bias I like to point out.
By most accounts Johnston was a pretty arrogant guy...maybe not pompous. But then again, back in the nineteenth century, professional soldiers of high rank were quite image-conscience, and what we might consider today "uppity" acting.
The charge at Franklin was over a distance of slightly under 2 miles, not 4. And yes, there was no artillery support by Hood since most of his artillery had yet to arrive from Columbia by 4:00 pm, when the attack was launched. (Sunset was at 4:56 and Hood felt that he could not wait.)
The Army of Tennessee's effort at Franklin impressed Hood too. This quote by him in his memoirs appears neither in Sword's book nor McDonough and Connelly's...
"The attack (at Franklin), which entailed so great a sacrifice of life, had become a necessity as imperative as that which impelled Gen. Lee to order the assault at Gaines’ Mill, when our troops charged across an open space, a distance of one mile, under a most galling fire of musketry and artillery, against an enemy heavily entrenched. The heroes in that action fought not more gallantly than the soldiers of the Army of Tennessee upon the fields of Franklin."
Hood compared the soldiers of the AoT at Franklin to his own namesake Hood's Texas Brigade at perhaps their most famous battle--Gaines' Mill.