Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent study of the Army of Tenessee, March 17, 2004
This book is not for beginners. You definitely need to have a working knowledge of the battles that the Army of Tennessee was engaged in.The focus is on the political and ego wranglings between Bragg (later Johnston and Hood) and his staff, and then the wranglings with Richmond and key political figures. In other words, you don't get a lot of such and such regiment moved here and such and such regiment moved there. It is more a critique of the leadership decisions. There are some battle details, but you're best off having a good understanding before you undertake this book. The treatment is very fair to Bragg, I felt overly so, but Connely does back up his opinions. He comes down on Johnston and Hood for lack of a clear plan. This is not a book about the overall war in the west. Just as the title says, it's specifically about the AOT. You hardly ever hear about Vicksburg, Mobile, Iuka, etc. other than to note troop concentrations and shufflings. In short, an excellent read for the more advanced civil war student. I'll confess I probably read this and Army of the Heartland a little prematurely and much of the information went over my head. I will re-read once I feel up to par with the high quality level of information.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Connelly Covers it all: The Army and Political Intrigue, October 26, 2002
Connelly was one of the best western Civil War historians and the expert on the Army of Tennesse. This Army with so much promise in the heady days of Perryville and near success at Stone's River experiences a costly but hard won victory at Chickamaugua only to have the master of personal conflict General Bragg throw the lost opportunity away by having volitile arguments with his Generals. Bragg was a very good organizer but had conflicts with his leadership that caused a cabal to build asking for his ouster. Connelly captured all the conflicts that finally require Davis to hold a council with all the generals. Amazing that Davis asked all the leaders of the army to express their feelings about Bragg with him present and then keep Bragg on causing a rupture of command. Several generals are reasigned, Longstreet and Bragg don't get along causing a serious coordination loss while the seige of Chattanoga is in process. As a result Longstreet and 1/3 of the army is sent to east Tennesse while Grant's swollen forces wash away the Army of Tennesse and taking Bragg's command away. Connelly not only covers the poor condition of the confederate soldiers, great detail on the campaigns but also the political manuevering. Joe Johnston replaces Bragg but in turn he is undermineed by Hood's letters to Davis. The cautious Johnson is replaced by Hood outside of Atlanta resulting in frontal assaults that weaken the army severely losing Atlanta in the process. Hood tries to lure Sherman on a wild goose chase which Sherman gives up but then Hood oddly leaves Sherman in Georgia while he marches back to Tennesssee. As Connelly vividly writes, after a lost opportunity at Spring Hill, Hood retaliates against his command by ordering the destructive frointal assualts at Franklin. Connelly covers the weak attempt to capture Nashville, the army's virtual destruction and the story of the sad remnants moving to North Carolina in a valiant but pathetic attempt to stop Sherman. The all star command is made up of many of the lost generals of the Confederacy, Johnson, McLaws and even Bragg. Connelly gives you the full monty, the story of the Army and politics within. What would have been had Davis not been so hung up on Bragg and if Hardee had stepped forward to command.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book on AOT, April 12, 2002
In the sequel to Connelly's superb "Army of the Heartland", "Autumn of Glory" follows the Confederacy's largest Western army from 1862-1865. The work picks up after the Kentucky Campaign and deals with some of the more dramatic moments of the war in the West-Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, The Atlanta Campaign, the 1864 Tennessee Campaign, and the surrender in North Carolina. Connelly's real gift is weaving the story of battles, conflict between army leaders, the political aspects of the war, and the story of the common soldier. He weaves everything together in a highly readable, entertaining book. I feel this book is superior to "Army of the Heartland" and the chapters on the Atlanta Campaign are truly great. This book, along with the previous volume, is the resource on the Army of Tennessee to this day and will most likely remain that way for a long time to come. It is no wonder that Civil War Times Magazine named this book on of the top 100 books on the Civil War.
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