jickyjack1 said:
Rabid Cougar said:
More General officers were killed in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee than any other battle in the Civil War.
The "Siege of Petersburg" lasted 1/4 of the entirety of the Civil War - 292 days.
The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery sustained the highest casualty rate of any regiment in the Civil War...
632 killed and wounded out of 850 present in 10 minutes time on an assault at Petersburg on June 18th, 1864
(My good friend Jimmy Blankenship relates the story) 1st Maine Heavy Artillery
I believe there were six, if memory serves. One of them was one of the South's biggest losses of the war, Pat Cleburn(e)? There was almost one more general killed, as N.B. Forrest threatened to kill Braxton Bragg after it was over. Had Bragg been sent on an all-expenses-paid four year tour of the world just before the War began, it would have represented one of the South's most telling victories.
That is correct. Seven more were wounded and one was captured, all during frontal assaults on Yankee earthworks. BUT it was Hood that ordered the assaults. Braxton Bragg was no were near Franklin.
55 regimental commanders were either killed or wounded.
"in the last two hours of the day . . . the combat was waged with a maniacal desperation witnessed on no other field of the war." Stanley Horn,
The Army of Tennessee These assaults killed 4 times the number of men than Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
Patrick Cleburne, John Carter, John Adams, Hiram Granbury, States Rights Gist, and Otho Strahl. Supposedly all 6 were lined up on the porch of Carnton Plantation. In reality there were on three of them (Cleburne, Granbury, and Strahl) on the porch. Granbury's chief of staff and Strahls' aid were the other two officers on the porch.
"The annals of war may long be searched for a parallel to the desperate valor of the charge of the Army of Tennessee at Franklin, a charge which has been called "the greatest drama in American history." Perhaps its only rival for macabre distinction would be
Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. A comparison of the two may be of interest. Pickett's total loss at Gettysburg was 1,354; at Franklin the Army of Tennessee lost over 6,000 dead and wounded. Pickett's charge was made after a volcanic artillery preparation of two hours had battered the defending line. Hood's army charged without any preparation. Pickett's charge was across an open space of perhaps a mile. The advance at Franklin was for two miles in the open, in full view of the enemy's works, and exposed to their fire. The defenders at Gettysburg were protected only by a stone wall. Schofield's men at Franklin had carefully constructed works, with trench and parapet. Pickett's charge was totally repulsed. The charge of Brown and Cleburne penetrated deep into the breastworks, to part of which they clung until the enemy retired. Pickett, once repelled, retired from the field. The Army of Tennessee renewed their charge, time after time. Pickett survived his charge unscathed. Cleburne was killed, and eleven other general officers were killed, wounded or captured. "Pickett's charge at Gettysburg" has come to be a synonym for unflinching courage in the raw. The slaughter-pen at Franklin even more deserves the gory honor.
Stanley Horn,
The Army of Tennessee
