This book was originally entitled "Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah." I'm not sure what an angry wind is supposed to be, but "Hurrah" is something a Union soldier would have shouted. A Confederate soldier would probably have shouted, "Wooo-hooo-weeee" or something to that effect.

Sword is apparently a tireless researcher and very skilled at weaving the primary sources into a gripping narrative. Therefore I can go no lower than two stars. I can go no higher than two, however, because of his book-long ad hominem rant against Hood.

I'm OK with the old stock opinions about Hood being past his level as an army commander, or Mary Chesnut's tales of his unlucky love affair with Buck Preston, or his secret correspondence with Richmond. Sword goes well beyond this by saying that Hood was "a fool with a license to kill his own men." Is there anything comparable to that in the Civil War literature said about a Union general, or even another Southern one for that matter?

Promotion of the generals in the Civil War was not any different than promotions are today in the military, government, business, and the rest of the world. You will find that in Grant's and Lee's armies there were many generals passed over because of some conflict with those of higher rank. The men they touted for promotions were not always the best to fill a leadership position. Some may have been very brave soldiers but not a leader. Through out the war there were some wrong men giving the orders, orders misunderstood, changed, not carried out, and the wrong order given. Maybe some battles could have been changed and had fewer casualties, but not the outcome of the war. Franklin was the most tragic battle of our Civil War. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

In The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, Wiley Sword covers political intrigue, strategy and tactics, and the view from the trenches equally well. My great-great grandfather fought at Franklin and Nashville, and through Sword's work, I was able to observe, from the safety of my living room, the agony, terror, carnage, and unbelievable courage of the men on both sides. He has thoroughly researched Hood's campaign through Tennessee, yet manages not to lose the reader in details. Maps are clear and easy to follow. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone wanting a better understanding of the war's final days in the West.

I am a young civil war enthusist and have never really studied the end of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee. This book opens the door into one of the saddest few months of any army during the Civil War. Very in depth and throughly reserched. Spends ample time on the decisive Battle of Franklin and incorprates not only the eyewitness accounts from officers, but the privates in the thick of the fight. Recommened for any Civil War enthusist.

Some people who have read this book with a jaundiced eye have criticized Sword for his accurate protrayal of John Bell Hood. Davis like the present president had favorites to whom he remained faithful despite their obvious shortcommings. As Sword points out Hood was a great general as a field commander but even before his physical injuries he was not suited to command an independent army. As radical Confederate Louis Wigfall commented, "Davis has attempted to do what God couldn't; male John Hood a general." If someone wants to understand the imprortance of the West and the disaster made by Hood, this book is required reading. It is not recommended for hero worshipers.

Outstanding account of battles during Hoods "invasion" of Tennessee in late 1864. The narrative is first rate. The descriptions of the principal characters both blue and gray were extremly interesting and given due credit.
The descriptions of the tremendous blood-letting of Hood's decision to ram the Army of Tennessee up against prepared breastworks at Franklin are chilling. The destruction of a proud army was guaranteed even without their eventual defeat by Gen. George Thomas at Nashville two weeks later. The author describes thoroughly the pre-lude to Franklin as Hood lets a vast chunk of the Union Army slip through his grasp at Spring Hill. This lost opportunity sets the stage for the Army of Tennessee's destruction days later at Franklin with fruitless head on attacks. A fast and detailed read.
Living in Tennessee, I was able to walk some of the ground described in the book and picture what it might have been. The author has done a very good job of providing geographical details and descriptions. The Last Hurrah of a Lost Cause

Whoever considers Davis, Bragg, and Hood inept and ego-driven will be supported by this book. Hood's step by step movements leading to Franklin, (and their consequences) are well researched. The challenges facing the Union defenders of Nashville are presented better than I have ever seen elsewhere.

After the Civil War fiasco, Jefferson Davis encouraged the South to "bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations," but the South will never surrender. He declared that the past is dead. His first wife was Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of U. S. President Zachary Taylor. Davis was a congressman, senator, secretary of war, and President of the Confederacy. His horse's name was Thunder.

In 1858, Horace Greely called Jefferson Davis "unquestionably the foremost man in the South today" and a great president. He was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. "His occasional unintentional arrogance came
from his sense of great commanding power.

One of his generals during the war, declared the best by Robert E. Lee, was besmirked in 2005 by two college professors thusly:

This book was written in association with Texas Christian University for the American Crisis Series, Books on Civil War Era. Previously, I reviewed ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR by John C. Waugh. This one, however, is what the title says all 'myth' written by two journalism professors at the University of
Tennessee. I guess they were assigned this personage, the greatest Civil War General, according to Robert E. Lee, because they work in Tennessee. Neither are from the state of Tennessee and know nothing, no facts about this great soldier of the Civil War.

They know nothing about history per se, so I am just wondering why the history department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville would not have been a better selection to write about one of our native heroes. These frauds call their subject 'white trash' because the klan wore white sheets in his reincarnation of the group(now they wear purple, green and white outfits) used to protect everybody from the carpet baggers after the Civil War. These men are not from Tennessee, and should never have been chosen to write this book.

It is biased and slanted and exactly a 'myth' a fairy tale of the worse sort. Forrest was from a good background and family (father was a locksmith/doctor)and born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, in Bedford County. These men thought he was born in Memphis as they dwell on something which happened which was
infamous instead of famous. Those of us at the public meeting where they talked had not heard of that specific incident, and we are native Tennesseans. His life was not a 'morality tale,' as they claim, nor was he a comic book figure. He was a real live hero, not something made up in the comics. They even equate
him with Forrest Gump, how dumb can a person be? They are blasphamous in their assertions that he was less than they.

Anyone can get a PhD and still not be competent. I have three PhDs in my family, and they have no common sense. Neither do these writers. Don't believe anything you read in this book. It is all made up, that's what journalism is these days, manufactured lies. These teachers are in the journalism department at U-T, not the history area, so they never should have taken on this endeavor.

They make N. B. Forrest out to be a dumb, silly "white trash" from Tennessee when they know better. It is just to sully his reputation as a great general.

They don't know how to present facts or truth. They did not research this book adequately, so just read it as fiction.

Jefferson Davis was born into a patriotic American family at Fairview, Kentucky. He would have drawn his sword if he could have been around to read thisgarbage about one of his best generals and a great American in his own
right.

Great book! Good account of Hood's 1864 Tennessee campaign....Easy to read and follow along with the events of the time. Plenty of details without bogging down with an overload of needless info.

I live in Franklin, Tennessee and have been interested in the Civil War since I was a child. I grew up in south Nashville and spent many fun days playing on Shy's Hill. We routinely found mini-balls and other artifacts. The Confederacy's Last Hurrah is the first book which I have read about the battles in this area. I found it very interesting and entertaining. I thought the author did an excellent job of humanizing the story by introducing the primary participants as more than just soldiers in the conflict. After Shelby Foote talked about his respect for General Pat Cleburne in the Ken Burns Civil War series, I was particularly interested in his story.
My only criticism would be the lack of clarity in describing the layout and tactics of the battles. I noticed that others have criticized the lack of or inadequacies of the maps shown. Even with my lifelong knowledge of the areas of the battles and skirmishes, it was still difficult to follow what was happening. Perhaps the author has inadvertently introduced me to the fog of war.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Civil War and believe it is especially intriguing to those of us who know the area of these battles well.

The stoically unashamed Wiley Sword describes Confederate General John Bell Hood's postwar autobiography as full of "...distortions, misrepresentations and outright falsifications", a much more accurate description of his own book than of Hood's. Unfortunately, Sword's prose is so eloquent and his cunning fact-filtering so skillful that his historical distortions currently define Hood's reputation.

Sword's fluent, emotional and expressive style is so convincing that his readers ignore his flagrant bias, and apparently disregard the multitude of factual errors in his book. Reading the other amazon.com reviews on "The Confederacy's Last Hurrah" is a bewildering exercise, as Sword-worshippers willingly imbibe his documented errors and concealment of substantive historical records. If the prose is pretty, who cares about accuracy?

I initially read Sword's book in 1999, and after reading recent reviews and finding online sources of comprehensive information on Hood, I read it again in January 2005 with a more wary eye. Not only did I recognize the recently exposed errors and omissions, I found new ones. For example, on page 425, when seizing a superlative by declaring the defeat of Hood's army as the most overwhelming "in American military history", Sword manipulates casualty figures by including Confederate casualties from Sept. 7, 1864, when the Tennessee Campaign did not commence until Nov. 13. Furthermore, Sword understates the strength of Hood's army after the retreat from Nashville by an astonishing 4,000 troops!

Dozens of errors of fact and omission have been chronicled in "The Confederacy's Last Hurrah", and no doubt many more await revelation.

Several years ago Sword admitted to crucial errors in his book "Shiloh:Bloody April". It is time for him to attempt to regain his twice-lost credibility and either publish a revised edition of "The Confederacy's Last Hurrah" that corrects the factual errors and reveals all pertinent historical information, or reclassify his book as historical fiction.