Wednesday, January 8, 2020

A pair of upcoming western theater unit studies from MUP

While checking on the current status of Stephen Davis's John Bell Hood biography Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta (according to the publisher's website, it's now available), I noticed that publisher Mercer University Press also has two interesting-sounding Army of Tennessee unit histories in their release queue.

In a rare nod to the western long arm, Garry Fisher and Zack Waters's The Damnedest Set of Fellows: A History of Georgia's Cherokee Artillery (Feb 2020) "tells the story of one of the finest artillery batteries in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Fighting in almost every major battle in the war's Western Theater, their first baptism of fire occurred at Tazewell, in East Tennessee. Later, they battled at Champion Hill in the Vicksburg Campaign, at Missionary Ridge and Tunnel Hill near Chattanooga, and throughout the Atlanta Campaign. Later, they fought upon the snowy fields of Nashville, and finally at Salisbury, North Carolina, where they manned their guns despite having no infantry support."

The following month, the press will release W. Clifford Roberts and Frank Clark's regimental study Atlanta's Fighting Forty-Second: Joseph Johnston's "Old Guard" (March 2020). The men of the 42nd Georgia "were major participants at Cumberland Gap, Champion's Hill, Vicksburg, Resaca, Atlanta, Nashville, and Bentonville. These Georgians proved to be capable fighters and were, on four occasions, assigned to cover the retreat of the Army of Tennessee. The furious charge of the Forty-Second Georgia that carried the Federal trenches near the Troup Hurt House was a pivotal moment in the Battle of Atlanta. Their capture of a Federal battery is depicted in the recently restored Atlanta Cyclorama painting."

4 comments:

  1. Drew, Happy New Year. Good to see a regimental on a Western Confederate Army of Tennessee Artillery Battery. Can't think of many such "modern studies". Will be interesting to go deeper into an individual batteries experiences beyond Cannoneers in Gray. Curt T

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same to you, Curt! I didn't do an actual search, but I was trying to think of the most recent serious AoT battery study and none came immediately to mind.

      Delete
  2. I can only think of Nat Hughes' "The Pride of the Washington Artillery" (Slocomb's 5th Battery) from 1997

    Phil Osborne

    ReplyDelete
  3. Drew: There aren't many serious, modern battery studies period - A of the T, A of the P, A of the C, A of NV, ......

    ReplyDelete

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