"After Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's forces ravaged Atlanta in 1864, Ulysses S. Grant urged him to complete the primary mission Grant had given him: to destroy the Confederate Army in Georgia. Attempting to draw the Union army north, General John Bell Hood's Confederate forces focused their attacks on Sherman's supply line, the railroad from Chattanooga, and then moved across north Alabama and into Tennessee. As Sherman initially followed Hood's men to protect the railroad, Hood hoped to lure the Union forces out of the lower South and, perhaps more important, to recapture the long-occupied city of Nashville." "Within the pages of Nashville, McDonough's subjects, both common soldiers and officers, present their unforgettable stories in their own words. Unlike most earlier studies of the battle of Nashville, McDonough's account examines the contributions of black Union regiments and gives a detailed account of the battle itself as well as its place in the overall military campaign. Filled with new information from important primary sources and fresh insights, Nashville will become the definitive treatment of a crucial battleground of the Civil War."-- From the book jacket.

Making Georgia howl -- My face is towards Tennessee -- A run of luck in our favor -- General Hood has betrayed us -- Fortress on the Cumberland -- "Siege" at Nashville, folly at Murfreesboro -- A perfect slaughter pen -- Situation perilous in the extreme -- The final gamble -- They came only to die -- The United States flag is on the hill -- It is all over now.