John R. Lundberg's compelling new military history chronicles the evolution of Granbury's Texas Brigade, perhaps the most distinguished combat unit in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Named for its commanding officer, Brigadier General Hiram B. Granbury, the brigade fought tenaciously in the western theater even after Confederate defeat seemed certain. Granbury's Texas Brigade explores the motivations behind the unit's decision to continue to fight, even as it faced demoralizing defeats and Confederate collapse. Using a vast array of letters, diaries, and regimental documents, Lundberg offers provocative insight into the minds of the unit's men and commanders. The caliber of that leadership, he concludes, led to the group's overall high morale. Lundberg asserts that although mass desertion rocked Granbury's Brigade early in the war, that desertion did not necessarily indicate a lack of commitment to the Confederacy but merely a desire to fight the enemy closer to home. Those who remained in the ranks became the core of Granbury's Brigade and fought until the final surrender. Morale declined only after Union bullets cut down much of the unit's officer corps at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. After the war, Lundberg shows, men from the unit did not abandon the ideals of the Confederacy -- they simply continued their devotion in different ways. Granbury's Texas Brigade presents military history at its best, revealing a microcosm of the Confederate war effort and aiding our understanding of the reasons men felt compelled to fight in America's greatest tragedy.

Granbury's Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)

History

Lundberg, John R.

Americas

LSU Press

The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast, 1822–1895 (Prairie View A&M University Series)

Texas A&M University Press

The Finishing Stroke: Texans in the 1864 Tennessee Campaign (Military History of Texas, 1)

McWhiney Foundation Pr

The annals of Texan bravery hold few better examples of bold determination and sheer audacity under impossible circumstances than the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864. On this one afternoon, a few thousand sons of the Lone Star State stood shoulder to shoulder and stepped off neatly in line of battle, their bands playing while Hardee Pattern blue battle flags filled out in a crisp autumn breeze. Within a few minutes, hundreds would be dead and dying, as would their beloved leaders, Hiram Granbury and Pat Cleburne. Virginians have Pickett's Charge as an example of unflinching nerve; for Texans, the field at Franklin became an immortal monument to courage in the face of long odds. The opening volley of the eagerly anticipated Military History of Texas Series is The Finishing Stroke. The book chronicles the actions of Texas troops in the Army of Tennessee from September 1, 1864, the Fall of Atlanta; until January 1, 1865, when the last of the Army of Tennessee recrossed the Tennessee River following the defeat at Nashville. It follows them through the lull following the end of the Atlanta Campaign, the advance into Tennessee, and the battles of Allatoona Pass, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, as well as the retreat from Nashville. The Finishing Stroke covers an area largely ignored in works on the American Civil War. In the literature of Texas history, Texans serving in the Army of Tennessee have lived in the shadows of Hood's Brigade in Robert E. Lee's army. Among histories of the Western Theater, the 1864 Tennessee Campaign is often given short shrift because of the generally held premise that following the loss of Atlanta in September the Confederacy was doomed. This study moves the battles and sacrifices of this band of Texas heroes from the periphery of the Civil War to center stage. The Finishing Stroke shows Texas warriors at their best, from Sul Ross's Texas Brigade at the head of Forrest's cavalry to Matt Ector's Texans cracking open the Federal position at Allatoona Pass. In all of these fights, men from west of the Sabine and south of the Red served in the post of honor. Now these Texans and their accomplishments, too long ignored in the realm of Civil War history, have been given their due.

The Finishing Stroke: Texans in the 1864 Tennessee Campaign (Volume 1) (Military History of Texas Series)

State House Press

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Books by Lundberg, John R.