Autumn of Glory - (Jules and Frances Landry Award) by Thomas Lawrence Connelly (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award and the Jefferson Davis Award
A companion volume to Army of the Heartland

Near the end of 1862 the Army of Tennessee began a long and frustrating struggle against overwhelming obstacles and ultimate defeat. Federal strength was growing, and after the Confederate surrender at Vicksburg, the total Union effort became concentrated against the Army of Tennessee. In the face of these external military problems, the army was also plagued with internal conflict, continuing command discord, and political intrigue.

In Autumn of Glory, the final volume of Thomas Lawrence Connelly's definitive history of one of the Confederacy's two major military forces, Connelly analyzes the factors underlying the army's failure during the last two years of the Civil War.

The army's military operations--including such major battles and campaigns as Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, Jonesboro, and Bentonville--are viewed in perspective with its growing internal problems and the personality peculiarities of its commanders.

In late 1863 a well-organized movement within the army against General Bragg failed. After his departure, a semblance of the anti-Bragg organization still remained, and subsequently the army's leadership became embroiled in national Confederate politics. Connelly traces these growing problems of command discord and political intrigue and examines their disastrous effects upon the army's political fortunes.

Connelly's first volume, Army of the Heartland, explores the military significance of the "heartland" of the Confederacy and covers the army's operations from 1861 to late 1862. With the completion of these two volumes, the author has narrowed the historiographical gap between Lee's Army of Virginia and the Confederacy's "other army."

Review Quotes

A well-researched, well-written account of the disastrous end of the Army of Tennessee.-- "New York Times Book Review"

Thomas Connelly follows the Army of Tennessee from the renewed offensive of General Braxton Bragg, which began near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in late 1862, to the lingering days of retreat and defeat in North Carolina in 1865. With meticulous research and careful interpretation, he traces this army's actions as it dramatically defends but loses mile after mile in battle after dreary battle in the 'heartland' of the South--thus sealing the Confederacy's doom. . . . This book is destined to join the library of Civil War military classics. . . . It may be equaled by historians writing about the Civil War in the West, but it will not be surpassed.-- "American Historical Review"

With this work, Connelly takes a place in the forward ranks of Civil War historians, North and South. His grasp is sure, his prose superb. . . . [The book] has an abundance of fresh viewpoints, reveals an intimacy not only with the records and books but also with the terrain of the battlefields and campaigns, and shows a clear insight into the characters of important generals.-- "Florida Historical Quarterly"

About the Author

Thomas Lawrence Connelly, professor of history at the University of South Carolina for many years, was the author or coauthor of numerous books on the Civil War, including Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1862; The Politics of Command: Factions and Ideas in Confederate Strategy; The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society; and God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause and the Southern Mind.