Tennessee Hero Confederate Brigadier General John Adams

Confederate brigadier general John Adams refused to leave his men despite his own critical injuries and died at the Battle of Franklin. Until recently, his service was rarely acknowledged. During his remarkable military career, he traversed the country from Tennessee to New York, Mexico to Maryland and then to California. Adams trained and rode alongside some of the most celebrated commanders of the Confederate army, but his greatest feat remains his unwavering devotion to his men and the Confederate cause in his home state of Tennessee. Bryan W. Lane follows Adams's rise in the military ranks until his inevitable fall at one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

John Adams is best remembered as one of the four Confederate generals who lay on the porch of the Carnton House, dead, when the Battle of Franklin ended on December 1, 1864. Unfortunately he did not leave much in the way of personal papers, and this biography has been pieced together from Army records and other sources, including accounts of his contemporaries. Adams's career in the U.S. Army gives us a good look at the military, the concept of Manifest Destiny, and the relations with those conquered by the Army, the Indians. This book also considers one of the more debated topics in Civil War history: why did a man who served the United States for most of his life resign his commission and side with the Confederacy?

Confederate Brigadier General John Adams died at the Battle of Franklin leading a desperate, doomed assault. Recognized as a hero by his peers, he is largely forgotten today. In his life he rode with Kit Carson, roomed with his friend George Pickett, and graduated with Stonewall Jackson. His actions at the Battle of Franklin have been described as "the grandest performance of the war." He was born in Tennessee, graduated from West Point, served first the United States as a dragoon, and then joined the Confederate States in the War of the Rebellion. He traveled from Tennessee to New York, from Mexico to Minnesota and Maryland to California before coming home to the south to serve and die in Dixie, within yards of the most familiar road of his life.

Confederate brigadier general John Adams refused to leave his men despite his own critical injuries and died at the Battle of Franklin. Until recently, his service was rarely acknowledged. During his remarkable military career, he traversed the country from Tennessee to New York, Mexico to Maryland and then to California. Adams trained and rode alongside some of the most celebrated commanders of the Confederate army, but his greatest feat remains his unwavering devotion to his men and the Confederate cause in his home state of Tennessee. Bryan W. Lane follows Adams's rise in the military ranks until his inevitable fall at one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk was a distinguished West Point graduate, the first Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, a university founder, and a Confederate commander beloved by his troops, esteemed by the public, and killed on the field of battle. In spite of his many accomplishments, historians invariably disparage Polk's generalship and even his personal character--but is their treatment fair or accurate? This work employs a balanced perspective to shed new light on Polk's military leadership and reveal unexpected truths that explain his conflict with General Braxton Bragg. A seemingly insignificant piece of correspondence, along with an exploration of both men's writings, coalesce into an understanding of the root cause of the command dysfunction and chronic failures of the Army of Tennessee.