Decisions of the Tullahoma Campaign
The Twenty-Two Critical Decisions That Defined the Operation
The Tullahoma Campaign took place in Middle Tennessee, setting Union General William S. Rosecrans’s Army of the Cumberland against Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Rosecrans’s objective was to force the Confederate Army to vacate Middle Tennessee and put pressure on Chattanooga. Through a series of maneuvers, rather than battles, he achieved his goal; however, Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg would overshadow his success.
Decisions of the Tullahoma Campaign introduces readers to critical decisions made by Confederate and Union commanders throughout that eventful summer of 1863. Rather than offering a history of the Tullahoma Campaign, Michael R. Bradley hones in on a sequence of critical decisions confronting commanders on both sides of the clash to provide a blueprint of the campaign at its tactical core. Identifying and exploring the critical decisions in this way allows students of the campaign to progress from a rudimentary sense of the what of warfare, to a mature grasp of why.
Complete with maps and a driving tour, Decisions of the Tullahoma Campaign is an indispensable primer, and readers looking for a concise introduction to the Tullahoma Campaign can tour this sacred ground—or read about it at their leisure—with key insights into the campaign and a deeper understanding of the Civil War itself.
Decisions of the Tullahoma Campaign is the eighth in a series of books that will explore the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War.
MICHAEL R. BRADLEY earned a PhD in History from Vanderbilt University. He taught US History at Motlow College in Tullahoma for thirty-six years. He is the author of several works on the Civil War including Tullahoma: The 1863 Campaign for Control of Middle Tennessee,The Escort and Staff of Nathan Bedford Forrest, and David Campbell Kelley: Forrest’s Fighting Preacher.