The Great Conspiracy, Volume 7

As to the Military situation, a few words are, at this time, necessary: Hood had now marched Northward, with some 50, 000 men, toward Nashville, Tenn., while Sherman, leaving Thomas and some 35, 000 men behind, to thwart him, had abandoned his base, and was marching Southward from Atlanta, through Georgia, toward the Sea. On the 30th of November, 1864, General Schofield, in command of the 4th and 23rd Corps of Thomas's Army, decided to make a stand against Hood's Army, at Franklin, in the angle of the Harpeth river, in order to give time for the Union supply-trains to cross the river.