Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations on the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 4-5, 1864 [Paperback]

Wootens study includes the best and most detailed account of the battle of Johnsonville, when Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led his cavalry through western Tennessee on a 23-day raid. On November 45, 1864, Forrests troopers attacked the Federal supply depot at Johnsonville, Tennessee, destroying tons of invaluable supplies. The complex land-water operation nearly wiped out the supply depot, severely disrupted Gen. George Thomass army in Nashville, and impeded his operations against John Bell Hoods Confederate army.As the first full-length study on Johnsonville, Wooten unearthed a wealth of new material that sheds light on the creation and strategic role of the Union supply depot, the use of railroads and logistics, and its defense by U.S. Colored Troops. His study covers the emergence of a civilian town around the depot, and the role this played in making possible the Union victories with which we are all familiar.Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations on the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 45, 1864 is a fresh and original contribution to the wars historiography.Johnsonville unearths a wealth of new material that sheds light on the creation and strategic role of the Union supply depot, the use of railroads and logistics, and its defense by U.S. Colored Troops. This is a well written, thoroughly researched, amply illustrated, and engaging story. An original and seminal work of simply outstanding and detailed scholarship... Wooten's study offers a rather comprehensive examination of the historical legacies of persons and events related to Civil War Johnsonville. In addition to being a fine battle history, the book should be regarded as a major contribution to the ongoing study of what it took to keep Civil War armies supplied in the field. With several recent studies paying closer attention to logistical superiority as a key component of Union victory, Johnsonville's content and analysis should form a very useful part of thatlsW