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| Preface | 1 | |
| 1. | A Midsummer's Change | 5 |
| 2. | I Will Go On While I Can | 26 |
| 3. | Crazy Like a Fox | 46 |
| 4. | This Army Is Going to Do Something Wrong | 59 |
| 5. | If You Want It, Come and Take It | 71 |
| 6. | They Must Be Killed | 82 |
| 7. | To Conquer the Peace | 97 |
| 8. | Go On As You Propose | 109 |
| 9. | It Is Almost Worth Dying | 122 |
| 10. | The Best Move Come to Naught | 136 |
| 11. | Franklin, Tennessee | 156 |
| 12. | Seeing the Elephant | 168 |
| 13. | An Indescribable Fury | 182 |
| 14. | All Those Dead Heroes | 207 |
| 15. | Nashville, Tennessee | 221 |
| 16. | Like a Lot of Beasts | 236 |
| 17. | Didn't I Tell You We Could Lick 'Em? | 253 |
| 18. | A River of Fire | 266 |
| 19. | Black Care Was the Outrider | 276 |
| Bibliographical Note on Sources | 293 | |
| Index | 299 |
CrazyJack
Posted May 5, 2012
in a voice reminiscent of Shelby Foot and Shaara, Père et fils, Groom carries us along a terrible journey from Tennessee to Atlanta and back to Nashville. Groom's writing is free of excuses and overstatements, so often found in memoirs. I found it hard to put this book down. Since reading this history I have added all Groom's was books to my NOOK library.
Thinking of Groom as a novelist, I admit to being skeptical about accuracy before buying "Shrouds of Glory". Well, Foote was a creative writing teacher; it seems "creative writer" and "novelist" perfectly combine to make "readable history".
Sockettuem
Posted November 27, 2010
After being dragged through a host of previous battles, the reader is finally subjected to a revisionist reconstruction of the incompetent John Bell Hood. Hood, an ally of the equally incompetent Braxton Bragg, was responsible for the destruction of the once proud CS Army of Tennessee, squandering officers superior to him in ability and intellect and slaughtering brave veteran troops who deserved so much better than Hood could have possibly ever offered them. Do not waste your time (or your money) on this revisionist tripe.
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Posted May 16, 2001
Groom's exploration of Hood's march into Tennessee of 1864 is a fair, but not good, analysis of the last major offensive operation by the Confederate army in the western theater.
The reader is initially bogged-down in an excessive summary of prior battles of the Civil War. The author spends too much time reviewing Vicksburg, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville (where neither Sherman nor Hood were involved), etc., with more time spent in this background than is necessary to 'set the stage' for the main topic.
There also exists some editing failures such as at the beginning of Chapter 10, describing Stephen Lee's artillery being 4 miles to the east of Hood's pontoon bridge, where actually Hood's flanking force was itself east of Columbia with S. Lee's artillery facing the town.
Groom also spends a rather tiresome interlude describing Hood's quest for the hand of an indecisive flirt in Richmond (Buck Preston). The tangible effects of this courtship on, and its contribution to, the Nashville Campaign of 1864, I have yet to surmise. Groom in a number of places in the book pursues a literary style invoking 'flashbacks' to prior events while describing the current topic that, while adding color to a fictional novel, serves to confuse and needlessly distract a history reader's attention to detail.
The Nashville Campaign of 1864 is a story that needs telling, but would be better told by an experienced history author.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 20, 2000
At last a historical expansion on the personal letters written by my great grandfather, William Schadt, as a soldier in Hood's brigade.
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Posted October 23, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted April 30, 2012
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Overview
Shrouds of Glory is Winston Groom's riveting account of General John Bell Hood's decisive actions in the western theater of operations during the final moments of the Civil War. Taking us on a journey through the ravaged Confederacy to the once-vibrant city of Nashville — where General Hood makes a last, futile attempt to preserve the Confederacy — Shrouds of Glory brings the reader into the general's tent, where Grant, Sherman, Lee, and others plot their often unorthodox strategies for winning the war. Groom paints vivid portraits of Hood and his nemeses, revealing the character, faults, emotions, and most of all the doubts that molded the course of conflict.