This is a day-by-day narrative of Hood's retreat from the battle of Nashville. It is deeply detailed and full of quotations from soldiers' narratives. The story is told from the perspectives both of the retreating Confederates and the pursuing Federals. The retreat was a long, tough slog through bitter cold, mud, ice, snow and rain for both, and the misery was shared by both sides, though the Federals were better provisioned as long as their wagon trains could keep up. It should be noted that the experience of this chase was more or less the same every day for the three or so weeks, and the day-by-day presentation gets repetitive and uncomfortable. A number of rear-guard actions provide variety, and showcase the skills of Nathan Bedford Forrest, demonstrating how essential his cavalry's performance was to extracting the Confederate forces from Tennessee without capture.

This somewhat tedious treatment provided the level of detail I wanted to know, so I was pleased with it. For the average reader, I think it would fall into the category of "too much information." ( )

Excellent work on Hood's retreat from Nashville. Well researched with excellent bioagraphical information on all the major players. Although not created as a tour guide it would be useful in using the book as a reference tour guide of each of the skirmishes of the campaign. The book is a reference guide that I will use in the future. ( )