available,troops thomason decided to use them. on both days of the battle, the united states colored troops make a diversionary tactic against the confederate right flank. the african-american infantry were serving in a division commanded by james stephen composed of two black regiments and one white regiment, and numbered approximately 7500 men. ,hrough no fault of the blacks as the fortunes of war dealt with them harshly, the diversionary tactic resulted in heavy casualties. the situation was even worse on december 16 when cork member -- corps commander john thi launchd an assault in hope of carrying the formidable rebel right flank. it was a blunder. affair thatnceived cost the new troops clearly. both white and black. exacted proximately one third of the total union casualties for the two days fighting at nashville. suffering the greatest loss of ct,regiment, the 13th u.s. a regiment raised in nashville, which lost approximately 40% of its men. once more, as so often in the civil war, glory hungry commanders and friendless str

one of the reasons that thomason delayed at nashville was to make sure his horsemen who played a major role in attacking the fortifications and forts were armed with spencer's and spencer rifles shot repeating type rifle. it was one heck of a weapon as they proved where the confederates were driven out of very strong redoubts by spencer armed troops, calvary. >> i think that sherman, whether right or wrong, so, says a -- saw tomas as a solid, stable, dependable commander but i do think that he did not have the confidence in him to lead the maneuvering aspects, the flanking that he did in james mcpherson. also, my reading of it is i think he may have had more confidence in schofield than tomas. so far as putting tomas in charge of defending nashville, he felt he had a very solid general. as you pointed out, if tomas had failed, the decision to take 6000 men and march to the seeing -- sea wouldn't look nearly as good as it did later. >> ok. >> i have a question about jefferson davis, hood's campaign. in his post-civil war writings, davis implies he did not approve hood's movedits -- -- t

thomason's father had worked down the road and his mother down another road, a sprawling plant started by marshall fields. and now the site of a weekly community as well. frequented by retirees, a photograph displays a stack of towels. it was no longer a part of this, as rain was in itself is in bedroom suits. and so with his determination he probably could've kept some of this is part of the company. i have interviewed scores of people who have said essentially the same thing. he knew all about this covert mission in the story he had been reared to run. but with any of them, would they open up to me about these ends? would he reveal what it feels like with this chip on his shoulder and wouldn't tell me the real story? and with the people who grew up being bold enough to spill the beans? you don't even realize what kind of spider web you have going, a man who worked for years under his mother-in-law and bob stillman. saying that this would seem like a 10-cent novel compared to a spider web. but lucky for you the scorpion is already dead. john comes from imposing family of multimilliona