What a pleasure to stumble across your site today.

As a student of the Battle of Franklin for over twenty years it’s now my privilege to live but 15 miles away from the Carter House. I take my wife and children there often. They are amazed and fascinated with the Carter House, and why shouldn’t they be!

My little four year old is very impressed and says, “it’s so sad”. and it is.
She talks about General Adams, with his horse on the works, often. I say, “let’s go see where all the hero’s were,” and she knows that we are on our way to Franklin.

Franklin is a stunning place. Haunting, devestating. It’s a fantastic thing that folks in Franklin are now taking pains to recover the battlefield. The new cannonball pyramid monument for Pat Cleburne is so fitting and especially a victory of history and culture over consumerism and short-sightedness.

Thank you for your excellent site, and keep up the good work!

Best Regards,
Daniel
A Former Yank – Happily now a Nashvillian

PS. It’s also a real treat to see you and your historian/writer colleagues in open debate and discussion. Bravo.

Drew

I’m glad you made it to Franklin. It’s a great town. It’s sort of ironic that Franklin destroyed their battlefield, but has worked hard to save their historic “town” buildings. Murfreesboro is just the opposite. We’ve destroyed many of our historic buildings, but saved part of the battlefield early on. (Now they’re working on destroying that too!)

When you make it to Murfreesboro, don’t forget to look into the sites of Forrest’s July 13, 1862 raid. If you can find it, Kenneth Hafendorfer’s “The Distant Storm” is by far the best writing on the subject that I’ve come across. He says he has new info and plans to release an updated version of the book at some point. I can’t wait because I can’t afford the $200 current copies are going for! 🙂

Darrin

Sorry to hear you are not impressed with my book. Perhaps you might want to elaborate on what you think the shortcomings are. The response to the book simply has been phenomenal so I am interested in your perspective, especially as a fellow author. Even Thomas Cartwright at the Carter House believes the book is among the most balanced and authoritative books on the battle.

Eric A. Jacobson

If I can’t count on selling at least 2000 copies of a title in the first 24 months, I can’t consider publishing it.

I doubt that there would be this type of market for these books, interesting as they might be.

Eric

It’s unlikely Lumir Buresh’s Mine Creek book could be improved upon much, but Westport would be incredible. Who to write it? Good question. I’d like to see what Sinisi comes up with in his study of the entire raidl

I agree on Franklin. I’ve been reading the Jacobson book, and I’m not especially impressed. For one thing, it’s desperately lacking in maps.

As for Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, I readily admit that I know absolutely nothing about them. My issue is this: there are plenty of good topics out there, but we are in business to make money, and I can’t even consider a title without knowing that there will be a market for it and that there are ready outlets. As I know nothing at about these battles, I can’t comment on sales outlets or interest. What’s out there?

Honestly, I’d be more inclined to do something like Westport of Mine Creek, as I know there’s interest and there are sales outlets available.

Eric

I think that series is perfect for small to medium sized battles. A great fit would Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, with the added bonus of being the first book length history. Curtis Milbourn would be a good choice as author.

Drew