Embrace An Angry Wind (1 Viewer)

[7th OVI]

In the fall of 1864 two desperate armies, pursuing and pursued, met outside of a small town in Tennessee within a bend of the Harpeth River. It was Wednesday, November 30th 1864, it was a bright, sun drenched day and unseasonably warm for the late fall in Tennessee. For six hours starting at four o’clock in the afternoon, these two armies would be locked in some of the most desperate fighting of the War of the Rebellion. Two Confederate Corps, under General Cheatham and Stewart, would assault relentlessly astride the Columbia Pike funneled toward a gap in the Federal entrenchments. Near this gap was the Carter farm marked by a family garden, red brick smokehouse, office and cotton gin as well as the Carter home. To bands playing “Dixie” and the “Bonnie Blue Flag”, the Confederates advanced 2 miles, smashed through outlying Federal brigades and struck the line at the gap created by the Columbia and over whelmed the Ohio regiments defending the main line of entrenchments. As Confederates from Cleburne’s and Brown’s Divisions streamed up the Pike and poured over the works, an officer in the 50th Ohio noticed the regimental flags falling back to the smokehouse and shouted to his men “Boys, we have to get out of here.”

 

[7th OVI]

The 50th Ohio abandoned the parapet and made a mad dash for the retrenchment or barricade near the smokehouse, office and garden as the Confederates poured fire into the retreating Federals as the sun started to set.

 

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The Confederates from Cleburne’s Division led by Granbury’s Texas brigade would continue to pour through the gap driven by Granbury’s final words “Forward men; never let it be said that Texans lag in the fight.”

 

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Confederates from Brown’s Division would flow over the entrenchments led by Gordon’s Tennessee brigade whose officers continued to push their troops with “Forward men!”.

 

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The retrenchment or barricade was defended by the men of the 44th Missouri in their first fight.

 

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The Missouri and rallied Ohio troops poured a heavy fire into the Confederates who were paying a heavy price for every yard but the wave still kept coming

 

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Flags would go down just to be picked up again and moved forward towards the garden office and smokehouse

 

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The Texans and Tennessee troops also poured a heavy fire at the retrenchment line making the air almost alive. One Confederate officer said “a hand thrown out might have been caught full of these mad messengers of death…”

 

[lancer]

Fantastic work. The Battle of Franklin is vastly under-appreciated. Glad to see it represented and I love to see the Hardee pattern flags that Cleburne's division carried. -- Al

 

[7th OVI]

The few rallied Federals at the smokehouse and office began to comprehend their dire situation as they watched the relentless assault continue by men that seemed almost possessed. The Confederates were more of a wild yelling frenzied mob at this point than organized units

 

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They also noticed the leading elements of the next wave of Brown’s Division when the red flags from Gist’s Brigade appeared and began coming over the works

 

[7th OVI]

It was nearly dark and the Confederates had punched a 200 yard hole in the center of the 1,600 yard Federal line of entrenchments. Worse was that Cleburne’s and Brown’s men were pouring through this hole. These were 2 of the finest Divisions in the Confederate Amy. A Federal officer returning with ammunition for the defenders wrote “It looked as though our line had been crushed at the center and nothing could save the little army from destruction.”

To save the little pursued army, the Federals needed their own frenzied mob of possessed men or demons. Or maybe a mob of tigers would work… to be continued

 

[lancer]

Like the detail of the headlogs on the Union entrenchments. -- Al

 

[Terp152]

Wonderful displays. Been waiting for your next dios. One of the very few western theater presentations. Well done! Chris

 

[mestell]

A western battle . . . . . very cool ^&cool and about time. Thoroughly enjoyed your photo series and willanxiously be waiting to see what follows . . . . . Well done . . . .
:smile2: Mike

 

[wwiibuff]

Great photos and setups. I really enjoyed this. Thanks for posting.

 

[cruelios]

Just amazing, one of the best dioramas and stories i ever saw. Love the way you make the setup. Also super clear pictures.

 

[thrawn]

An absolutely fantastic display!
Josh

 

[Warrior]

Very well done all around. The set ups were great, the story line is well laid out, nice close ups and wide angle shots, enjoy seeing a lot of figures in dioramas, also appreciate all flags specific to that battle. You have a very nice collection, that is for sure.

Look forward to the rest of the story, love the large dioramas; go big or go home................

 

[7th OVI]

Thanks everyone for the positive notes, it is always a little intimidating posting on this forum with all of the great dioramas. This is especially true regarding the American Civil War. I thought that the Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia have been very well covered by a number of posters and thought it was time to do something out West for a change. I picked Franklin because of the 150th anniversary this fall and the story always been special to me. The flags are from John Sanheim and they do set the diorama up well and tells the viewer that this the Army of Tennessee. I built the office and smokehouse based on information that I received from Eric Jacobson From the Franklin Foundation who took time out of his busy day to give me some very good direction and sources. They will take center stage in the next installment. All of the figures are W.Britains with a few ONTC mixed in for good measure. I had to wait for the new fence sets to have figures climbing over the entrenchments. I apologize for the low lighting in the images as it needed to reflect the light at the time of the attack. The next set of images will be slightly darker to mimic sunset. I also love large dioramas; go big or go home… Here are some shots of the blocking for the next part coming out around August or September, still debating on making the Carter house as the timeline will interfere with another prominent structure around the Columbia Pike… Again, thanks everyone. Chris