Reviewed by: Border Wars: The Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky ed. by Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, W. Calvin Dickinson Elle Harvell Border Wars: The Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky. Ed. Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, and W. Calvin Dickinson. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-60635-241-0, 320pp., cloth, $39.95. Border Wars: The Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky is a recently published collection of thirteen essays edited and compiled by historians Kent T. Dollar, [End Page 81] Larry H. Whiteaker, and W. Calvin Dickinson. This work is divided into two parts; the first examines battles, skirmishes, and soldiers and the second, military leaders. Border Wars supplements the 2009 essay collection Sister States, Enemy States, which examines the political, social, and economic aspects of the war in Kentucky and Tennessee. However, Border Wars does much more than augment its predecessor: the contributors argue for wider recognition of the importance of these states to the broader war by reevaluating recent scholarship regarding battles and leaders and revealing the complexity of the relations between combatants. For the essayists in part 1 of Border Wars, the prevalence and significance of battles across Kentucky and Tennessee indicate the importance of these states to the broader conflict. In “Franklin: The Thunder Drum of War,” one of the most memorable essays in this collection, historian Wiley Sword argues that the Battle of Franklin deserves to be recognized as “one of the war’s most terrible, if fascinating, events” because of its futility and impact on Confederate morale (130). Franklin remains in the shadows of history despite its status as, according to Sword, “one of the most stunning defeats ever endured by a Southern army,” mostly due to the loss of sixty-five commanders, including six generals (140). Sword’s intriguing essay moves the reader to contemplate the meaning behind the carnage at Franklin and to wonder why this battle has received so little attention. The essays of Border Wars also highlight the importance of military figures in Kentucky and Tennessee by reassessing their reputations. While many scholars have viewed the military leaders in this region—such as Felix Zollicoffer, Don Carlos Buell, and Braxton Bragg—as poor military strategists, historians Brian D. McKnight, Stephen D. Engle, and Earl J. Hess praise these men for their skill in dealing with the major hurdles placed in front of them. McKnight recasts Confederate general Felix Zollicoffer as a very capable military strategist who succeeded on the battlefield but ultimately failed due to “the unique nature of Appalachia’s terrain” and the unpredictable seasonal weather of the region (166). Kentucky and Tennessee deserve recognition and a place of importance in Civil War history not only for the strategic importance of these states but also for the complex nature of the conflict. Several authors of this volume suggest multiple conflicts—aside from that between the Confederacy and the Union—were fought within the greater Civil War. Derek W. Frisby in “Our Friends, the Enemy” and Christopher Losson in “Mutual Antagonists” most [End Page 82] successfully convey this complexity and multiplicity. Both essays assess the troubled relations between combatants. Frisby describes the hostility that existed between Union officials and local unionists in Western Tennessee. He suggests this conflict was due to misunderstandings caused by a pervasive “silence” among unionists, making them hard to identify, and a preexisting “prejudice” among Federal officials regarding the regions’ southern proclivities (115, 125). Conflict also plagued the upper ranks of the Confederate army. Losson exposes the “mutual antipathy” between Confederate general Braxton Bragg and his subordinate Benjamin Franklin Cheatham and argues that it significantly “hampered the efficiency and cohesion of the Army of Tennessee” (234). Border Wars is part of a new initiative asserting the importance of Kentucky and Tennessee to the broader Civil War. As many of the contributors mention, neither state has received the scholarly attention it deserves; yet because of their strategic importance, crucial battles, and prominent generals, both merit an in-depth examination. In his concluding essay, “Revisiting the Heartland from War to Reconstruction,” historian Benjamin Franklin Cooling recognizes the importance of this region when he states that affairs in the Mississippi...