Thomas Lawrence Connelly (February 14, 1938 – January 18, 1991) was an American historian and author who specialized in the Civil War era.
Growing up in the Nashville area gave him a love of country music and spurred his desire to write more about the war in Tennessee.
"Scores of personal experiences," he wrote later, "a handful of tales related by an old man, and a shoe box of bullet fragments—such is one family's heritage in the Army of Tennessee.
Complete with illustrations by Campbell Grant, the book offered a humorous take on Civil War culture and Confederate heritage groups.
Friend and historian Emory M. Thomas eulogized Connelly as “brilliant,”[7] a man who “loved the South,” and was someone who “came closer to the truth about Lee than anyone else ever has.” The director of Louisiana State University Press called him a “brilliantly iconoclastic scholar whose work has had, and, will continue to have, a major influence on the study of the history of the South.” He is survived by his son Patrick and his daughters Heather and Alison.