The Battle

The Union Army had held Nashville since the 1862-3 battles of Fort Donelson and Stones River, but in late 1864, with Sherman marching to the sea in Georgia, the Confederates thought they would put pressure on Sherman to divert troops by redirecting the Army of the Tennessee to try and retake Tennessee. They had already lost the Battle of Spring Hill, a third battle at Murfreesboro, and the large scale battle at Battle of Franklin where multiple commanders were lost during the largest charge of the war, but they pushed forward toward Nashville with a battered force of thirty thousand men.

Confederate General John Bell Hood was headquartered at Traveler's Rest, six miles east of Nashville. On December 15, 1864, with the Union forces preparing for fourteen days with a plan to destroy Hood, General George Thomas's forces attacked the Confederate troops on the right, a diversionary attack planned by Thomas, with General Steedman's three regiments of the United States Colored Troops and one brigade of untested white soldiers. He held the position for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, Thomas sent forces to assault the Confederate left on Montgomery Hill with a giant wheel maneuver. Cavalry troops raced through Belle Meade plantation. Redoubt #1 was captured. The assaults were successful and darkness halted the battle.

General Hood and the Confederate Army were not, at this point, defeated. He positioned his defensive line two miles south at Shy's Hill and Overton Hill. During the morning of December 16, 1864, Union troops moved forward and constructed their own earthworks opposite Hood, some only two hundred and fifty yards apart. A charge by the Union up the Confederate's strong position on Overton Hill failed at first. The charge by the Israelites of General Smith however succeeded on Shy's Hill (Compton's Hill) and prompted a second assault at Overton Hill. The Union charges now did not fail, forcing Hood and the Confederate Army to skeedaddle, not stopping until they reached Tupelo, Mississippi. At the beginning of his Tennessee campaign, Hood counted 38,000 soldiers in his Army; after Nashville, it had been reduced to 15,000 to 19,000 men.

Photo above: Fort Negley during the Battle of Nashville, 1864, George Barnard. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

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Commanders at the Battle

General George H. Thomas - The commander of the Union Army at the Battle of Nashville was a veteran commander. He had served in the Mexican-American War and was a Southern Unionist from Virginia. Thomas would lead or be subordinate at various early Western Theater victories, Mill Springs, Perryville, and Stones River. However, one of his greatest achievements of the Civil War occurred at the Battle of Chickamauga in the fall of 1863. That was followed up at the Battle of Chattanooga and later through the battles of 1864 during Hood's invasion of Tennessee.

Confederate General John Bell Hood, Kentucky born, had been a student of Thomas at West Point. After his graduation, he was sent by the Federal Army to posts in California and Texas. When the Civil War broke out, he became a cavalry captain in the Confederate Army from Texas, 4th Texas Infantry Regiment. A number of notable accomplishments followed during the war, raising his profile and rank from captain to major to General. Hood was part of the attack on the Wheatfield and Round Tops that failed during the Battle of Gettysburg. He was considered impulsive, and lost many men due to his decisions. Hood, now back in the Army of Tennessee, had broken away from the siege of Atlanta in autumn 1864, which caused General Thomas to leave Sherman to March to the Sea without him. He followed Hood back to Tennessee through battles that led to the eventual demise of the Army of the Tennessee in the Battle of Nashville.

Image above: Commanding Union General George Thomas, 1855/1865, Mathew Brady. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons via Library of Congress. Below: Commanding Confederate General John Bell Hood, unknown date or author. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

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Battle of Nashville Sites to Visit

Traveler's Rest - Headquarters of the Confederate Army of Tennessee during the Battle of Nashville, this once over a thousand acre plantation, with eighty slaves, is now a museum with house tours, videos, and exhibits. The home was built in 1799, the oldest in Nashville.

Belle Meade Mansion and Historic Site - There is a 45 minute outdoor walking tour about the Civil War, price $32, that covers the thirty acres of the property and the skirmish held there on its front lawn. Other tours of the mansion as well on slavery and emancipation are also held there.

Fort Negley was a large masonry fort built in 1862–1863 by African-Americans under the direction of the Union. Guns commanded the fort, and are where the first shots in the battle raged. The ruins of the fort remain today, as well as a Visitor Center.

Belmont Mansion, Union headquarters, was the largest home in Nashville with thirty-six rooms, construction begun in 1850, prior to the Civil War. Originally known as Belle Monte, it has a variety of self-guided and guided tours on various topics, including the Battle of Nashville. The mansion and grounds covered one hundred and seventy-acres originally, and after the Civil War went through land development, and by 1890, two women, Miss Heron and Miss Hood, began a women's college called Belmont.

Shy's Hill, was the western flank of the Confederate Army on the night of December 15, and fought over, with Confederates surrounded, the next day in the afternoon by the division of Brigadier General John McArthur of the XVI Corps. It is now a park with flags, cannons, two monuments, and waysides on seven acres of land preserved about the Battle of Nashville of the eighteen acres of core battlefield land.

Battle of Nashville Peace Monument was originally constructed in 1927, thirty feet tall, and now reconstructed in Monument Park on battlefield land, Oscar Noel's farm, where Woods' IV Corps stormed on the first day of the battle. A witness tree still survives in the park.

Photo above: Traveller's Rest, headquarters of the Army of the Tennessee, 2013, Thomas R Machnitzki. Below: Memorial to the Battle atop Shy's Hill, 2012, JohnBruceAllyn. Both courtesy Wikipedia Commons C.C. 3.0..