Nashville
Various Public and Private Battle of Nashville Sites
- Battle Sites: Shy's Hill (Compton Hill); Granbury's Lunette; Kelley's Point.
- Headquarters: Belmont Mansion; Belle Meade Plantation; Travellers Rest Plantation.
- Fortifications: U.S. Fort Negley; U.S. Blockhouse Casino; Tennessee State Capitol; Confederate Redoubt No. 1.
- Hospital Sites: Metro Planning Department Building; Downtown Presbyterian Church; Sunnyside Mansion.
- Cemeteries: Confederate Circle at Mt. Olivet Cemetery; Nashville City Cemetery; Nashville National Cemetery.
- Monument: Battle of Nashville Peace Monument.
- Headquarters: Belmont Mansion; Belle Meade Plantation; Travellers Rest Plantation.
Information about the Battle of Nashville Driving Tour is available from either of two sources:
The Battle of Nashville Preservation Society and Civl War Roundtable, Inc. 615-780-3636. Website: www.bonps.org
The Metropolitan Historical Commission, 209 10th Ave., Suite 414, Nashville, TN, 37203. 615-862-7970. Website: www.nashville.org/hc
The Battle of Nashville Driving Tour includes the main points of the Union defenses of Nashville and the Confederate lines of battle. Brochures are available at the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Historical Commission, Monday-Friday, and the Nashville Visitors Center, daily. There is no charge.
Shy's Hill (Compton Hill): Benton Smith Road off Harding Place. Open daily. There is no charge. Parking space is minimal. Where Federal forces finally broke the Confederate left flank.Granbury's Lunette: Located off 190 Polk Avenue. Open daily. There is no charge. Held the extreme right of the Confederate line of battle.
Kelley's Point: Located in west Nashville off Charlotte Pike along the Cumberland River. Open daily. There is no charge. Position of Confederate artillery to effectively block Federal gunboats on the river for two weeks prior to the battle.
Belmont Mansion: 1900 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN, 37212. 615-460-5459. Open June-August., daily; September-May, Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is charged. Used as headquarters of Federal Generals David Stanley and, later, General Thomas J. Wood, during the battle.
Belle Meade Plantation: 5025 Harding Road, Nashville, TN, 37205. 615-356-0501. Open daily. Admission is charged. Used as headquarters of Confederate General James R. Chalmers during the battle.
Travellers Rest Plantation: 636 Farrell Parkway, Nashville, TN, 37220. 615-832-8197. Open Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is charged. Used as headquarters of Confederate General John Bell Hood during the battle.
U.S. Fort Negley: On hill south of downtown Nashville at the intersection of Interstate Highways 65 and 40. Open daily. There is no charge. Its artillery guns opened the battle on December 15, but the fort was never attacked during the battle.
U.S. Blockhouse Casino: Located on Eighth Avenue South. Closed to the public. Part of the Federal fortifications of Nashville.
Tennessee State Capitol: Located on Charlotte Avenue between 6th and 7th Avenue. Open daily. There is no charge. Transformed into Fort Andrew Johnson during the Federal occupation of Nashville.
Confederate Redoubt No. 1: A lot located in a residential section of Nashville, at 3423 Benham Road, off Woodmont Blvd., near Hillsboro Pike. Open dawn to dusk. There is no charge. Parking space is minimal. One of five redoubts (small forts) constructed by Confederate forces along their lines south of the city, it was located on the far left (west) of their main line.
Metro Planning Department Building: 724 Second Avenue South. Open daily. There is no charge. During the Federal occupation of the city, it was used as U.S. Army Hospital No. 2 (300 beds).
Downtown Presbyterian Church: 427 Church Street, at 5th Avenue. Open daily. There is no charge. During the Federal occupation of the city, it was used as U.S. Army Hospital No. 8 (206 beds).
Sunnyside Mansion: Located in Sevier Park on 12th Avenue South (Granny White Pike). Open daily. There is no charge. Used as a Federal hospital after the battle.
Confederate Circle at Mt. Olivet Cemetery: 1101 Lebanon Road, Nashville, TN. 615-255-4193. Open daily. There is no charge. After the Civil War, 1,500 Confederate soldier remains were moved here from area battlefields by the women of Nashville.
Nashville City Cemetery: 1001 Fourth Avenue South at Oak Street, Nashville, TN. 615-862-7970. Open daily. There is no charge. U.S. and Confederate dead were buried in separate areas here, with U.S. soldiers eventually moved to the Nashville National Cemetery and Confederates to Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Nashville National Cemetery: 1420 Gallatin Road South, Madison, TN. 615-736-2839. Open daily. There is no charge. Established as a U.S. Military cemetery on January 28, 1867, it holds more than 16,000 Civil War soldier graves.
Battle of Nashville Peace Monument: Granny White Pike, between Clifton Lane & Battlefield Drive, Nashville, TN. 615-532-1550. Open daily. There is no charge. The 1926 statue by Giuseppe Moretti, it was designed to memorialize both Federal and Confederate soldiers.
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on Nashville: TN038
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The Battle of Nashville: December 2-16, 1864
The Battle of Nashville was one of the final large-scale engagements of the Civil War. Fought on December 15-16, 1864, the Confederacy's last offensive action finished the Army of Tennessee as an effective fighting force.
The disaster at Franklin [II] did not deter Hood from carrying on toward Nashville. During the 33 months that Federal forces had occupied Nashville, they had turned the city into one of the most heavily fortified in the nation. In the forlorn hope that Thomas's army could be lured into a mistake, Hood spread his thin line of troops over hills to the south and west of Nashville. Thomas took his time moving against the ragged Rebel army. When he did, on december 15, he used two brigades of African-American infantry in a diversionary attack on the Confederate right flank. This pressure kept Hood's attention from the real threat on his left, against which Thomas sent more men than Hood had in his entire army.
On the afternoon of December 16, when a Union charge broke the Confederate line at Shy's Hill, the Army of Tennessee began to come apart. The breakthrough quickly turned into a rout with the remnants of Hood's army fleeing southward in an icy rain. Scattered Confederate units continued to fight gamely, allowing what remained of the army to escape across the Tennessee River. These rearguard actions were among the last armed engagements in Tennessee.
Far from being decisive, the Battle of Nashville was a foregone conclusion - a tragic aftermath to earlier debacles at Atlanta and Franklin. That Hood could even make this strike into the heart of Federal-controlled territory was a testament to the fighting caliber of the veteran Army of Tennessee. In his reckless hands, even these battle-hardened troops were used up and wasted. Not until the last Confederate stragglers crossed the state line did the struggle for Tennessee finally draw to a close.
(Text Adapted From: A Path Divided - Tennessee's Civil War Heritage Trail. The Tennessee Wars Commission pamphlet distributed to visitors of the Nashville Visitors Center, 2002.)