Prelude
(Topical anchors will be added at a later date)
Hood's Middle Tennessee Campaign - The Opening Moves
Hard marches and occasional hard fighting in late September and throughout October had failed to draw Sherman out of Atlanta or achieve any gains of substance. October 31st found Hood's army at the Tennessee River crossing at Tuscumbia, Alabama. Here heavy rains and a dismal supply situation had further delayed him for three long weeks.
Hood intended to interpose his 38,000 man army between the 30,000 men of Schofield's Union 4th and 23rd Army Corps located around Pulaski, tennessee, and the roughly 30,000 man garrison of Nashville. Hood was confident that he could defeat the two Federal forces in detail, resulting in the capture of the massive Northern supply depot at Nashville. With dual victories to bolster his reputation, and with his army re-armed and equipped at Union expense, Hood could then continue the offensive into Kentucky and Ohio. Hood surmised that such an incursion into Federal territory would result in a Northern panic, diverting resources from the siege of Petersburg in Virginia and prompting a recall of Sherman's forces from Georgia.
Hood's initial series of flanking maneuvers forces Schofield to retreat from Pulaski to the Duck River crossings at Columbia, Tennessee. Hood determined to flank his army around Schofield's left (eastern) flank and seize the turnpike in Schofield's rear at Spring Hill. Forrest's cavalry first crossed the Duck River ten miles upstream at Huey's Mill on November 28th. In a series of brilliant feints and fights, Forrest drove the Union cavalry towards Nashville and away from Schofield, removing the Yankee horsemen from the scene. Having accomplished this, Forrest turned for Spring Hill. Leaving one corps and the bulk of the artillery on the south bank of the Duck River to hold Schofield at Columbia, Hood's remaining two corps marched east to cross the Duck River at Davis Ford, three miles east of town. Hood succeeded in slipping around Schofield's flank.
Although Hood had a lead in the "Spring Hill Races," Schofield had not been completely deceived. Receiving early morning reports that Hood's infantry was crossing the Duck River, Schofield had begun to withdraw to Franklin by sending his 800 wagons and most of his artillery up the Columbia-Nashville Turnpike with a guard of Brigadier General George Wagner's division.
About 11:30 a.m., Forrest's cavalry approached Spring Hill from the east. Two miles east of town, Forrest's videttes bumped into Schofield's advance skirmishers.
(Text Adapted From: "Twilight Of An Army" - Guide to the Spring Hill, Tennessee Battlefield pamphlet distributed to visitors of the Travellers Rest Plantation and Museum; Carter House; Carnton Plantation; and Rippavilla Plantation.)