Battle of Nashville - Nashville, Tennessee
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 36° 08.692 W 086° 46.497
16S E 520246 N 4000040
Marker giving history of the Civil War Battle of Nashville. Located at Fort Negley.
Waymark Code: WMGCX0
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2013
Views: 5
Text of marker:
On December 2, 1864, Confederate commander John Bell Hood led his wounded Army of Tennessee to the outskirts of Nashville. Though suffering heavy losses at Franklin on November 30th, he was determined to capture the Union garrison under the command of Major General George H Thomas. Hood spent almost two weeks fortifying his position south of the city through a series of redoubts along the Hillsboro Pike. He extended his line east in a semicircular arc, ending just west of Murfreesboro Pike. Amid bitter cold temperatures and freezing rain, the Confederates waited for a Union attack.
December 15, 1864 Finally, on December 15th after a break in the weather, Thomas assailed Hood's right flank at Gransbury's Lunette. Though the Federal troops were repulsed, the main Union assault came along the far left Confederate flank in the early afternoon against the series of Confederate fortifications, called redoubts, along the Hillsboro Pike. Federal cavalry under the command of Major General James H. Wilson and two Union infantry corps successfully captured the redoubts and forced Hood's army to retreat to positions two miles south. Artillery fire from Fort Negley supported the attack.
December 16, 1864 On the afternoon of the 16th, the Union army again assaulted both Confederate flanks, the right at Peach Orchard Hill above the Franklin Pike and on the left at Compton's Hill, known today as Shy's Hill. a regiment of United States Colored Troops was repeatedly beaten back by Confederate Major General Stephen D. Lee's Corp on the Confederate right. The U.S.C.T. Thirteenth Tennessee infantry suffered 221 casualties out of 576 men. On the Confederate left, Union Brigadier General John McArthur captured Compton's Hill late in the day, turning the Confederate left flank and sending the army, save Lee's position at Peach Orchard Hill, in retreat. By sundown, the Army of Tennessee had abandoned the field. The Confederates suffered 4,400 casualties, the Union 3,000. Nashville was one of the most complete and decisive Union victories of the war. Fort Negley was never direly attacked during the two-day battle.