Battle of Nashville - Assault on the Barricade
During the retreat from Nashville, Colonel Edmund Rucker’s brigade attempted to block the Union pursuit by erecting a barricade of fence rails and logs across Granny White Pike, ½ mile south of this spot. During the ensuing night attack by Union cavalry, fierce hand-to-hand fighting took place until the position finally was overrun around midnight, with Rucker wounded and then captured.
Donated by Richland Country Club
Location: Granny White Pike
Number 126
Erected 2008
Battle of Nashville - Attack by U. S. Colored Troops on the Confederate Right Flank
After defeating the Confederate army at Franklin, Union troops under Gen. John Schofield returned to Nashville. Confederate troops under Gen. John Bell Hood followed, and spent 2 weeks preparing to assault the capital. The Confederate line was anchored by Granbury’s Lunette, an earthworks fortification with 4 artillery pieces and 344 men under the command of Gen. Benjamin Cheatham. Early on Dec. 15, 1864, three brigades under Maj. Gen. James Steedman attacked the lunette.
Two brigades were U.S. Colored troops under Cols. Thomas Morgan and Charles Thompson—the 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 44th and 100th regiments. These untested troops were sent to engage the Confederate right flank, preventing them from joining the main attack on the left flank the next day. This attack was largely unsuccessful, as the lunette was more fortified than expected. Some regiments were unable to reach the lunette. Those that did experienced heavy losses.
Location: 190 Polk Avenue
Number233
Erected 2021
Battle of Nashville - Confederate Final Stand, December 16, 1864
After the withdrawal from the main Confederate line at Peach Orchard Hill, Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee formed a battle line across Franklin Pike 400 yards east of here with 200 men from the remnants of Brig. Gen. Henry Clayton’s division and two cannons from the Eufaula Light Artillery. This last line of defense halted the Federal pursuit for the night as the Confederate army retreated through the hills to the southwest.
Location: 827 Tyne Blvd
Number 134
Erected 2008
Battle of Nashville - Confederate Line
Trenches about 20ft. N of this point, held by Loring’s Division, were the center of the Confederate main line before the Battle of Nashville. On Dec. 15, 1864, Redoubt Number1, a key artillery salient 200 yds. NW, fired on Federal forces until overrun by General Wood’s troops late in the day, when Confederates retreated toward Granny White Pike.
Location: 1808 Woodmont Blvd
Number 89
Erected 1992
Battle of Nashville - Federal Main Line
On Dec. 16, 1864, the Federal 16th Corps under Gen. A.J. Smith joined the 23rd Corps under Gen. John M. Schofield approx. 1000 ft. north of here. From that line at about 4:00 p.m. the 1st Brigade of Gen. John McArthur’s 1st Division launched the assault that broke the Confederate line at the salient on Shy’s Hill to the southeast which resulted in the rout of Hood’s Army.
Location:
Number 59
Erected 1975, 2019
Battle of Nashville - Peach Orchard Hill
On Dec., 16, 1864, Gen. S.D. Lee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee, held this right flank of Hood’s defense line which ran south along the crest of this ridge. Violent artillery fire and infantry attacks by the corps of Wood and Steedman failed to dislodge the defenders who withdrew only after the collapse of the Confederate left and center in late afternoon.
Location: Harding Place and Peach Orchard Dr
Number 37
Erected 1970
Battle of Nashville - Shy's Hill
On this hill was fought the decisive encounter of the Battle of Nashville December 16, 1864. At 4:15 p.m. a Federal assault at the angle on top of the hill broke the Confederate line. Col. W. M. Shy, 20th Tenn. Inf. was killed and Gen.T. B. Smith was captured. The Confederates retreated over the Overton Hills to the Franklin Pike.
Location: W side of Benton Smith Rd, S of Harding Pl at bottom of Shy’s Hill
Number 5
Erected 1968
Battle of Nashville - Stewart's Line
Loring’s division of Stewart’s Corps, Hood’s confederate Army of Tennessee, fought behind this stone wall Dec. 16, 1864. All Federal attacks were beaten back until the Confederate line was broken a mile to the west. The division retreated south through the hills toward Brentwood.
Location: E side of Lealand Lane south of Battery Ln at old Kirkman Ln
Number 6
Erected1968
Dry-Stack Stone Walls
Dry-stack stone walls, a Scots-Irish building tradition adapted by slaves in the early 19th century, were common throughout middle Tennessee. During the 1864 Battle of Nashville, Brigadier General Henry Jackson was captured at this wall on the Middle Franklin Turnpike after the Confederate line collapsed at Shy’s Hill.
Location: 4708 Granny White Pike
Number 132
Erected 2008
Fort Negley Site
The guns of Fort Negley, commanding three turnpikes to the South and Southeast, opened the Battle of Nashville, Dec. 15, 1864. this site was selected by Capt. J.S. Morton as the key strongpoint in the Federal line around the city. The European style fort named for General James S. Negley, was built of stone, logs, earth and railway iron.
Location: Chestnut St. and Ridley Ave
Number 55
Erected 1975
Surrender of Nashville - East Bank of the Cumberland
On Feb. 25, 1862, Nashville became the first Confederate state capital to fall to Federal forces. Two days prior, the 4th Ohio Vol. Cavalry arrived from Bowling Green, KY and set up pickets along the east bank of the river. Gen. D.C. Buell arrived by rail with about 9,000 men, and on Feb. 25, Gen. William Nelson and a flotilla carrying around 7,000 men arrived from the recent surrender at Fort Donelson. That afternoon, Mayor R.B. Cheatham surrendered the city to Gen. Buell.
Location: Cumberland Park Greenway
Number 158
Erected 2017
Surrender of Nashville - Charles Fuller Home
After Union successes to the north in TN and KY, Col. John Kennett, 4th Ohio Vol. Cavalry, ordered Cpt. H.C. Rodgers to Edgefield. They met with Nashville mayor R.B. Cheatham, Feb. 23, 1862, at the Edgefield home of banker Charles Fuller, to discuss terms of surrender. The city was conveyed to Union control on Feb. 25. Fuller became a U.S. Treasury agent at the end of the war prior to his death in 1868. The Fuller home was destroyed in the East Nashville Fire of 1916.
Location: 612 Woodland St, East Park
Number 157
Erected 2017