The Battle of Nashville, fought December 15 and 16, 1864, was one of the most complete Union victories of the Civil War. In two days, Union General George H. Thomas took a force of roughly 55,000 men and effectively destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, ending large-scale Confederate military resistance in the western theater. The Confederate army that entered the battle with approximately 30,000 troops left Tennessee with 15,000 to 18,000 men, most of them beaten and demoralized. Hood resigned his command five weeks later.
How Hood Got There
The Battle of Nashville was the final act of a catastrophic Confederate campaign. After losing Atlanta to Sherman in September 1864, Hood moved his Army of Tennessee north through Georgia and Alabama, hoping to cut Sherman’s supply lines and lure him away from Georgia. Sherman did not take the bait. Instead, he sent Thomas to Nashville to deal with Hood and marched east on his March to the Sea.
Hood crossed into Tennessee in November 1864 with roughly 39,000 troops. He had already squandered much of that force before reaching Nashville. At the Battle of Franklin on November 30, Hood ordered a frontal assault across an open field against entrenched Union positions. The Confederate army suffered over 6,000 casualties in five hours, including six generals killed and seven wounded. The assault was a military disaster. Hood then continued north to Nashville anyway, arriving on December 2 with the badly mauled remnants of his force.
The Situation Before the Battle
By early December 1864, Nashville was one of the most heavily fortified cities in America. Union forces had been building defensive works around the city since occupying it in February 1862. A seven-mile semicircular defensive line studded with forts protected the south and west approaches. Thomas had assembled roughly 55,000 troops: seasoned veterans of the Army of the Cumberland, the XXIII Corps, battle-hardened troops newly arrived from Missouri under General Andrew J. Smith, and eight regiments of United States Colored Troops.
Hood set up a four-mile defensive line on the southern outskirts of the city on December 2. His plan was to force Thomas into a costly attack while waiting for an opportunity to counterattack. The plan assumed he had enough men to make it costly. He did not.
Thomas waited for two weeks. Grant and Lincoln sent increasingly urgent telegrams demanding action. At one point, Grant had orders drafted to relieve Thomas of command and was on his way to Nashville to personally take over when word arrived that Thomas was finally moving. Thomas had been waiting out a brutal ice storm that had coated the hills with snow and frozen the ground.
On the evening of December 14, the weather broke enough to move.
Day One: December 15
Thomas’s plan was a giant wheeling maneuver: pin the Confederate right flank while the main force swung around and crushed the Confederate left. At 6 a.m. on December 15, General James Steedman led his diversionary assault against Confederate General Cheatham’s corps on the right. Steedman’s force included several United States Colored Troops regiments, and Confederate veterans fought with particular ferocity when they recognized Black soldiers in the assault. Steedman suffered heavy casualties but successfully kept Cheatham occupied.
On the Confederate left, the main Union force overwhelmed Hood’s five defensive redoubts, attacking with a force outnumbering defenders by approximately ten to one at key points. Stewart’s Confederate corps was driven back throughout the afternoon. By nightfall, Hood’s army had retreated two miles south and established a new, more compact line. The Confederate position was weaker than where it had started.
Day Two: December 16
Thomas renewed the attack on December 16 with the same pattern. Diversionary pressure on the right, main assault on the left. This time the Confederate right actually held: four Union brigades assaulting Peach Orchard Hill were repulsed.
It made no difference. On the Confederate left, Brigadier General John McArthur, acting on his own initiative without orders, sent three brigades charging directly at Compton’s Hill, where Colonel William Shy of the 20th Tennessee was defending with his regiment. The hill, now known as Shy’s Hill, was the weak point in the Confederate line. McArthur’s charge broke it.
When the Confederate left collapsed, the entire line unraveled. Hood ordered a retreat. What had been an orderly withdrawal became a rout. Union cavalry commander James Wilson led his horsemen in pursuit. The retreat continued for ten days through Franklin, Columbia, and Pulaski, south through Tennessee.
The Outcome
Over the two days of fighting, Thomas’s Union forces suffered approximately 3,061 casualties. Confederate casualties were roughly 6,000, with nearly 8,000 Confederates captured according to American Battlefield Trust records. Hood’s army lost 53 pieces of artillery. In six months of campaigning beginning at Atlanta, the Army of Tennessee had lost nearly 75 percent of its fighting strength.
Hood crossed back into Alabama on December 25 and reached Tupelo, Mississippi, where he resigned his command on January 23, 1865. Less than four months later, Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
The Battlefield Today
Much of the Nashville battlefield is now covered by suburban development. The most significant surviving sites include Fort Negley at 1100 Fort Negley Boulevard, open to the public; Shy’s Hill, where the Confederate line broke on December 16; the Battle of Nashville Monument at the intersection of Granny White Pike and Clifton Lane; and the Nashville National Cemetery. The Battle of Nashville Preservation Society has been working for decades to identify and protect remaining battlefield land before it disappears entirely.
Sources
- Wikipedia: “Battle of Nashville” (en.wikipedia.org)
- Britannica: “Battle of Nashville” (britannica.com)
- American Battlefield Trust: “Battle of Nashville” (battlefields.org)
- American Battlefield Trust: “Battle of Nashville: Enemies Front and Rear” (battlefields.org)
- Tennessee Encyclopedia: “Nashville, Battle of” (tennesseeencyclopedia.net)
- American History Central: “Battle of Nashville” (americanhistorycentral.com)
- American History Central: “Franklin-Nashville Campaign” (americanhistorycentral.com)
- Nashville.gov: “Civil War Historical Markers” (nashville.gov)