Chasing Battlefields: Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesboro

This was as close as I could get to the Confederate Private Memorial.  All of Nashville's Centennial Park was undergoing a massive renovation.  But the fence and netting and bulldozed ground made the weariness of the soldier depicted seem relevant today.  It is getting more difficult to preserve the past.

Last Monday was supposed to be sunny but it didn’t turn out that way.  For no apparent reason, I’ve decided to start visiting or re-visiting as many Civil War battlefields as possible over the course of the rest of my life.  I’m in no rush.  I see a long trip to Gettysburg in the somewhat distant future.  I’ll visit Vicksburg sometime between now and then.  There are many other places to visit, many other trips semi-planned in my mind.

Though I have visited a great many battlefields in my life, Chickamauga several times, Petersburg, Shiloh twice (so far) and Fort Sumter among them, I have never been to Gettysburg or Vicksburg.  In the spirit of discovering military history for the first time, I decided to start my chase of all these scattered battlefields with places that were new to me.

Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesboro form a perfect “triangle” of battlefields.  The later has a National Park and Cemetery and was one of the bloodiest battles of the War Between the States, as I prefer to call the conflict. The former two battles were disastrous for the Confederacy and came late in 1864, effectively sealing the South’s fate.  The 1864 Tennessee Campaign proved that the South was no longer militarily relevant.

I started my drive by 6:30 AM.  Being a Monday, I wanted to get north of the Chattanooga morning rush hour traffic.  A McDonald’s off I-24 just northwest of the city had blazing fast internet.  I ate a bacon and egg biscuit with coffee and a Dasani.  I fooled around on my iPad for a bit then hit the interstate highway again, headed north.

It was foggier than I had hoped and actually seemed to be getting worse the further north I drove.  Only at the peak of the mountains that you drive through before reaching Monteagle did I finally rise above the thickening mist.  I was hoping that the sunlight would soon burn away the fog into which I descended again.    

I made good time up I-24 and enjoyed some classical music on the stereo.  The closer I got to Murfreesboro, the more I thought about Nashville.  Originally, I wasn’t going to drive that far north.  It would add at least another hour and a half to the total trip and there really isn’t very much actual battle ground left to see there.  I could easily stop there on a future trip to battlefields beyond that city.  But the fog persisted and I decided to include Nashville, if nothing else so the sun would have time to improve the viewing conditions.

The Battle of Nashville was the last great absurdity of General John Bell Hood’s bold but ill-conceived 1864 invasion of Tennessee.  Hood managed to completely destroy his own army.  Generals George Thomas and John Schofield did their part in making that happen.  The main absurdity here was that Hood with about 22,000 effective troops was laying “siege” to Thomas’ gathered forces of almost 60,000 entrenched soldiers.  

It violates a basic military maxim for such a small force to attempt to besiege a city defended by almost three times their numbers.  But, starving them out was not what Hood had in mind.  He fortified his positions near Nashville and waited, wanting to be attacked.  He felt that he could repel the Federal assault against his entrenchments.  But he didn’t have enough troops to effectively cover his left flank.  So he chose to reinforce that area with five heavily fortified redoubts.  These artillery positions were designed to catch the Yankees in a crossfire zone and rip them to shreds as they advanced.  But that’s not what happened.   

On December 15, 1864, General Thomas’ reinforced Army of the Cumberland attacked Hood’s Army of Tennessee.  The Confederates had positioned themselves upon high ground where possible.  Thomas opened up on the Rebel right flank, his repeated attacks were easily repulsed, but while they drew Confederate attention that way the Northerners gathered a larger force over on the other side of the battlefield.

Late in the day the Federal troops attacked the five redoubts and quickly captured three of them.  Moreover, Schofield’s corps-sized attachment to Thomas completely flanked Hood’s left and was soon threatening to attack from the rear.  The Confederate left and center shattered leaving the right flank to withdraw in order and protect the routed army.

Amazingly and to his credit, Hood managed to piece his bedraggled army back together a few miles further south.  Thomas attacked with 55,000 on December 16 and soon swept the Rebels from the field in a lopsided Northern victory.  The war in the western theater was effectively over.

The only actual ground that still exists from the Battle of Nashville is the position of Redoubt No. 1, which initially held against the attack but was obviously forced to be abandoned when the entire Confederate line collapsed.  All the artillery pieces were captured, as were many of the men defending that position.

A view of Redoubt No. 1 on my visit.  This is probably one of the smallest parcels of protected battlefield property in the country.  It stands in a densely developed residential area within the roar of traffic from I-440.

The map on this signage at the site clearly shows the concentrated Federal attack upon the five Confederate redoubts and also how Schofield's Corps completely outflanked the Rebel position, leading to the disintegration of Hood's left flank.

The term “sacred ground” seems strange in today’s world.  But, for those with a sense of the past, battlefield ground means touching the fabric of human bravery through time.  So, while memorials are wonderful and important to mark where something happened long after the ground has been paved over or developed, standing on the actual ground where a battle occurred is a different, much deeper, emotional experience.  You are literally standing on a place where time has stopped in deference to a moment of intense struggle.

So, while there wasn’t a lot to see, it was worth it to make the drive to Nashville and actually stand on the only ground that is left from that great Union victory.  The space is probably one of the smallest plots of preserved battle ground around, a small lot in the midst of an upper middle-class neighborhood.  You could drive right past it without noticing it at all since the surrounding houses blend in well with the space.   While there is some historical signage to explain what you are looking at, it does not call attention to itself the way most other battlefield signage does.  Redoubt No. 1 is subtle yet important, the last bastion of that first day of battle; very quaint and tastefully done.

Nearby is Centennial Park where the Confederate Private Monument resides (see more about the artistic merits of the statue here).  When I got there the entire park was undergoing some sort of reconstruction.  Almost all of it was surrounded by a chain linked fence and orange mesh netting.  I drove all the way around park and could not find the supposed monument.  On my second pass through I stopped at the Arts Center that happens to boarder the huge park.  Their directions were very helpful.  I found the statue but could not get close to it.  So I took a few photos at a distance through the fence and headed back south.

The Carter House and smokehouse as seen across Columbia Avenue in Franklin, Tennessee.

Tours are offered of the Carter House and grounds nearby.  This is shot from the back of the house.

The same smokehouse as shown in the shot above.  It is riddled with bullet holes from the intense fighting that took place here late on November 30, 1864.

Behind the Carter House you find a plaque commemorating the death of Captain Tod Carter.  You can enlarge this photo and read his incredible war story for yourself.  It is one of several special aspects to the story of the Franklin battlefield.

The plaque is situated in this beautiful open space behind the Carter House.  It is from this location that the 44th Missouri counterattacked the Rebels who had breached the Yankee defensive line.  Vicious fighting took place all around here.  You can see a residential development in the distance.

A little less than an hour later I arrived in Franklin, Tennessee, where one of the most gruesome battles of the war was fought.  Like Nashville, most of the battlefield has been obliterated by development.  But unlike Nashville, the community at Franklin has preserved essential parts of the battlefield grounds.  Once again, it is so important to get the experience of physically standing on the ground where these bloody actions took place.  Thanks to a lot of effort and money raised by intelligent preservationists, Franklin gives you a full sense of sacred ground despite the intrusive development.

I drove past the Eastern Flank Battle Field Park, taking note of the large Confederate cemetery there.  1,480 Southern soldiers killed in the Battle of Franklin lay at rest there.  This is the largest chunk of the preserved battlefield but little fighting took place on it.  The most that can be said is that a portion of the Confederate line marched over it toward their attack closer to the city.  Still, it is a beautiful location, so wonderful that it is preserved.  My immediate objective was the Carter House, which was near the scene of the most horrific fighting – the Confederate breakthrough of entrenched Federal lines.

On November 30, 1864, General Hood was furious with his army.  They had screwed up a great opportunity the day before at Spring Hill, perhaps largely in part due to Hood himself.  All that is debatable, it was a colossal Southern failure.  Hood, enraged at the fact that his army sat encamped within a stone's throw of the road over which most of Schfield's troops escaped to Franklin, was going to discipline his army the first chance her got.  Franklin was that opportunity.  Two of Hood’s corps attacked Schofield’s Corps which was entrenched around Franklin.  

Schofield’s plan was to retreat out of this position the next day and on up toward Nashville, delaying Hood as long as possible.  He did not intend to hold Franklin, it was merely a strong point to cover his continuing retreat.  But Hood didn’t know that, of course, and ordered an immediate attack, which didn’t get started until late in the day.  One corps of his army and virtually all his artillery had yet to reach the field.  He ordered the grand charge anyway.  It would be larger, longer and deadlier than the more famous Pickett's Charge.

At first the assault was a success, routing about 3,500 Yankees out of their forward position.  Some of these men kept running right on through Franklin to the other side of the river.  Meanwhile, many of the Rebels that followed pressed as closely to the routed troops as possible so as to use them as an enormous human shield against fire by the main Federal line.  At that point, if the Union troops fired they would have hit their own men first.

Quickly, the routed men rushed over the entrenchments, a devastating volley or two was fired by the defenders and the Southern line rammed into the Federals, breaking it in a couple of places.  The Northerners were pushed back a few hundred feet before reinforcements arrived and the new line held.  Later the Federals retook part of the original position but near the Carter House the Confederates did not budge.

They could not advance further nor could they retreat, at least until cover of darkness.  It was hell on earth.  Winston Groom put it like this: “In all its bloody four years, the war had rarely – if ever – seen fighting so ferocious on so large a scale in so confined a space.  For nearly an hour, thousands of men within an area no larger than a few acres shot, bayoneted, gouged, and bludgeoned one another to death with rifle butts, axes, picks, knives, and shovels.” (page 189)

See an exceptional animated presentation of the battle and the campaign leading up to it here.

The epicenter of this horrific moment is preserved at Franklin.  It was chilling to stand there and walk around, getting a sense of the density and intensity of this fight.  I was particularly interested to see a relatively new piece of the battlefield preservation effort.  As best anyone can tell this is the ground upon which the brilliant Confederate division commander General Patrick Cleburne was killed leading the charge of his men.  Until fairly recently, the spot was a Pizza Hut.  But preservationists managed to purchase the facility and tear it down, putting in its place a small grassy space centered by a monument; a little but important victory for battlefield conservation.

The spot where General Patrick Cleburne was killed.  Ten years ago this was a Pizza Hut.  Today it is a small but significant grassy space with a simple memorial in the middle of it.  A small victory for historic preservation.

Technically, it is called the Assault on the Cotton Gin Historic Park.  Cleburne Street runs past it off Columbia Avenue.  Both it and the Cotton Gin Site and Park are boardered by wooden fencing made in the technique of the period. 

I took this shot in the Cotton Gin Site and Park.  This is facing south with the Assault Park and Cleburne Street immediately in from of this signage.  It was about this point that the Confederate army broke through the Federal line.

Details on the breakthrough on the sign.  Enlarge to read.

This is a look across from the Carter house back toward the Assault site. In this open space and within a few hundred feet of it all around hundreds of soldiers were killed and thousands wounded in a short amount of time around sunset on November 30, 1864.  The spot of Cleburne's death is just before the treeline in the distance. 

The Carter House itself is within easy walking distance of the Cleburne plot.  You’ll find a shady walk and a nice little souvenir store there.  Tours are available but I wasn’t interested in all that.  I walked the grounds, took photos and basked in the feel of the space where so much fighting occurred.  After awhile I bought some souvenirs and headed about two miles south of there to Winstead Hill Park.  This was the high ground that served as Hood’s headquarters and also the general area where his army assembled for the grand and deadly charge.  I took in a nice view up there.

Winstead Hill Park is located on high ground overlooking Franklin.  This is where Hood's headquarters was located and also marks where the Confederate line formed for the infamous charge.

The view of Franklin from atop Winstead Hill on the overcast afternoon of my trip.

After that I was a bit weary and stopped into a Panera Bread for a late lunch.  Needing a bit of a kick I enjoyed a couple of Mountain Dews with my meal.  I probably haven’t had one of those in 20 years.  I recharged myself and mapped out the rest of my trip on my iPad while checking emails.  Then I drove into the center of Franklin to take some photos of the tall memorial of a Confederate soldier there.  This soldier was different from the one in Nashville.  That one was fatigued and at rest on a rock, staring into space.  At Franklin the solider was well attired but for the weathered brim of his hat, upright, rifle at the ready, casting a strong, steady gaze on the watch; an interesting contrast in tributes to the same thing.

The Public Square in downtown Franklin.  The Confederate Monument towers above everything surrounding.  The street is a roundabout here.

A closer look at the soldier statue.  Notice the torn hat brim upon his watchful head.

The base of the monument.  Just a hint of fall color was around.

Then I took Highway 96 over to Murfreesboro, about a 45 minute drive.   After a stop for gas, more Dasani and a Snickers bar for future energy, I arrived at the Stones River National Battlefield, a 500+ acre site where much of the fighting of the Battle of Stones River took place.  It was wonderful to be on battle ground that was not marred by any development and to appreciate the spaciousness of the open fields and the density of the rocky woods where this huge battle was fought.  It is easier to forget the world and experience the past when you are not surrounded by traffic lights, shopping malls and neighborhoods.

Stones River (also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro) was one of bloodiest battles of the war, with some 23,500 total casualties.  Even though the fighting at Franklin was more intense, Murfreesboro was a much larger, with some 79,000 total troops involved.  That is a casualty rate of 29%, very bloody by any battle standards throughout history.  The driving tour through the park is excellent.  I particularly enjoyed visiting the crop of rocks known as “The Slaughter Pen.”  You get a real sense of confined killing there.

There are some 6,100 graves at the Stones River National Cemetery.  Over 1,600 of them are Union soldiers killed in the battle.  The rest are relatives and other soldiers from later US wars.

This memorial is to Union artillerymen who were killed during the large, ferocious battle.

Another view of the large National Cemetery which was formed out of necessity following the bloodbath at Murfreesboro in early 1863.

One view of the Slaughter Pen at Stones River. 

Another view facing 90 degrees to the right.  You can easily see how soldiers would have chosen this ground to defend themselves.  It is like a natural network of trenches. 

This signage helps interpret the fighting at the Slaughter Pen.  Enlarge to read.

This is signage explaining why the Confederate attack finally came to stop on the southern edge of this field.

This was a large cotton field at the time of the battle.  It was mostly barren then due to the winter season.  The Confederates attempted to cross and were met with highly concentrated Federal fire from the distant treeline.  The Southern advance was bloodily halted.

The Hazen Brigade Monument, another tour stop, is America’s oldest Civil War monument.  It was constructed by the troops themselves literally in a few days after the battle.  Many of those killed in General William B. Hazen’s brigade were buried at the monument which abuts a railroad track.  Hazen's regiments repulsed wave after wave of Rebel assaults.  The fighting here was so intense that the position was named "Hell's Half Acre."  This represents the only portion of the Federal line that held up against Confederate attacks throughout this struggle between December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863.  Although the Yankees were driven back to the point of breaking, in the end the battle was a bloody stalemate and the Rebels withdrew from the field. 

I finished my tour at Stones River 10 minutes before the gates closed.  Outside the battlefield park itself a few other areas of ground have been preserved.  I ventured to check out the headquarter positions of both commanders, the North’s General William Rosecrans and the South’s General Braxton Bragg.  Although the fog had dissolved by the time I reached Nashville, the day remained overcast.  But the sun finally broke through the clouds just as I reached the Rosecrans site.

The view of the Hazen Brigade Monument in the distance from the small parking area there.  The space is accented by a rifled artillery piece.  Intense fighting occurred here.  The area off-camera to the right is the location of Hell's Half Acre.

You can see the "rifled" design inside the barrel.  The groves are slightly twisted to put spin on the projectile which was shaped more like a bullet than a ball.  It was designed for long-ranged fire.  This piece fired a 3-inch shell.

The Hazen Brigade Monument, America's oldest Civil War monument.

Several graves, mostly of soldiers from the brigade that were actually killed during the battle, are aligned within the memorial's rock walls.  The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad is to the right on the other side of the wall.

Some more beautiful rocky terrain among the trees on the Murfreesboro battlefield.

A magnificent monument at the location where the Union massed 48 cannons which killed and wounded 1,800 Confederates during a Southern charge on January 2nd, effectively ending the Battle of Stones River.  Fortunately, the sun was out by the time I took this photo. 

It is interesting to contrast the positions of the two headquarters.  Rosecrans’ is a small clearing craved out of a thickly wooded, brushy area and fenced in to make it publicly accessible.  It is a small grassy pullover type opening beside the highway, not even as glamorous as the tiny space of Redoubt No. 1.  Bragg’s, on the other hand, is part of a larger public park that runs along the west fork of Stones River, very spacious and beautiful with great views of the river.  The Rosecrans space was forged out of nothing whereas the Southern leader’s headquarters has been a part of the public’s enjoyment for many years, partly due to the natural beauty of the location, I’m sure.

The first step on my journey to chase Civil War battlefield sites was a long one.  By the time I got home from Murfreesboro the entire trip had lasted 14 hours.  There are other, shorter trips I can more easily make in the near future.  Those are mostly to sites I have visited before but feel the need to reconnect with.  I’ve learned no matter how much time passes, when you revisit a battlefield you are going back to exactly the same past moment that was there when you last visited.  It is in a sense perpetual, perhaps eternal, at least in human terms.  That creates a sensation bordering on reverence inside of me and it is an inspiration to continue the chase and discover more of the memories and treasures within these magical parks large and small.

Certain images and moments stand out in my mind about this first trip.  Redoubt No. 1 is certainly one of them, as is the place where Cleburne died.  Even though it is sizeable, the Stones River Park is still only about 25% of the ground where that battle was fought.  But you can stand on the rocks and feel the vibe of a desperate day at the Slaughter Pen.   Or consider the wonderful obelisk monument where the Union gathered 48 pieces of artillery to blast away repeated Confederate charges.  Connecting with that is what battlefield chasing is all about.  You stand upon an echo of the past and you become part of the ground for a little while.

The site of General Rosecrans' headquarters at Murfreesboro.

General Bragg's headquarters site is in a park along the West Fork of Stones River.

One view of the West Fork facing north.

Another view facing south.  There are some shallow rapids in the distance and it was quiet enough for you to easily hear them.  Battlefields are places that commemorate terrible fighting but they are also refuges of natural beauty today.