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Civil War History in Nashville & Middle Tennessee
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The Tennessee Sesquicentennial Commission will sponsor a series of conferences from 2010 to 2015. Conferences will be held annually at locations across the state and will focus on the events which took place 150 years ago. Presenters will discuss the battles, events, and stories of the Civil War, as well as offer brief dramas and musical performances as part of the day's events. |
Civil War Timeline |
Tennessee Civil War Trails |
Tennessee Civil War Museums and Historic Sites |
Tennessee Civil War Teaching Tools
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Civil War (1861-1865)
Battle of Nashville: Union Troops Broke Through the Confederate
Line
Steps of the Capitol with covered guns in Nashville, Tennessee
CREDIT: Barnard, George N., photographer. "Nashville, Tennessee.
Steps of the Capitol with Covered Guns; Vista of the City Beyond."
1864. Selected Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865, American
Memory collections, Library of Congress. |
"There is a terrible war coming, and these
young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen,
but I tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the South,
for I would free them all to avoid this war." - Robert
E. Lee
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Nashville Historic Societies
Battle of Nashville
Preservation Society: Excellent site with Civil War information,
including photos of sites and memorials, regarding the Battle of
Nashville. Preservation efforts and opportunities for volunteer
service.
Tennessee
Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Save the Franklin Battlefield

Guides
TN
Historical Commission: A Path Divided--TN's Civil War Heritage Trail
(on-line virtual tour and free downloadable PDF brochure): "This
handbook offers a guide to sites in Tennessee where the Civil War
experience is interpreted or memorialized. The legacy of those momentous
years from 1861 to 1865 is most vividly preserved at the places
where events and activities of the war actually occurred. Such sites
may be on land on which one of Tennessees 2,300 engagements
was fought or may consist of fortifications, buildings, encampments
or other material remains of the war. Other sites include the cemeteries
of those who died in combat, monuments that commemorate their sacrifices,
and museums that contain the artifacts of war. Most are open to
the public, although some are on privately owned property."
Tennessee
Civil War National Heritage Area

Civil War Battlefields
Chickamauga/Chattanooga
National Military Park
Point Park Visitors Center, Lookout Mountain, TN 37350,
423-821-7786. Battle
Summary: "On August 16, 1863, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans,
commander of the Army of the Cumberland, launched a campaign to
take Chattanooga. Col. John T. Wilders brigade of the Union
4th Division, XIV Army Corps marched to a location northeast of
Chattanooga where the Confederates could see them, reinforcing Gen.
Braxton Braggs expectations of a Union attack on the town
from that direction..."[More]
Fort Donelson
National Battlefield [Feb. 14-16, 1862] From this
Nat. Park web site: "Unconditional Surrender of Fort Donelson
created jubilation throughout the North and silence in Dixie. It
was the Norths first major victory of the Civil War, opening
the way into the very heart of the Confederacy." P.O. Box 434,
174 Nationa Cemetery Dr., Dover, TN 37058, 931-232-5706.
Stones River National Battlefield
[Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863] From this Nat. Park web site:
"600-acre National Battlefield includes Stones River National
Cemetery, established in 1865, with more than 6,000 Union graves;
and the Hazen Brigade Monument, believed to be the oldest, intact
Civil War monument still standing in its original location."
3501 Old Nashville Highway, Murfreesboro, TN 37129, 615-893-9501.
Franklin-Nashville
Campaign [September-December 1864]
Allatoona
Decatur
Johnsonville
Columbia
Spring Hill
Franklin
Murfreesborough
Nashville
Battle of Franklin [Nov. 30, 1864] From
the Carter House:
["(Franklin) is the blackest page in the history of the War
of the Lost Cause. It was the bloodiest battle of modern times in
any war. It was the finishing stroke to the Independence of the
Southern Confederacy. I was there. I saw it." --Sam Watkins,
1st Tennessee Infantry. Called "The Gettysburg of the West,"
Franklin was one of the few night battles in the Civil War. It was
also one of the smallest battlefields of the war (only 2 miles long
and 1 1/2 miles wide). The main battle began around 4:00 pm and
wound down around 9:00 pm.]
Battle of Nashville [Dec. 15-16, 1864] From
the CWSAC
Battle Summary of Nashville: "In a last desperate attempt
to force Maj. Gen. William T. Shermans army out of Georgia,
Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville
in November 1864. Although he suffered terrible losses at Franklin
on November 30, he continued toward Nashville."

Antebellum Mansions
Belle Meade Plantation
Belmont Mansion: this Italianate-style villa was the summer home of Adelicia Acklen,
the extraordinary "Southern Belle" who negotiated during
the height of the war with both Union and Confederate armies to
permit her 2,800 bales of cotton be shipped to England (bringing
her $960,000).
Carnton Plantation: 1345
Carnton Lane, Franklin. 794-0903. Randal McGavock's mansion, used
as a field hospital during the Battle of Franklin. Confederate cemetery
and 1847-styled garden.
Carter House: Museum and Interpretive Center for the Battle of Franklin
(Nov. 30, 1864). 1140 Columbia Avenue, Franklin, Tennessee 37065,
Phone 615-791-1861.
The Hermitage:
Home of Andrew Jackson
Oaklands Museum: 900 N. Maney Avenue, Murfreesboro, TN.
Antebellum plantation house built 1815-1806. A raid by Nathan Bedford
Forrest occurred here. From web site: "On July 13, 1862, Confederate
cavalrymen under Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and defeated Federal
forces encamped on the plantation grounds (front lawn of Oaklands)
near the spring and at the courthouse as part of a raid on Union-occupied
Murfreesboro. It is said that Lewis and Adeline's children watched
the fighting from the window of the second floor hallway. Union
Colonel William Duffield, commander of the 9th Michigan Infantry
Regiment, was wounded in the skirmish and taken into the house,
where he was treated by the family. The Confederates accepted the
surrender of Murfreesboro inside the mansion. The town remained
in Confederate hands until the Union victory at the December 31-January
2, 1862-63 Battle of Murfreesboro, or Stones River, after which
the Federals regained control for the rest of the war. . ."
[More]
Travellers
Rest:
Judge John Overton's 1799 home. Used as a Confederate general's
headquarters in the Civil War.
National Civil War Sites
The
American Civil War

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