Battle of Nashville

Background

After Atlanta fell, Sherman marched for the sea and left George Thomas to deal with John Bell Hood, who turned north into Middle Tennessee with about 38,000 men, Forrest's cavalry aside. Hood wrecked his army attacking Schofield at Franklin on 30 November, then followed the Federals to Nashville and on 2–3 December entrenched on the hills south of the city. Nashville was a vast supply depot and one of the most heavily fortified cities in America. Hood had no strength to assault it; he dug in and waited, and detached Bate's division and then Forrest with most of the cavalry against the railway and the garrison at Murfreesboro, where they were repulsed on 7 December.

Thomas needed time. His army was a patchwork: Schofield's two corps from Franklin, A. J. Smith's divisions arriving by river from Missouri on 30 November, Steedman's 5,000 detachments and colored troops by rail from Chattanooga, and a cavalry corps that James Wilson was still remounting and rearming. In Washington, Grant and Lincoln grew impatient. On 8 December an ice storm froze both armies in place, with temperatures as low as 10°F, and the cold lasted until about the 13th. That day Grant ordered John A. Logan to Nashville to take over if Thomas had still not moved; on the 14th Grant himself left Petersburg, getting only as far as Washington. The weather broke on the 14th, Thomas called his corps commanders together that afternoon, and Special Field Order No. 342 set the attack for 06:00 the next morning.

The armies

Thomas had about 55,000 men in the field: Wood's IV Corps (Kimball, Elliott, Beatty), Schofield's XXIII Corps (Couch, Cox), Smith's Detachment of the Army of the Tennessee (McArthur, Garrard, Moore), about 12,000 strong, Steedman's Provisional Detachment, including Cruft's provisional division and two brigades of US Colored Troops, and Wilson's Cavalry Corps (Hatch, Knipe, Johnson, with Croxton's brigade), much of it fighting dismounted with seven-shot Spencer carbines. Garrison and quartermaster troops held the inner works. CDB90 credits the Federals with 170 guns. Most of the USCT regiments had spent the past year building and guarding forts and railways.

Hood had about 23,000: Cheatham's corps (Cleburne's old division, Brown's and Bate's), Stewart's (Loring, French, Walthall) and Lee's (Clayton, Stevenson, Johnson), with only Chalmers's cavalry division, about 1,000 men. Franklin had cost him heavily in men and officers, and the defeat there had shaken the army. His line ran about five miles from the Nolensville Pike to the Hillsboro Pike, but did not cover all the roads, and both flanks hung in the air. On the left, Stewart's corps was bent back along the Hillsboro Pike, and five detached redoubts, of which No. 1 and No. 4 each had four guns and 150–200 men, were still unfinished when the attack came.

The battle

CDB90 treats the battle as a single engagement, number 214 (NASHVILLE), from 08:00 on 15 December to 16:45 on the 16th. Times are approximate.

15 December, early morning: Steedman's diversion. Thick fog covered the Federal deployment and lifted only towards noon. About 08:00 Steedman's command, led by two brigades of US Colored Troops, struck Cheatham on the Confederate right, east of the Nolensville Pike. Enfilading fire from Granbury's Lunette, with four guns, threw the 1st Colored Brigade back with about 100 casualties, some sheltering in the railway cut, but the 13th USCT held captured works for the rest of the day. The attack held Cheatham in place, and Thomas believed it drew Confederate reserves from the left.

Late morning: the great wheel. Smith's corps and Wilson's cavalry moved out along the Hardin Pike and swung south-east against Hood's left, Wood's IV Corps on Smith's left and Schofield in reserve. Hatch's division drove Confederate skirmishers back from Richland Creek. From about 11:00, 24 Federal guns pounded Redoubt No. 4.

13:00–16:00: the redoubts and Montgomery Hill. Hatch's dismounted troopers and McArthur's infantry stormed Redoubts 4 and 5 together, each claiming the guns; accounts put it between 13:00 and 14:30, and disagree on which fell first. Post's brigade of the IV Corps carried Montgomery Hill, Hood's advanced salient. Smith's men took Redoubts 3 and 2, where Colonel Sylvester Hill was killed, the highest-ranking Federal officer to fall. Thomas sent Schofield round Smith's right to free the cavalry. About 16:00 the IV Corps assaulted Redoubt No. 1. Stewart's corps, outnumbered perhaps ten to one, broke. The day cost Hood 16 guns and 1,200 prisoners, by Thomas's count.

Night: a new line. Hood fell back about two miles to a shorter line from Peach Orchard (Overton's) Hill on the right to Compton's Hill on the left: Lee on the right, Stewart in the centre, Cheatham, shifted from the right, on the left. Bate's division held Compton's Hill, a salient whose trenches were dug on the geographic rather than the military crest.

16 December, morning: closing in. From 06:00 Wood advanced to Overton's Hill; Steedman formed on his left, Smith on his right, and Schofield faced east against Hood's left. By noon Wilson's dismounted cavalry was across the Granny White Pike in the Confederate rear. Hood stripped the hill of Ector's, Reynolds's and two of Cleburne's old brigades to meet the threats on either flank. Rain fell; mud kept most of Cheatham's 34 guns out of action.

About 15:00: Peach Orchard Hill. Post's and Streight's brigades of the IV Corps and Morgan's USCT, the 12th and 100th leading, assaulted Lee's corps. They reached the abatis and were shot down; the 13th USCT lost about 220 men, 40% of its strength, and five colour-bearers. Post fell wounded.

About 15:30–16:00: Shy's Hill. Schofield hesitated, fearing for his flank. McArthur told Smith and Thomas that he would attack in five minutes unless stopped. McMillen's brigade climbed the steep north face; Hubbard's brigade, the 9th and 5th Minnesota in front, followed; the 10th Minnesota broke Finley's Florida brigade from the north-east. Colonel William Shy of the 20th Tennessee was killed on the summit, and Brig. Gen. Thomas Benton Smith captured. The Confederate left collapsed from west to east; Schofield and Wilson joined in, and Wood and Steedman, hearing the cheering, carried Overton's Hill.

Dusk: the rout. The army fled through the Brentwood hills. Lee's corps held together and covered the Franklin Pike; on the Granny White Pike, Chalmers's troopers fought Hatch and Knipe in the dark and the rain, and Rucker was captured. Thomas counted 4,462 prisoners and 53 guns for the two days.

Aftermath

The Federals lost 3,061 men. Hood lost about 6,000, most of them prisoners, and 53 guns. Thomas pursued at daylight on the 17th. Lee's rearguard and then Forrest, back from Murfreesboro, with Walthall commanding eight brigades of infantry, held off the cavalry at Hollow Tree Gap, the West Harpeth and a string of later stands. Rain, flooded streams and a pontoon train that went the wrong way held up the infantry. Hood crossed the Duck River at Columbia on the 19th and the Tennessee near Bainbridge, Alabama, on the 28th. Thomas called off the pursuit on the 29th; on the 30th Colonel William Palmer's cavalry destroyed Hood's pontoon train. Thomas claimed 13,189 prisoners and 72 guns for the whole campaign.

The Army of Tennessee reached Tupelo, Mississippi, in ruins, with at least 2,000 deserters. On 20 January 1865 Hood reported 18,742 effectives, Forrest excluded; Beauregard thought it fewer than 15,000. Hood asked to be relieved on 13 January. Eicher's verdict is that if Hood mortally wounded his army at Franklin, he killed it at Nashville.

The battle answered Thomas's critics, and the attack at Peach Orchard Hill became a landmark for Black soldiers in the West. Thomas is reported to have said that the question was settled: Black soldiers would fight. Most of the field now lies under the city's southern suburbs; the Battle of Nashville Trust owns Redoubt No. 1 and the summit of Shy's Hill.

Wargaming it

Nashville is a big set-piece over two days on a front of some five miles of rolling hills, which makes it best played at brigade level for the whole battle, with hourly turns, or as two separate games: the redoubts and Montgomery Hill on the 15th, and Shy's Hill and Peach Orchard Hill on the 16th. Shy's Hill alone suits regimental scale.

The Federal player has more than two to one in men and far more guns, so the game is about time and co-ordination rather than survival. Fog limits visibility and artillery until about noon on the 15th; on the 16th, rain and mud tie down the Confederate guns and McArthur's attack goes in with sunset approaching. Thomas wins by turning Hood's left and closing the Granny White and Franklin pikes before dark; Hood wins by getting most of his army away.

The decisions are good ones. How much of Steedman's diversion does the Confederate player believe? When does Schofield commit, and does Wilson get round the flank in time? On the 16th, the Confederate player must choose what to strip from Shy's Hill to meet the cavalry and the Overton's Hill attack. The redoubts reward a points system that values guns and prisoners. Classic what-ifs: Forrest's two divisions back from Murfreesboro, or Hood withdrawing after the first day.

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