They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864

By Sean Michael Chick and William Lee White

A concise history and analysis of the 1864 American Civil War battle that marked the end for the Army of Tennessee.
"A well-researched and informative read, Chick's study of the Nashville campaign is a must for anyone seeking to learn more about this often-overlooked battle, as well as those interested in the war in the Western Theatre and generalship in the Civil War."—The NYMAS Review
The November 1864 battle of Franklin left the Army of Tennessee stunned. In only a few hours, the army lost 6,000 men and a score of generals. Rather than pause, John Bell Hood marched his army north to Nashville. He had risked everything on a successful campaign and saw his offensive as the Confederacy's last hope. There was no time to mourn.

But there was no question of attacking Nashville. The city was well fortified, and the Federals outnumbered Hood more than two to one. But Hood knew he could force them to attack him and, in doing so, he could win a defensive victory that might rescue the Confederacy from the chasm of collapse.

Unfortunately for Hood, he faced George Thomas, one of the Union's best leaders, who commanded men tested in the fires of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Franklin.

But with battle imminent, the ground iced over, and Thomas had to wait. An impatient Ulysses S. Grant nearly sacked him, but on December 15–16, Thomas struck and routed Hood's army. He then chased him out of Tennessee and into Mississippi in a grueling winter campaign.

After Nashville, the Army of Tennessee was never again a major fighting force. Combined with William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas and Grant's capture of Petersburg and Richmond, Nashville was the first peal in the long death knell of the Confederate States of America. In They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864, historian Sean Michael Chick offers a fast-paced, well-analyzed narrative of John Bell Hood's final campaign, complete with the most accurate maps yet made of this crucial battle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781611216387

Sean Michael Chick

Sean Michael Chick graduated from University of New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Communications and from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master of Arts in History. He works in New Orleans, leading historic tours of his hometown and helping residents and visitors appreciate the city’s past. He is the author of The Battle of Petersburg, June 15–21, 1864 (Potomac, 2015) and Dreams of Victory: General P. G. T. Beauregard in the Civil War (Savas Beatie, 2021).

Book preview

They Came Only To Die

The Battle of Nashville,

December 15–16, 1864

by Sean Michael Chick

Chris Mackowski, series editor

Kristopher D. White, chief historian

The Emerging Civil War Series

offers compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and stories.

Recipient of the Army Historical Foundation’s Lieutenant General Richard G. Trefry Award for contributions to the literature on the history of the U.S. Army

Also part of the Emerging Civil War Series:

All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to the Surrender, July 18–September 2, 1864

by Stephen Davis

All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24–27, 1863

by David A. Powell

Battle Above the Clouds: Lifting the Siege of Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain, October 16–November 24, 1863

by David A. Powell

Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18–20, 1863

by William Lee White

Dreams of Victory: General P. G. T. Beauregard in the Civil War

by Sean Michael Chick

Grant’s Left Hook: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5–June 7, 1864

by Sean Michael Chick

Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp—Elmira, NY

by Derek Maxfield

Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864

by William Lee White

A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw to the Chattahoochee, May 5–July 18, 1864

by Stephen Davis

For a complete list of titles, visit

https://www.savasbeatie.com/civil-war/emerging-civil-war-series/

They Came Only To Die

The Battle of Nashville,

December 15–16, 1864

by Sean Michael Chick

© 2023 by Sean Michael Chick

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

First edition, first printing

ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-637-0 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-638-7 (ebook)

ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-638-7 (Mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chick, Sean Michael, 1982- author.

Title: They came only to die : the Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864 / Sean Michael Chick.

Other titles: Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864

Description: El Dorado Hills, CA : Savas Beatie LLC, [2023] | Series: Emerging Civil War series | Summary: Historian Sean Michael Chick offers a fast-paced, well analyzed narrative of John Bell Hood’s final campaign, complete with the most accurate maps yet made of this crucial battle. Nashville was the first peal in the long death knell of the Confederate States of America-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022031158 | ISBN 9781611216370 (paperback) | ISBN 9781611216387 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Nashville, Battle of, Nashville, Tenn., 1864.

Classification: LCC E477.52 .C55 2022 | DDC 973.7/37--dc23/ eng/20220701

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022031158

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Savas Beatie titles are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more details, please contact Special Sales, 989 Governor Drive, Suite 102, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762, or you may e-mail us at [e-mail], or visit our website at www.savasbeatie.com for additional information.

This book is dedicated to George Washington Dossett, Company C 8th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, who fought at Brices Cross Roads, Tupelo, Spring Hill, Franklin, Richland Creek, Ebenezer Church, and Selma, where he was captured.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD by William Lee White

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE: North to Nashville

CHAPTER TWO: Return to Murfreesboro

CHAPTER THREE: Skullduggery in the Union High Command

CHAPTER FOUR: Thomas’s Opening Attack

CHAPTER FIVE: The Capture of the Redoubts

CHAPTER SIX: The Attack on Peach Orchard Hill

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Collapse of the Army of Tennessee

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Last Retreat from Tennessee

EPILOGUE: The Death of Two Armies

APPENDIX A: Battle of Nashville Driving Tour

APPENDIX B: I Live Over There and I’m Crazy . . .: The Sad Fate of Thomas Benton Smith by David Powell

APPENDIX C: Now, I Walk with God. Benjamin Harrison in War and Peace by Mark Wahlgren Summers

APPENDIX D: John Bell Hood’s Postbellum Years by Joseph D. Ricci

APPENDIX E: George H. Thomas and the Verdict of History by Frank Varney

APPENDIX F: A Close Thing: December 17, 1864 by Gregory L. Wade

APPENDIX G: Battlefield Preservation in Nashville by Ross Massey

Order of Battle

Suggested Reading

About the Author

Footnotes for this volume are available at

https://emergingcivilwar.com/publication/footnotes/

List of Maps

Maps by Hal Jespersen

March to Nashville, December 1–6, 1864

Skirmish at Overall Creek, December 7, 1864

Battle of Nashville, Confederate Right, December 15, 1864

Battle of Nashville, Confederate Left, December 15, 1864

Battle of Nashville, Confederate Right, December 16, 1864

Battle of Nashville, Confederate Left, December 16, 1864

Hood’s Retreat, December 1864–January 1865

Nashville Driving Tour

Acknowledgments

Writing is usually considered a solitary act. When I hear this, I recall the words of John Donne: No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. I would like to thank those who aided me in crafting this book.

The historians Lee White, Joseph A. Rose, Joseph Ricci, and Jordan Grove read over the work. White was also kind enough to write a foreword for the book while Ricci provided an appendix piece. Mark Wahlgren Summers, Dave Powell, Frank Varney, and Robert D. Cross also contributed an appendix pieces, each of which greatly enhanced the book.

Some research materials and books were provided by Derek Green, Christopher Rucker, and particularly Jan Barnes at the New Orleans Public Library. A wealth of images were provided by Ricci, Varney, Powell, Cross, Sims Crownover, Mark Hilton, and Magnus Manske. The Battle of Nashville Preservation Society allowed me to use their photographs, many taken by Tom Lawrence. Andrew Simoneaux loaned his camera and graciously scanned some of the images. Philip Duer graciously allowed me to use his paintings depicting the battle. The maps were produced by the impeccable Hal Jespersen. In creating the maps, I had help from Stephen Davis, Lance Wattigney, and David Smith.

The Battle of Nashville Centennial Committee was founded in 1964 and oversaw commemorative events. (bnps)

Lastly, Daniel Chick and Ashley Dunham accompanied me on a road trip to Nashville, where we took pictures. We were given a tour of the battlefield sites by Ross Massey. He helped me secure images, edit maps, proofread the text, and provide an appendix. Daniel, Ashley, and especially Ross helped to make this book a reality.

One event that was part of the centennial celebration was a large reenactment held at Percy Warner Park on December 12, 1964. (bnps)

PHOTO CREDITS: The Annals of the Army of the Cumberland (aac); Battle of Nashville Preservation Society (bnps); Battles & Leaders (bl); Belle Meade Plantation (bmp); Sean Michael Chick (smc); Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park (ccnmp); City of Murfreesboro (com); Confederate Memorial Hall Museum (cmhm); Confederate Memorial Literary Society (cmls); Confederate Veteran (cv) Cowan’s Auction (ca); Sims Crownover (sc); Denver Public Library (dpl); Dschwen (d); Philip Duer (pd); Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (flin); General Grant National Memorial (ggnm); Harper’s Weekly (hw); A History of Florida (hf); History of the Twentieth Tennessee (htt); Library of Congress (loc); Mark Hilton (mh); Ross Massey (rm); Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS); Minnesota Historical Society (mhs); National Archives (na); Naval History and Heritage Command (nhhc); Nine Campaigns in Nine States (ncns); State Library of Louisiana (sll); That Devil Forrest (tdf); Tulane University (tu); Frank Varney (fv); Wikipedia (wiki)

For the Emerging Civil War Series

Theodore P. Savas, publisher

Chris Mackowski, series editor and co-founder

Kristopher D. White, chief historian and co-founder

Sarah Keeney, editorial consultant

Maps by Hal Jespersen

Design and layout by Veronica Kane

One of Nashville’s largest monuments is the Battle of Nashville Peace Monument. It has been the target of periodic vandalism. (smc)

Foreword

BY WILLIAM LEE WHITE

The two-day battle that ended on the wind-swept hills south of Nashville, Tennessee, on the bleak afternoon of December 16, 1864, had been as bitter as the cold that the men of both sides endured. As the Confederates tried to invest Nashville, other moves were still on the chessboard of war. A detachment of men was sent to capture Murfreesboro in an attempt to seize the warehouses of supplies there and interrupt reinforcements. Union commander Maj. Gen. George Thomas also fended off an attack from mother nature and the U.S. War Department. These events then set up the two-day battle for Nashville, December 15 and 16. The fighting resulted in one of the most humiliating defeats of the war for the storied Army of Tennessee and showed the valor and resolve of the Federal forces assembled there.

Unique for Civil War campaigns, the Confederates were not allowed to simply leave the state after their twin defeats at Franklin and Nashville. Thomas unleashed a pursuit that nearly pounded what was left of the Confederate army into the frozen ground. Through the frigid days of December, Union forces pursued the retreating Confederate forces and nearly annihilated what was left of the once-storied rebel army.

In many ways, what happened at Nashville was the coup de grace resulting from the near-mortal wound inflicted on the Confederates at the battle of Franklin. As the famed diarist Mary Chesnut fittingly and poetically noted, Darkest of all Decembers, ever my life has known. Sitting here by the embers—stunned—helpless—alone.

Sean Michael Chick’s They Came Only To Die looks at the aftermath of the bloody battle of Franklin, as a mauled Army of Tennessee limped to within sight of its goal, Nashville, and was defeated in one of the few truly decisive Civil War battles. As with all books in the Emerging Civil War series, readers will find a good overview filled with current scholarship and a handy tour of the sites that are covered, which proves invaluable.

Stanley Horn was active in Tennessee historical preservation. In addition to writing about the Army of Tennessee, he also authored books on Robert E. Lee, the Ku Klux Klan, and The Hermitage. (sc)

Stanley. F. Horn wrote the first book on the battle of Nashville. This advertisement oddly features the Confederates attacking. (bnps)

WILLIAM LEE WHITE is the author of the Emerging Civil War Series book Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864. He works as a ranger at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park where he presents talks and tours on all phases of the battles for Chattanooga.

For in those few minutes an army was changed into a mob, and the whole structure of the rebellion in the Southwest, with all its possibilities, was utterly overthrown.

— Colonel Henry Stone, a member of Major General George Thomas’s staff

The dead of Franklin were not cared for by the national authorities since they were rebels. Instead they were interned after the war in the McGavock Cemetery. (smc)

Prologue

JOHN BELL HOOD, GEORGE THOMAS, AND JOHN M. SCHOFIELD

On November 30, 1864, men who had faced each other on battlefields that stretched from Shiloh to Atlanta were about to battle yet again in the town of Franklin, Tennessee. Some 20,000 Confederate infantry faced 27,000 Federals. Nearly everyone in both armies was a veteran.

From Winstead Hill, Confederate General John Bell Hood looked on. He was an invalid, wounded at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, a man of courage and daring. Mary Chesnut, a member of President Jefferson Davis’s social circle, described Hood as having a sad Quixote face, the face of an old Crusader, who believed in his cause, his cross, and his crown. . . . The fierce light of Hood’s eyes I can never forget.

Facing Hood was Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. In contrast to Hood’s lean figure and full beard, Schofield was bald and a bit overweight. He was no coward, but he had fought in only a handful of battles; he owed his rank to the patronage of his superiors. Yet, Schofield had seen enough of war to doubt Hood would strike his entrenched men.

But in the fading light, Hood’s army lurched forward.

None doubted the fight ahead would be desperate, yet the carnage that followed shocked even these veterans. In 1920, William H. Matson wrote, I was a member of Bledsoe’s famous battery from start to finish. . . . We were in all of the engagements around Corinth, Holly Springs, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, from Dalton to Atlanta; then we were at Franklin, which was the hardest fought battle of which we have any history since the world began.

* * *

John Bell Hood was from Kentucky and dreamed of retaking the state as early as 1864, when he advised Joseph E. Johnston to march north. (loc)

Hood took a long and crooked road to get to Franklin. A Kentucky native, he graduated from West Point in 1853. In 1860, the army offered him an appointment to return to the Point as cavalry instructor, but he turned it down due to the looming Secession crisis.

Hood was a romantic of sorts and a keen admirer of Sir Walter Scott. Unsurprisingly for his generation and temperament, he became an avid secessionist, and he threw his lot in with the Confederacy.

In February 1862, Hood was given a brigade of infantry consisting mostly of Texas regiments. At Gaines Mill on the Virginia Peninsula, he led a charge that broke the Union line and earned him elevation to division command. He distinguished himself at Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, where he was wounded in his left arm, losing full use of it. At Chickamauga, he lost his right leg. Few commanders had such an excellent combat record or had paid such a heavy price for their laurels.

After Chickamauga, Hood spent time recovering in Richmond. He cultivated a friendship with Davis, who named Hood a corps commander in the Army of Tennessee. Hood did not excel in the position. He did not attack at Cassville and, when he did attack at Kolb’s farm, it was a disaster. He also fell in with other officers who criticized army commander Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s leadership and tactics. With Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman at the gates of Atlanta, Davis replaced Johnston with Hood, making him the youngest army commander of the war at age thirty-three.

Hood immediately assumed the offensive and attacked Sherman at Peachtree Creek and again at Atlanta, losing both battles. A failed attack at Ezra Church occurred without Hood’s orders. However, the attacks made Sherman cautious, and Atlanta held on until September 2, when Sherman finally cut the last railroad. Hood abandoned the city.

Jefferson Davis longed for a general worthy of the Army of Tennessee. Although Hood lost Atlanta, Davis did not trust Beauregard and he was put off by Hardee’s prior refusals to command the army. He stuck by Hood. (loc)

Despite loud protests from soldiers and many officers, Davis retained Hood in command and approved an offensive into northern Georgia. The threat to his rear in northern Georgia forced Sherman to follow the Army of Tennessee, but Hood had grander plans. He wanted to invade Tennessee. The theater commander, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, consulted with Hood at Gadsden, Alabama, for two days, poring over maps, talking with the Hood’s subordinates, and inspecting the army. Beauregard thought the plan might work if Hood moved fast. In addition, army morale was shaky; if they boldly invaded Tennessee, it could buoy hopes. When Hood announced the army would invade Tennessee, he recalled hearing that genuine Confederate shout so familiar to every Southern soldier.

Despite