Battle of Nashville Facts
Battle of Nashville Facts
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| Interesting Battle of Nashville Facts: |
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| The Battle of Nashville took place in Davidson County, Tennessee. |
| The battle was fought on December 15 -16, 1864. |
| The Union forces, led by General George H. Thomas, won the battle. |
| The Confederate troops were led by Lt. General John Bell Hood. He was a graduate of West Point and one of his instructors there was George Thomas. |
| The battle marked the end of a terrible year for Hood and his army, which had left the city of Atlanta in the control of the Union and Major General George T. Sherman. |
| Hood's army attacked Union troops led by General John Schofield in Franklin, Tennessee on November 30. The Confederates were soundly defeated, losing 12 generals and 60 regimental commanders in the battle. |
| Despite the defeat at Franklin, Hood followed Schofield's army to Nashville. However, the Union had fortified its troops. Thomas's army joined forces with Schofield's troops there. |
| Hood had hoped that by leading his troops into Nashville, he could cut off the Union supply line and force Sherman's army out of Georgia. |
| Conditions were very difficult for the Confederate troops. They marched in freezing temperatures with very little food. Many of the soldiers had no shoes and walked to Nashville on bloody feet. |
| When Hood's army approached Nashville, they were greatly outnumbered. There were 20,000 Confederates to over 50,000 Union soldiers, making Hood's decision to engage in a battle at Nashville a risky one. |
| The battle was delayed for two weeks due to weather. Freezing rain and ice making fighting very difficult. |
| Within two days, the Union troops had the Confederates on the run. Hood's army began to fall apart as his men died from battle wounds, starvation, or exposure to the cold. |
| Over 6,000 Confederates died or were wounded in the battle. The Union troops had over 3,000 deaths. |
| After the battle was over, Hood led his Army of Tennessee back to Mississippi. The army was never a major fighting force after that. |
| Hood resigned a few weeks after his defeat. He was never given another army to command. |
| The Union victory assured that Tennessee was secured for the Union. Sherman was able to continue his March to the Sea with no threat from the South. |
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