Spring Hill Battlefield

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"The Middle Tennessee campaign was planned by Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood.  Hood had risen from the rank of lieutenant in the Confederate Army to that of lieutenant general by 1864.  This rapid promotion was gained through a record of determined assaults and hard fighting, and his reputation as an aggressive, determined warrior was well deserved.  However, his relatively low academic standing at West Point suggested that he was not blessed with an imposing intellect.  Additionally, he had sustained two grave wounds during the course of the war, and he was in constant physical pain throughout his campaign.  

"John Schofield was a vain, ambitious West Point graduate.  Hood and Schofield had been classmates in the class of 1853.  Schofield had graduated 7th and ranked first in infantry tactics.  Hood had graduated 52nd in the class of 54 student officers.  The army commanded by Schofield at Spring Hill was the same Army of the Ohio that he had commanded throughout the grueling 100 days of the Atlanta campaign, and it consisted of the veteran 4th and 23rd Army Corps.  These men and Hood's Army of Tennessee were old adversaries.  

"Hard marches and occasional hard fighting late in September and throughout October had failed to draw Sherman out of Atlanta or achieve any gains of substance.  October 31 found Hood's army at the Tennessee River crossing at Tuscumbia, Alabama.  Here, heavy rains and a dismal supply situation had further delayed him for three long weeks.

"Hood intended to interpose his 38,000-man army between the 30,000 men of Schofield's Union 4th and 23rd Army Corps located around Pulaski, Tennessee, and the roughly 30,000-man garrison of Nashville.  Hood was confident that he could defeat the two Federal forces in detail, resulting in the capture of the massive Northern supply depot at Nashville.  With dual victories to bolster his reputation, and with his army re-armed and equipped at Union expense, Hood could then continue the offensive into Kentucky and Ohio.  Hood surmised that such an incursion into Federal territory would result in a Northern panic, diverting resources from the siege of Petersburg in Virginia and prompting a recall of Sherman's forces from Georgia.  

"Hood's initial series of flanking maneuvers forced Schofield to retreat from Pulaski to the Duck River crossings at Columbia, Tennessee.  Hood determined to flank his army around Schofield's left (eastern) flank and seize the turnpike in Schofield's rear at Spring Hill.  Forrest's cavalry first crossed the Duck River ten miles upstream at Huey's Mill on November 28.  In a series of brilliant feints and fights, Forrest drove the Union cavalry toward Nashville and away from Schofield, removing the Yankee horsemen from the scene.  Having accomplished this, Forrest turned for Spring Hill.  Leaving one corps and the bulk of the artillery on the south bank of the Duck River to hold Schofield at Columbia, Hood's remaining two corps marched east to cross the Duck at Davis Ford, three miles east of town.  Hood had succeeded in slipping around Schofield's flank.  

"Although Hood had a lead in the 'Spring Hill Race,' Schofield had not been completely deceived.  Receiving early morning reports that Hood's infantry was crossing the Duck River, Schofield had begun to withdraw to Franklin by sending his 800 wagons and most of his artillery up the Columbia-Nashville Turnpike with a guard of Brigadier General George Wagner's division.

(Map of Hood's Campaign)

Time Line of the Engagement at Spring Hill, November 29, 1864
 

"11:30 a.m.:  Forrest's cavalry approached Spring Hill from the east and initially drove the Union covering force toward Spring Hill.  Two miles east of town, Forrest's vedettes bumped into Schofield's advance skirmishers.

"2:00 p.m.:  Forrest's riders are within 400 yards of the town, but they withdraw at the sight of the Federal infantry double-timing up the pike.  Wagner's division of Federals establishes defensive positions around the town of Spring Hill.  

"3:00 p.m.:  Against the advice of his subordinates, Forrest orders a cavalry assault on the Union positions, which is easily repulsed.  Forrest remarks, "They was in there, sure enough, wasn't they."

"3:00 p.m.:  Cleburne's division crosses Rutherford Creek, southeast of Spring Hill.  They are the first Confederate infantry to arrive on the field.  At about the same time, Hood's horse slips on the muddy, badly rutted road, and Hood sustains a bruising, painful fall.  He retires to Absalom Thompson's home, Oaklawn, for the evening.

"3:45 p.m.:  Cleburne halts his division along the Rally Hill Pike and forms them fronting westward, Brigadier General Hiram Granbury's brigade on the left (south), Brigadier General Daniel Govan's brigade in the center, and Brigadier General Mark Lowrey's brigade on the right (north).

"4:00 p.m.:  Cleburne's lines move toward the turnpike.  As Lowrey's brigade marches forward, they expose their flank to Bradley's concealed line of battle.  Lowrey's men come under intense fire.  Cleburne orders his entire division into the battle.  Bradley is outflanked and outnumbered; the Union line begins to waver, then crumble, and is finally shattered.

"5:00 p.m.:  Cleburne advances in pursuit, only to be halted by a barrage from Federal artillery pieces emplaced across the Columbia-Nashville Pike.  Sunlight has faded into sunset and Cleburne has run into heavy opposition.  He withdraws and calls for support and instructions.

"5:45 p.m.:  Confusion begins to reign in the Confederate high command.  Bate's division is marched and counter-marched, and conflicting orders arrive from Hood and General Frank Cheatham, the Confederate Corps commander on the scene.

"9:00 p.m.:  All Confederate activity ceases.  Commanders, officers, and soldiers settle into an inexplicable lethargy.  

"5:30 p.m.-midnight:  While the Confederates sleep, the Union Army marches past them on the Columbia-Franklin Pike.  The Confederate campfires are visible from the road.

"2:00 a.m., November 30:  The Federal rear guard withdraws.  Schofield's army has escaped Hood's trap.

"Dawn, November 30:  John Bell Hood awakes to discover the Union escape.  At a breakfast council of war at the Cheairs residence, Rippavilla, Hood 'is as wrathy as a rattlesnake this morning, striking at everything.'  

"4:00 p.m., November 30:  Hood orders a rash, poorly considered frontal attack on Schofield's earthworks at Franklin.  By 10:00 that night, the Confederate Army of Tennessee no longer exists as a viable fighting force."  

(Text used by permission of the Tennessee Visitors Bureau.)