Battle of Nashville & Beyond

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Battle of Atlanta

McPherson Memorial Park

1400 McPherson Ave SE (Monument Ave)
Atlanta, GA 30316

Like many pivotal American Civil War battlefields in the South, there is not much left. Kennesaw Mountain is part of The Atlanta Champaign, but the Battle of Atlanta proper, has this small slice in honor of one of the U.S. Armies most popular leaders: Major General James Birdseye McPherson (November 14, 1828 – July 22, 1864). In fact, he was popular with many officers in the Confederate command, for his fair treatment of the vanquished of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The park is so obscure I passed it twice without noticing the tiny partial. It is possibly the smallest Civil War Park in the nation.

The 35 year old West Pointer was the second highest ranking solider killed in the war and was mourned by advisories Generals John B. Hood and Joseph E. Johnston. It is located near East Atlanta Village.

More about the monument…

 

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Camp Chase

monumentCamp Chase P.O.W. Confederate Prison

In May of 1861 Camp Chase was established as a training facility for U.S. Army recruits. After the fall of Fort Donelson in early 1862, it was quickly over flowing with prisoners of war from the Confederacy. In that year Johnson’s Island Prison relocated most of their enlisted Confederate prisoners here. The two acre site holds 2260 Confedarate soldiers who died in captivity at the prison.

The cemetery was vandalized in 2017, toppling a statue of a Confederate solider atop the stone monument. Visiting the site in the spring of this year, I met one of the security guards that keeps a close eye on the cemetery. He was no second string law enforcement officer. The same goes for the one at Johnson’s Island.

 

2900 Sullivant Ave., Columbus, Ohio

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Johnson’s Island Prison

Confederate P.O.W. Camp in Ohio

From 1862 to 1865 Johnson’s Island Prison, near Sandusky, Ohio was a P.O.W. camp for Confederate prisoners. After 1862, the camp separated the enlisted prisoners to Camp Chase Prison in Columbus, Ohio. For the duration of the war, Johnson’s Island housed primarily Confederate officers, including General Officers: Isaac R. Trimble and James J. Archer (both captured at the Battle of Gettysburg), Thomas Benton Smith, Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, M. Jeff Thompson, John S. Marmaduke, William Lewis Cabell and William Beall.

drawing“The 16.5-acre prison opened in April 1862. A 15-foot-high wooden stockade surrounded 12 two-story prisoner housing barracks, a hospital, latrines, sutler’s stand, three wells, a pest house, and two large mess halls (added in August 1864).” …read more on Wikipedia

Johnson’s Island is a residential community now, but the stockade cemetery remains, and is very well maintained. It has 206 headstones (a little over 20 men were taken back south after the war). The grounds are patrolled by private security, and the local community is very protective of this historical landmark. The site includes a Confederate monument, the only remaining one in Ohio (the Camp Chase monument was destroyed in 2017 by activist).

A three point 360º virtual reality tour of the stockade cemetery:

Johnson’s Island Causeway, Marblehead, OH 43440

By Bob Henderson

This authors GGGF, 2nd Lt. Walter Scott Bearden and twin brother 3rd Lt. Edwin Ryall Bearden 41st Tennessee Infantry, were sent here after their capture at Fort Donelson, TN. They were exchanged in 1862 and resumed duty at Vicksburg.

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Minnesota State Capitol

Civil War Paintings

shy's hill

Minnesota has one of the most magnificent governmental headquarters in the country. It is also home to the most iconic image of the Battle of Nashville, along with 3 other key American Civil War battles:

  • The Battle of Gettysburg
  • The Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge
  • Fourth Minnesota Regiment Entering Vicksburg
  • The Battle of Nashville at Shy’s Hill (5th, 7th, 9th and 10th MN)

The Battle of Nashville cost Minnesota when 87 died in Tennessee. The day is remembered in Howard Pyle’s painting “Battle of Nashville” at the Minnesota Capitol.  Shy’s Hill was the site of the deadliest day for Minnesotans fighting in the Civil War, and the heaviest losses in the Battle of Nashville.

The four paintings were almost permanently relocated after a massive renovation in 2016. “The Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board voted 5-3 to recommend that the four historic paintings not be returned to the building’s most ornate room when the $310 million Capitol renovation is completed in January.” …read more

Take a virtual reality tour of the Capitol building and the Governor’s Reception Room:

 

Click here: Take a virtual reality tour of Shy’s Hill in Nashville, Tennessee

Click here: Battle of Nashville painting by Howard Pyle

Click here: Minnesota Statue at the Nashville National Cemetery

Imagery and tour by Bob Henderson

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Col. Shy’s Grave Robing

Colonel William Mabry Shy robed 114 later

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Save the 20th TN Flag

I was attended a wedding party last weekend near Franklin, TN and was surprised to find a most unexpected historical site in the back yard: the previously 1977 vandalized grave of Colonel William Shy, 20th Tennessee Infantry CSA.

I discovered the grave robbery had been finally traced back to a young man from Franklin.  According to the current property owner, the culprit had been on a construction team renovating the home. He was never prosecuted, and died years ago in a motor cycle accident.

The publication referenced below is dated from 1985. Sometime later, the artifacts stollen were unanimously turned over to the Carter House Museum, where the coffin had been donated by the family after the incident.

‘THE PILLAGED GRAVE OF A CIVIL WAR HERO’

“Occasionally unusual circumstances arise that call for the excavation of a historic burial. In 1977 the grave of Civil War hero Colonel W.M. Shy was disturbed. Upon examination a body was discovered that was thought to have been a recent murder victim. After a thorough examination, the body was identified as that of Colonel Shy.”

skull
114 years later

Colonel William M. Shy (1838-1864)

“After the battle, Compton’s (Shy’s) Hill was covered with the dead and wounded from both sides. Among them was Colonel Shy; handsome in life, heroic in death. Dead at the age of 26, a minnie ball in his brain. He had been shot at close range, [his head being powder-burned around the hole made by the shot] (Marshall 1912:522).”

“Vandalism of the Grave The grave of Colonel Shy lay peacefully behind the beautiful antebellum home on Del Rio Pike with little notoriety for over a hundred years. Then, on Christmas Eve of 1977, local police officers were called to investigate a report that the grave had been disturbed.

Upon arriving, the deputies discovered a head­less body on top of the casket and thought someone had placed a murdered man in Colonel Shy’s burial plot. Local authorities could not match the headless corpse with any of their missing persons reports. Wild theories abounded, some even specu­lated that the head might have been removed to hamper identi­fication of the body.

Dr. William M. Bass, Forensic Anthro­pologist and Head of the Anthropology Department, Univer­sity of Tennessee, Knoxville, was called in to aid with the removal and identification of this unknown body. If one had followed the story in the newspapers it would have read much like a condensed version of a Damon Runyon murder mystery.”

– excerpts from ‘THE PILLAGED GRAVE OF A CIVIL WAR HERO’ Col.-Shy-Grave-Robing.pdf

See a 360 degree panorama of Col. Shy’s grave. The tour has a link to Shy’s Hill in Nashville.

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NOTE: this grave is on private property

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