Battle of Nashville & Beyond

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Shy’s Hill Pano

Shy’s Hill 360° Panorama Virtual Tour

4615 Benton Smith Road, Nashville, TN

Revised: 12 Feb 2019

painting
Painting by Howard Pyle | Oil on Canvas, 1906, Minnesota Historical Society Collections

Battle of Nashville: Day 2

“At about 3:30 p.m. he sent a message to Thomas and XVI Corps commander Gen. Andrew Smith that unless he were given orders to the contrary in the next five minutes, his division was going to attack Compton’s Hill and the Confederate line immediately to its east”… read more

Minnesota lost more men in this action than any other. Shy’s Hill Park is open all year long from sun-up to sundown. It requires a steep 10 minute hike to the top from Benton Smith Road off Harding Place. The tour has links to other expanded tours of the Battle of Nashville and the Nashville National Cemetery as noted by the small white floating globe icons in the panorama.

There are links in the virtual reality tour to others, including:

  • the grave site of Colonel William M. Shy.
  • the Minnesota State Capitol
  • expanded tour of The Battle of Nashville

Note: get the full screen experience by clicking the icon in the lower left of the video frame. A zoom option is available also for reading the historical signage. Some markers are embedded in the floating icons.

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More tours

Suggested Reading:

#battleofnashville #shyshill #360

© Bob Henderson | Athens-South

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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