Photos this page courtesy of David McMinn, TN and Chris Shelton, IN

(1997) Belmont Mansion ---- Served as the Union headquarters for Union Generals David Stanley and Thomas Wood. This was the Union�s outer defense from Fort Negley and around Nashville facing south. Present day Woodmont Boulevard split the Union and Southern troops

David McMinn photo

(2007) Enlarge The Belmont Mansion bell tower stands tall and served as a lookout post for Union troops watching Confederate forces under General John Bell Hood

Chris Shelton photo

(June 2013) Enlarge Travellers' Rest. Otherwise known as the Overton House, this is one of a very few period structures on what was once the battlefield. Built by John Overton, one of Andrew Jackson's law partners, the oldest part of the house dates to prior to the War of 1812, as does Jackson's nearby much-better-known Hermitage. Now a house museum, it mainly interprets the life and career of Overton and his family, who continued to add to the original structure shown below. Before the war, the Nashville & Decatur Railroad passed just a little west of the house
 
By the time of Hood's approach to the outskirts of Nashville, his Army of Tennessee had been too eviscerated at Franklin to do more than position itself on hills overlooking the unassailable Federal works like Ft. Negley. Hood made the Overton House his headquarters for the two-week period it took Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas to prepare the expected counterattack to drive the Confederates away. Hood hoped in vain any such move would so weaken or derange Federal forces so as to make them vulnerable to a slashing counterattack, something he utterly failed to recognize his army was no longer capable of. It's easy to imagine the tense staff meetings and dinners held here in the dining room of which Mrs. Overton was so proud to have served so many distinguished Confederate guests!
 
James Neel photo

(June 2013) Enlarge Travellers' Rest
 
Travellers' Rest Interpretive Marker: Courtesy of Andy Creighton, TN
 
James Neel photo

(1997) Travellers' Rest

David McMinn photo

(1997) Fort Negley ---- Not much is known about this landlocked fort; however, some believe that the opening shots of the Battle of Nashville were fired from here. The fort was part of the Union army�s outer perimeter south of Nashville
 
David McMinn photo

Seven pages of Fort Negley photos, courtesy of Andrew Turnier, NC

(June 2013) Enlarge State Capitol Building and War Memorial Plaza as seen from Nashville's 1906 Hermitage Hotel
 
At the beginning of the Civil War, Tennessee boasted one of the newest, largest, and most beautiful State Capitals in the Nation. Completed in 1859 immediately before secession and the outbreak of hostilities, it was so renowned it was featured on new Confederate currency as a symbol of Southern pride, power and culture. It was therefore a terrible blow to the South when Nashville fell so early in the war to the Army of the Ohio led by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell at the end of March, 1862. From that time, Nashville remained in Federal hands and served as the capital of the restored pro-Union government of Military Governor and politically-appointed Brig. Gen. Andrew Johnson
 
Courtesy of James Neel

(June 2013) Enlarge The classically-inspired building is deceptively larger than it appears at first glance. From here, "Tennessee" Johnson and his successor, Knoxville Unionist newspaperman William G. "Parson" Brownlow, ruled over a far-flung "empire", often with a heavy hand. Ever fearing a Confederate resurgence, Federal occupation troops heavily fortified the building, even arming it with 30-pounder Parrott rifled cannon! A garrison was encamped just outside the strong-but-makeshift government "fortress", remaining there until well after the one vain attempt, that by John Bell Hood's severely outnumbered and outclassed army in December, 1864
 
Courtesy of James Neel