Colored Troops' contribution in Battle of Nashville rememberedBy

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Colored Troops' contribution in Battle of Nashville remembered

PEGGY SHAW - Staff Writer- Tennessean


NASHVILLE — U.S. Colored Troops from the Civil War will be remembered tonight at a free panel discussion at Travellers Rest Plantation and Museum just north of Brentwood.

''The Fight for Peach Orchard Hill,'' organized with the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, will focus on one of the bloodiest engagements of the 1864 Battle of Nashville, according to Travellers Rest Director David Currey.

According to Currey, Peach Orchard Hill is considered ground zero of the second day of the Battle of Nashville, Dec. 16, 1864.

Some 10,000 Union soldiers engaged two depleted brigades of Confederates — about 3,500 men — who were significantly outnumbered in the fighting. Federal soldiers attacked a heavily fortified Confederate position on a small rise in the middle of what had been a plantation peach orchard owned by Judge John Overton of Travellers Rest. The Union soldiers, including Colored Infantry regiments, were repulsed and suffered heavy casualties, including five Union color-bearers.

''When I see the period photographs from the stone wall in the aftermath of Fredericksburg, or the cornfield at Antietam, the destruction and loss of life at Peach Orchard Hill immediately comes to mind,'' Currey said. ''You read the reports of soldiers who claimed they could not tread along the slope of the hill without stepping on a soldier in blue.

''Thousands of people travel through that intersection (Franklin Road and Harding Place) every day and don't realize that hundreds of men died just yards from there.''

Mark Zimmerman, author of the BNPS book Guide to Civil War Nashville, described the battle this way: ''The U.S. Army suffered 1,000 casualties (one-third of its total in the battle) during several ill-fated assaults against heavily fortified Confederate positions under Gen. Stephen D. Lee. The 13th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops did reach the parapet but lost 220 in heavy fighting.

''Due to highway construction, little remains of the hill, which was part of the Overton estate known as Travellers Rest.''

Travellers Rest served as the headquarters of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood during the Battle of Nashville.

Tonight's panelists will include: Currey, Travellers Rest director and a writer for the Fort Negley Historical Park Project; Thomas Cartwright, director of the Carter House in Franklin and a frequent consultant for the History and Discovery channels; Ross Massey, BNPS historian; and Doug Jones, a Nashville lawyer and out-going president of the society, who will moderate.

Travellers Rest, begun in 1799, was originally the home of Judge Overton, one of Tennessee's most influential citizens of the early 19th century. Overton helped found both Nashville and Memphis, and was a state Supreme Court justice and friend of President Andrew Jackson.

Travellers Rest is now a nonprofit site that provides tours, special events and exhibits, educational programming and rental facilities. The museum is located at 636 Farrell Parkway, just south of downtown Nashville off Interstate 65.