Nashville Tennessee State Capitol Building, Nashville

James N.

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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
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East Texas
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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 reknowned 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.

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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 resurgance, 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.

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Hopefully, the current occupants of the beautifully restored House ( above ) and Senate ( below ) chambers are less turbulent than their wartime counterparts!

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Tennessee pays tribute throughout the building to it's former U. S. presidents, especially Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson, but the tomb of James K. Polk ( above ) was considered a tourist attraction during the war and Federal occupation. The original study for the famous Antebellum statue of Jackson in New Orleans' Jackson Square was placed on the grounds postwar, below.

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A more recent tribute to a favorite son of a later conflict also graces the capitol grounds:
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So how do you post a picture directly? I am tech challenged.

It's really easy IF you have the image stored in the My Pictures feature of your computer. ( You know - where you have photos of kids, grandkids, dogs, etc., and where I have pictures of Playboy Playmates - er, I MEAN Civil War generals, maps, vacation photos, etc. ) Assuming you have some saved, just click below on Upload a File, and a window should open giving you access to your My Pictures; scroll to the folder you want, click on it and open it. After it opens, scroll to the photo you want to post, click on it, then on the OPEN button. It should show on this as a blue bar indicating how much of it is done; when it's finished, it will give you an option: Thumbnail or Full Image - pick the one you want and click on it. Tip: I've been using pretty BIG photos - it's best if they're not TOO big, say 1000 pixels or less across. Don't be afraid to experiment; you'll soon get the hang of it, just like I did!
 
I worked at the Hermitage Hotel for a while. It was actually built in 1910. Gov. Johnson fortified the capitol with sandbags and Parrott rifles, but claimed he would rather they named the fort after some martyr to the cause. The name Fort Johnson stuck, though.
 
I worked at the Hermitage Hotel for a while. It was actually built in 1910. Gov. Johnson fortified the capitol with sandbags and Parrott rifles, but claimed he would rather they named the fort after some martyr to the cause. The name Fort Johnson stuck, though.

I THOUGHT I'd saved the Walking Tour brochure of the capitol I'd picked up there, plus one for the hotel, but when I looked I couldn't find either. So Mea Culpa! trying to remember it all!
 
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