The Battle of Nashville which occurred on the December 15, and 16, 1864 effectively ended the Civil War in the Western theater. Belmont Manson was the scene for many preparations for this battle.
The Battle of Franklin was fought on the last day on November 1864 some fifteen miles away from Belmont. Both Federal and Confederated armies suffered heavy loses. The Federal Army left the field of battle and retreated to the heavily fortified city of Nashville. By daybreak on December 1st Hillsboro and Granny White Pikes along with Franklin Road were clogged with the retreating Union Army. By mid morning Belmont was surrounded in a sea of blue uniforms. At Three o’clock in the afternoon the wounded General David Sloan Stanley was brought into the house along with his garrison staff. General Stanley was wounded the day before in the Battle of Franklin. Belmont became the headquarters of the Fourth Corps of the United States Army of the Cumberland. As the Federal army was begun to dig in around the southern perimeter of Nashville, Adelicia and the children left to go into town and according to tradition stay at Mrs. James K. Polk’s House. As the widow of a President she was unmolested by both armies. Remaining at Belmont was Joseph Acklen’s niece Sally Acklen and the children’s tutor Eloise Census.
Adelicia and family were powerless to stop the destruction of the buildings at Montvale her garden farm that adjoined Belmont to the south. The Federal soldiers continued to fortify the city and form new battle lines. The new outer lines ran through the two-story brick overseer’s house of Montvale. Also destroyed were four brick two room slave cabins and one frame slave cabin. There were a number of agricultural buildings located at Montvale that were torn down over the next week, such as the stable, corncrib, the smoke house, the turkey, and poultry houses. A barn measuring twenty-four feet by forty-eight feet with an attached shed that was sixteen feet by thirty feet was also torn down. Over the next two weeks, the need for firewood became more acute and the four hundred yards of plank fence was taken down along with 2,000 yards of five feet high picket fence that separated Adelicia’s sister’s property, Hillside from Montvale. According to one solider, the 3,500 yards of stone fence was used to quickly build chimneys for our tents.
As December 1st progressed it became obvious that Gen. Stanley could no longer command the Fourth Corp. At 2:00 p.m. he turned command over to Gen Thomas J. Wood the commander of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Fourth Corp. Gen Wood in turn, relinquished command of his Third Division over to Gen. Samuel Beatty who established his headquarters at Adelicia’s sister’s home Hillside.
At 2:30 pm the Confederate Army could be seen approaching to within about a mile and a half of the line running south of the water tower. By nightfall on December 2nd the outer Federal lines were established. The line that was associated with Belmont ran a crossed present day Wedgwood and then ran along the east side of Granny White Pike past Belmont’s service entrance (present day Acklen Avenue). The line then went up the hill through what are now the Hillside Apartments and ran south to Compton Avenue. From Compton it ran south crossing present day Belmont Boulevard to Beechwood Avenue.
By the end of the day, the Fourth Corp was positioned on and just south of the Acklen property with about 4,000 men. In the mansion was Wood’s staff of about twenty men and 122 soldiers, attached to the headquarters, were in the house and the outbuildings. G. W. Lewis with the 124th Ohio Infantry wrote, “Never before was [an] army headquarters so ornamented with such paintings and marbles. We, on the outside, were equally well off, for the spacious grounds were surrounded by nicely built stonewalls that were worked into the chimneys…. The ornamental trees did not make first-rate firewood on account of being green, but we not time for them to dry.”
During the night, the Confederate Army moved up to about six hundred yards from the Union lines. As the day dawned on December 3rd the Union cannons opened fire on the Confederate positions. The cannons kept on firing all day. The Confederate cannons did not return the fire and according to the New York Times the sharpshooters on both sides were “keeping up fire near the widow Acklen’s” place.
Monday the 5th more cannon fire was used to clear the woods south of Belmont to remove the cover in preparation of the battle. Major General Darius Couch reported to Belmont. Since he outranked Gen. Wood he could have assumed command. He refused to exercise his command. He spent two nights at Belmont.
During the night of December 8th, the temperature plunged into the teens. In the early morning a freezing rain began to fall. By mid morning the trees were covered with ice. By early afternoon the horses were not even able to walk on the ice. At 2:00pm a dispatch from Gen. Thomas reached Gen. Wood at Belmont. The planned attack tomorrow morning had been postponed until the weather conditions improved. The temperature continued to fall.
Snow and sleet was still on the ground when Saturday the 10th dawned and the day was bitter cold. At 2:50 p.m. Gen. Wood received a note from Gen. Thomas asking about[i] the condition of the ground between the enemy’s line and their own. At 3:00p.m. Gen. Wood replies that the ground was covered with heavy sleet, and would make the handling of troops difficult.
Wood spent the better part of the afternoon of the 11th examining the enemy lines. Gen. Wood felt that some of the plans for the battle might need some minor adjustments in view of what he found in the afternoon. He requested that Gen. Thomas meet him at Belmont the next day.
Around noon on the 12th Gen. Thomas came to Belmont to meet with Gen. Wood to look at the Confederate lines and discuss the plan for the battle. Thomas goes back to his headquarters to prepare for a 3:00p.m. meeting with all of the commanders. Gen. Wood returned form the meeting downtown and summoned all of the 4th Corp division commanders to Belmont to brief them on the battle plan and tell them to be ready for battle the next day.
Tuesday morning, December 13th broke as cold as the preceding days. The temperature does struggle to get above freezing for the first time in four days. The wood has “given out” in the Union pickets rifle pits. The Confederates had also exhausted all wood supply. The soldiers on the front line called a truce and stop firing at each other. The Union pickets cannot leave their post but get out and walk around to stay warm and try to gather wood. Soldiers from both sides are in full view of each other but no shots are fired. Late in the afternoon Gen. Wood receives word of this unofficial truce and is most upset. He issues orders for it to stop and return to their positions. About 5:00 in the afternoon a southeastern wind starts blowing and brings some thawing.
Wednesday, December 14th would finally bring relief in the form of warmer weather. Adelicia and the children are still in town. Gen. Wood left for a 3:00 P. M. meeting of all of the corps commanders at the headquarters of Maj. General George Thomas in downtown Nashville. After General Wood returned to Belmont the written Special Field Order Number 342 arrived at 6:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m. Gen. Wood assembled all of his division commanders, Brigadier- Generals Kimball, Elliott and Beatty, at Belmont to explain the intended movements for the next day’s battle. At this meeting he gave each one of them a copy of the orders for December 15th. Later in the evening General John M. Schofield and possibility Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith visits General Wood to discuss Thomas’s lack of action.
The Waiting is over. On December 15th 1864 Gen. Wood has reveille sound at 4:00 A.M. and his men moved in a heavy fog at 6:00 a.m. to take up position for the battle. At 12:00 noon, Gen. Wood ordered from Belmont his 13,000 men (13,526) into the battle. As soon as these men are in position, General Charles Cruft’s provisional division moves up take its place near Belmont.
[i] WWR Journal of the 4th Corps. Series I Vol. XLVI/1 [S#93]
Links
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http://www.civilwarhome.com/nashville.htm
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