![]() ![]() John Bell Hood 17 days before when he ordered an open-field assault on the entrenched Federal line in Franklin on Nov. ![]() Wood also made a questionable decision, one that proved to be as critical, and ironically similar to, the devastating decision made by Gen. At the end of the day, Lee’s Corps had handily won the field of battle at Peach Orchard and could have done so without Cleburne’s two brigades, which in hindsight were badly needed on the hard-pressed Confederate left. Smith) defending the southwest slope of Shy’s Hill – Lowery’s and Granbury’s - to reinforce Clayton’s Division at Peach Orchard Hill. Hood became worried about the artillery bombardment sounding from the east, and decided to pull two brigades from Cleburne’s Division (Gen. As the day wore on, officers on both sides made unwise decisions that later proved to be costly. Federal artillery began a relentless pounding of the Confederate positions in the early morning and continued the heavy barrage most of the day, causing injury to troops and damage to defensive works, horses and morale. The men of Lee’s Corps were exhausted from Thursday’s fighting and the all-night repositioning and effort to throw up defensive works, including felling trees and other obstructions for abatis in front of their lines, as they watched the impressive blue array of Wood’s Corps assembling to their north. Washington Elliott’s Second Division, Brig. Wood, a 42-year-old West Pointer who was a career U.S. The eastern wing of the Union line was assigned by Commanding General George Thomas to Brig. 16, brought another rainy, misty day as Federal forces began to amass north of Peach Orchard Hill. They could not be fully utilized during the day due to a shortage of ammunition, but at close range, they were devastating when combat erupted late in the afternoon.įirst light on Friday, Dec. Their exhausted troops dug in around the high ground during the night and early morning hours following their retreat from the area around Granbury’s Lunette the day before. The two divisions of Lee’s Corp were under the command of Maj. ![]() Lee, 31, a West Point graduate who went on to become the first president of Mississippi State University. It was more commonly known in the community as “Peach Orchard Hill.”ĭefense of the eastern flank was assigned to the corps of Confederate Lt. John Bell Hood as a headquarters during the Nashville campaign. John Overton II, whose house, Travellers Rest, had been used by Gen. The latter was part of the 1,050 acre plantation of Col. Each end of the line was established on a prominent hill – on the western flank, Compton’s Hill (later, “Shy’s Hill”), and on the east, Overton’s Hill. After a punishing first day of battle on December 15, 1864, the Confederate army pulled back to a shorter battle line more than two miles south, roughly stretching east-west along what is now Harding Place and Battery Lane. ![]()
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