December 1964 Centennial edition
COMPLETE COPY OF THE NASHVILLE EDITION OF THE CIVIL WAR TIMES ILLUSTRATED
To honor the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16, 1864, The Civil War Times Illustrated devoted its entire December 1964 magazine to the Nashville conflict. This outstanding edition was highlighted by articles from such respected Civil War experts as Stanley Horn, Nashville historian and author of The Decisive Battle of Nashville. Mr. Horn revisited the theme of his book with his article: “The Most Decisive Battle of the Civil War.” Other articles explored the human interest side of the war in Nashville, the Union fortifications around the city, Gen. Hood’s invasion of Tennessee, and cavalry operations in the Nashville area. A number of excellent Civil War era photos of Nashville are included as well as the cover painting (above) by Nashville artist Ralph McDonald.
BONPS requested and received permission from The Civil War Times to make this edition available on the website. Please visit the Civil War Times website at http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-times.
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INTERVIEW WITH STANLEY F. HORN
This wide-ranging interview of Stanley Horn took place in Nashville in June, 1976 when he was 87 years old. The interviewer was Charles W. Crawford. Mr. Horn by then had authored 10 books, including the first detailed account of the Battle of Nashville entitled The Decisive Battle of Nashville, published in 1956. His many accomplishments in the area of Tennessee history included serving as State Historian of Tennessee and chairman of the Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission.
Interview with Stanley Horn
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The South Is Risen, by Cara Moses. Link to an interesting story about the Battle of Nashville
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Example of the Rebel Yell
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National Archives: Record Ordering Demystified: 10 East Steps
Genealogical Research
Effectively Tapping into Local, County, State Historical Societies and Libraries
By Barry J. Ewell
A detailed 69-page guide to researching your roots.
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Nashville National Cemetery
One of many Civil War sections of the National Cemetery
1420 Gallatin Road South, Madison, TN 37115
(615) 860-0086
Office hours: M-F 8-4:30.
Gates open for visitation during daylight hours.
For more information, go to the cemetery website:
Civil War section of National Cemetery
BURIAL LISTINGS:
On this website, there are 12,769 listings for Civil War-era soldiers (Union) buried at the National Cemetery.
View Burial Listings of Civil War-ear Soldiers
(Alphabetized by Last Name):
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ
In addition, there are 4,131 unknown soldiers buried there.
Information for known burials includes (in order) Last Name, First Name and (if available) Middle Initial, Burial Section, Grave Number, Date of Death, State, and Rank.
HISTORY OF THE CEMETERY
This hallowed ground was established as a U.S. Military Cemetery on Jan. 28, 1867. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad runs through the cemetery, dividing it into two nearly equal halves. The stone wall around the cemetery and the limestone archway at the front entrance were constructed in 1870. Among other outbuildings and structures, a speaker’s rostrum was completed in 1940.
Roll of Honor, No. XXII, dated July 31, 1869, submitted to Quartermaster General’s Office, U.S.A., Washington, D.C., recorded the graves of 16,485 Union soldiers interred in the national cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee and remains as a part of the cemetery’s historical records.
Originally there were 16,489 interments (burials) of known soldiers and employees: 38 were officers, 10,300 were white soldiers, 1,447 were colored soldiers, and 703 were employees.
Among the unknown, there were 3,098 white soldiers, 463 colored soldiers and 29 employees. The deceased had been gathered from an extensive region of Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. The number of distinct burial places from which these bodies were taken is 251.
A very large proportion of the dead in the cemetery, however, were transferred from the hospital burial grounds in and around the city of Nashville and from temporary burial grounds around general hospitals in Nashville and nearby battlefields of Franklin and Gallatin, Tenn. Reinterments were also made from Bowling Green and Cave City, Ky.
During the Civil War, if marked at all, wooden headboards with the names and identifying data painted thereon marked graves of those who died in general hospitals, on the battlefields, or as prisoners of war. Many of these headboards deteriorated through exposure to the elements. The result was that when the remains were later removed for burial to a national cemetery, identifications could not be established, and the gravesites were marked as unknown.
NOTABLE MONUMENTS, MARKERS:
- Statue dedicated in 2006 to the United States Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War, including both days of The Battle of Nashville at Granbury’s Lunette and Peach Orchard Hill. This is the only free standing monument of a United States Colored Troop in America. Sculptor Roy W. Butler used William Radcliffe of the 13thUSCT as a model for the statue.
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Monument to "U.S. Colored Troops"
USCT soldier looks over Civil War Section of the National Cemetery
- One of the oldest private markers in the cemetery is a spire located in Section M, Grave 16234, which was dedicated to the memory of James A. Leonard of the 1st Kansas Battery. He was killed by guerillas on Jan. 23, 1864 and interred on Jan. 27, 1864.
- In 1920, the State of Minnesota erected a monument in Section MM inscribed, “In memory of her soldiers here buried who lost their lives in the service of the United States in war for Preservation of the Union–AD 1861-1865.”
- Chaplain Erastus M. Cravath, 101st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was interred in Section MM, Grave 16694, in 1900. Chaplain Cravath was one of the founders of Fisk University in Nashville, and served for 25 years as its president.
- Colonel James W. Lawless, 5th Kentucky Cavalry, was buried in Section MM, Grave 10662, on June 25, 1899. Col. Lawless was born in Ireland and came to the United States at the age of 16.
Colonel Edward S. Jones, Commander of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, was also the founder of the Department of Tennessee and Georgia Grand Army of the Republic and served as Commander for many years. He was interred in Section MM, Grave 16520, in Nov. 1866.
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“General George Thomas, The Sledge of Nashville,” by Historian Brian S. Wills
- BONPS Program Director Mac Mellor, left, and speaker Brian Steel Wills, who shows his acclaimed biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest
Gen. George Henry Thomas, the victorious Union commander at the Battle of Nashville, was a native Virginian and career soldier who felt honor-bound to stay loyal to the Union when the Civil War began. The military career of General Thomas was the subject of a BONPS program on June 17, 2004, at Belmont Mansion featuring Brian Steel Wills, a professor of history at the University of Virginia at Clinch Valley. Professor Wills is also a tour guide and biographer of Nathan Bedford Forrest with a biography of General Thomas in the works — “The Sledge of Nashville.” In 1860, Thomas supported the unsuccessful Presidential candidacy of Tennessean John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. He was offered the position as Chief of Ordnance for the state of Virginia but he turned it down.
Because he fought for the Union, his family disowned him, “turned his picture to the wall,” and there was no reconciliation after the war.
Prior to the Battle of Nashville, Gen. U.S. Grant had nearly relieved Thomas of command because he was “too slow” in attacking Hood’s army.
After the battle, despite Thomas’ valuable military leadership at Mill Springs, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, and Nashville, Grant virtually dissolved Thomas’ command, scattering his troops throughout the Western Theater.
Wills considers Thomas to be one of the best generals of the Civil War, if not the best, ranking above even Grant and Sherman.
Thomas was a graduate of West Point (ranking 12th in the 1840 class of 42) and fought in the Seminole and Mexican wars.
Being a Virginian, his loyalty to the Union was often questioned. President Lincoln had his doubts, at least until Thomas’ West Point roommate, William T. Sherman, vouched for him.
Thomas was honest to a fault and did not participate in army politics. He was not much at self promotion.
During the 1862 Kentucky campaign, the command of the Dept. of the Ohio was offered to Thomas, but he turned it down because he thought it unfair to replace his commander, Gen. Don Carlos Buell, in the middle of a campaign.
Later, Thomas was “mortified” when he was overlooked and Buell was replaced by Gen. William S. Rosecrans, an officer of junior rank. Nevertheless he carried on as the loyal soldier that he was.
At Murfreesboro, his men held the center and prevented a rout of Rosecrans’ army. Asked after the first day if the beleaguered army should retreat, he replied, “I can think of no better place to die.” Days later, it was the Confederates who retreated.
At Chickamauga, a great Confederate victory, Thomas prevented a complete disaster and commanded an orderly retreat, earning the name “Rock of Chickamauga.”
At Missionary Ridge, his men stormed and carried the heights, stealing the honors from Grant’s favorite, Sherman. But, again, Thomas refused to take much of the credit.
Wills noted that writing a biography of Thomas is not an easy task in that his wife, a native Northerner, destroyed all of the general’s papers upon his death in 1870. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, NY, his wife’s home.
