Nashville, Battle of

▪ American Civil War

  (December 15–16, 1864), in the American Civil War, decisive Union victory over the Confederates that ended organized Southern resistance in Tennessee for the remainder of the war. Hoping to cut the supply lines of the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman (Sherman, William Tecumseh) and perhaps to threaten Cincinnati, Ohio, and other Northern cities, Confederate General John B. Hood (Hood, John B) moved back into Tennessee in late 1864, incurring heavy losses in an engagement with General John M. Schofield's Union troops at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30. As Hood approached Nashville in early December, a Union force of quickly assembled heterogeneous troops under General George H. Thomas (Thomas, George H) marched out of the city and administered a resounding defeat to the South on December 15–16. The Confederate army retreated in near disorder to Alabama, and, though Hood escaped, his army virtually ceased to exist as a fighting force.

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