Battle of Nashville: Harding Road

By mid-December 1864 Thomas had over 54,000 effectives, more than twice Hood's numbers, including Schofield's Twenty-third Corps and about 12,000 men under Andrew J. Smith brought from Missouri. Hood's line ran five miles, with Cheatham on the right near Nolensville Pike, Lee in the center on Franklin Pike and Stewart on the left, bent back near Hillsboro Pike. It did not cover all the major roads, and both flanks were vulnerable. The Confederate loss in the battle was about 6,000, many of them captured; the Union loss was just over 3,000.

What the plaque says

Battle of Nashville In position from here northward along high ground, Ector's Brigade of French's Confederate Division commanded by Col. Daniel Coleman, outposted the left of Hood's line. Attacked by the Federal XVI Corps, supported by artillery and part of the Cavalry Corps, it was overwhelmed. It withdrew southeast to Hillsboro Pike.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fisk University and Jubilee Hall — 3.6 mi
  The 1866 school for freed people whose Jubilee Singers paid for Jubilee Hall, a National Historic Landmark, and whose students helped start Nashville's sit-ins.
• Fort Negley — 4.1 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 4.3 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 4.3 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.

More markers nearby

• Washington Hall — 1.0 mi
• Richland Creek Bridge — 1.4 mi
• Belle Meade Deer Park — 1.6 mi
• Battle of Nashville: Charlotte Pike — 1.7 mi