Cheatham's Line

While the main blow fell on the Confederate left, James Steedman's Provisional Detachment struck Cheatham's corps here on the morning of December 15, 1864, as a holding attack. Steedman used a brigade of United States Colored Troops, the 14th, 16th, 17th and 44th USCT with a battalion of the 18th, alongside a white brigade he described as new conscripts, convalescents and bounty jumpers. Both came under enfilading fire at Granbury's Lunette and fell back in disorder before regrouping. Historians differ on whether the diversion pulled Confederate troops away, but it pinned Cheatham in place.

What the plaque says

Cheatham's Line Holding a line running NE and SW and with its right on the NC & St. L. R.R. at Rains Cut, Cheatham's Confederate Corps stood off the attacks of Steedman's brigades. Part of Cheatham's Corps was moved to the support of Stewart's life late in the afternoon; collapse of the left wing forced Cheatham's withdrawal southward during the night.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Negley — 2.1 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.
• National Museum of African American Music — 3.2 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 3.2 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 3.3 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.

More markers nearby

• Walden College — 1.4 mi
• Battle of Nashville: Franklin Pike — 1.5 mi
• Tom Wilson Park — 1.8 mi
• Cameron-Trimble & Black Self-Emancipation / Education for Black Empowerment — 1.9 mi