Confederate Attacks at Spring Hill

Cleburne's attack failed because of how it was laid out, not how hard it was pushed. At about 4 p.m. his 3,000 men advanced en echelon against Bradley's brigade. Cheatham expected them to drive straight into Spring Hill, while Hood meant them to sweep toward the pike and wheel left, though he apparently had not seen where the Union positions south of town lay. The stairstep formation was less effective against Bradley's fortified right and front. Brown's supporting division never attacked, because its right flank was unprotected and the light was gone.

What the plaque says

Confederate Attacks at Spring Hill On November 29, 1864, General Nathan B. Forrest approached Spring Hill from the east at 11:30 a.m. From here, General James Chalmers launched an attack to seize the Columbia-Nashville Pike to the west. Surprised by strong Union forces, Chalmers was defeated. Upon his return, Forrest noted "They was in there sure enough, wasn't they, Chalmers?" At 3:45 p.m., Major General Patrick Cleburne's division attacked the Union forces and defeated Brigadier General Luther P. Bradley's brigade. Union resistance and darkness halted Cleburne's pursuit of Bradley's brigade.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Mink Slide and East 8th Street — 10 mi
  Columbia's Black business and church district south of the courthouse square, where on the night of February 25, 1946 a white mob gathered and Black veterans stood guard.
• James K. Polk Home and Museum — 11 mi
  The 1816 brick house in Columbia where Polk practiced law and campaigned for the legislature, now a museum that also tells of the people the Polk family enslaved.
• Carnton — 12 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Henry Horton State Park — 16 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.

More markers nearby

• Ewell Farm — 1.0 mi
• William Banks Caperton — 1.1 mi
• Rippavilla Plantation — 1.7 mi
• Star Pointer — 2.2 mi