Fortress Tullahoma

Tullahoma's earthworks were never tested; the decision to leave them was made at headquarters. With Union raiders cutting the railroad behind the army, Bragg's men waited in their works for a frontal assault Rosecrans had planned for July 1. Leonidas Polk, alarmed that the army's communications were cut, urged retreat. William Hardee, who had no faith in Bragg, would not recommend withdrawal but offered no encouragement to stay. At 3 p.m. on June 30, 1863, Bragg ordered a night march across the Elk River, a choice historians say cost him a chance to hurt the Union army badly.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 10 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.
• Tims Ford State Park — 10 mi
  A lake park on the Elk River below the Cumberland Plateau, made by a 1970 TVA dam on land the Cherokee and Chickasaw ceded by treaty in the early 1800s.
• Jack Daniel Distillery — 10 mi
  The oldest registered distillery in the United States, in a limestone hollow outside Lynchburg, where the tour now names Nathan Nearest Green, an enslaved man, as the first master distiller.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 16 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.

More markers nearby

• Justice John Catron — 0.3 mi
• Camp Forrest — 0.5 mi
• Isham G. Harris — 0.5 mi
• Franklin-Coffee Co. Line — 1.6 mi