Hood's Retreat December 16, 1864

Pursuit slowed because Thomas had sent his pontoon train toward Murfreesboro instead of Franklin and Columbia, so artillery and supply trains could not cross the Harpeth until it arrived. Hood's infantry crossed the Duck River at Columbia on December 19 and destroyed the bridges, and Thomas did not cross until December 23. Hood's army crossed the Tennessee on a pontoon bridge near Bainbridge, Alabama, by December 28. Colonel William Palmer's cavalry captured the Confederate pontoon train on December 30, ending the pursuit. Hood asked to be relieved on January 13, 1865.

What the plaque says

Hood's Retreat December 16, 1864 In this neighborhood, late in the evening of his decisive defeat at Nashville, Hood reorganized his army for withdrawal southward. Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee's Corps, supported by Chalmers' Cavalry Division, covered the withdrawal, fighting continuously until the army bivouacked near Spring Hill, 21 mil. S., the night of Dec. 17th.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Negley — 7.1 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 — 8.1 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 — 8.2 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 — 8.2 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

• Hiram and Eveline Overton's Wagon and Blacksmith Shop — 2.3 mi
• Travellers' Rest — 2.4 mi
• John Haywood — 3.9 mi
• John Bell's Birthplace — 3.9 mi