Naval Actions During the Battle of Nashville
-an overlooked history
What happened before the Battle of Nashville?
Confederate Defeat at Atlanta
image: William T. Sherman
In early September 1864, Union Major General William T. Sherman defeated Confederate General John Bell Hood and captured the Confederate industrial city of Atlanta, Georgia.
Revenge Plan
image: John Bell Hood
Hood was frustrated by the loss and desperately wanted revenge. After several failed attempts to challenge Sherman into a battle that could be fought to his advantage, Hood decided to aim for Nashville which had been occupied by the Union since 1862. Hood would be able to menace Sherman's long line of communication, pose a threat to the north, and reinforce Robert Lee's army in the east if he recaptured the city.
Fortify Nashville
image: George H. Thomas
Sherman eventually got tired of the chase and embarked on the March to the Sea . He deployed Major General George H. Thomas with 70,000 soldiers to keep tabs on Hood.
Map of the Battle of Nashville
With Hood's army defeated and himself resigned right after that, the Battle of Nashville later became one of the largest victories achieved by the Union and marked the end of large-scale battles in Tennessee. However, the naval actions, mainly directed by Lieutenant Commander Le Roy Fitch, were rarely discussed despite their significant contributions to the victory.
The picture on the left is a typical map for the Battle of Nashville where naval actions were not mentioned at all.
In this project, we will use map tours to go through what happened on the river before and during the Battle of Nashville. We hope this can provide more people with a chance to get familiar with this rarely explored side of the civil war.
Gunboats Involved in the Battle
Pictures Of Union Gunboats
Timeline of the Naval Actions
12/1
With a reputation for bravery and aggresiveness, the Confederate general John Bell Hood issued an order to blockage the Cumberland river. In order to do so, Colonel David C. Kelley was sent to Bell’s Bend to build a battery along with 300 soldiers and 4 guns. By the following day, they had covered Hillsboro Pike, Harding Pike, the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, and Charlotte Pike.
12/03 Daytime
Soon after the battery was established, they encountered three federal supply ships—The Prima Donna, The Magnet, and The Prairie State—which were carrying horses and mules from Clarksville to Nashville. The Prima Donna and the Prairie State were immediately captured with 197 horses/mules and 56 people. The Magnet evaded the battery but was seriously damaged and got stuck in the river.
12/03 9:30PM
US Navy left Hydes Ferry (the modern Bordeaux area where the railroad bridge across the Cumberland river) to recover the captured supply ships at 9:30PM. Carondelet set out at 11:15PM as it received the order a bit late. They formed up in the following order: Carondelet was in the lead, followed by FairPlay. Moose (with Commander Le Roy Fitch) was to the right of Fairplay with Reindeer and Silver Lake following behind. Springfield also received the order but was unavailable as it had been sent to escort other transports from Nashville to Stone’s River.
12/04 1:00AM
US Navy arrived at Bell's Bend and came across the Confederate battery at around 1:00AM and a few rounds of firing took place.
Carondelet:
Confederates open a volley of musketry into the boats along the entire line; 26 rounds fired.
Fairplay:
Faired on by 4 guns from the left side of the bank. Hit by 2 twelve pounders that passed through the ship before exploding. 37 rounds fired.
Moose:
Didn’t go up to approach the battery since two boats in front of it (Fairplay and Carondelet) were obscured by the smoke and they were afraid of running into those boats. Still got hit twice by rounds that did not explode in the ship. 59 rounds fired.
Reindeer:
They reported that the enemy fired with 9 guns but obviously they were mistaken due to the poor visibility as other boats all reported 4 guns. 19 rounds fired.
Silver Lake:
6 rounds fired.
12/04 2:30AM
After exchanging fire with the Confederate army for a while, Carondelet and FairPlay went past the Bell’s Bend for about two miles to Hillsboro Landing where they found the two captured supply ships. Confederate army was unloading the two boats. US Navy exchanged fire for about 20 minutes and wounded many enemies. Then, they successfully recovered the two steamers and towed them to the north side of the river for repair.
12/04 midnight
While Carondelet and Fairplay left to recapture the supply ships, the other three boats continued to fight. Finally, the battle ended about 20 minutes after 2AM and the Union regained the control of Bell’s Bend.
12/04 5:00AM
Carondelet and Fairplay went down the Cumberland River for another 4 miles and they discovered that the Magnet was disabled tied up to the bank. They repaired the ship and headed back to Nashville at about 6AM. When they passed by Bell’s Bend on the way back, no enemy was found.
12/05
The image shows likely positions of Confederate batteries.
Confederate sent 2 more guns to Bell’s Bend and reestablished the battery.
12/06
Fitch went down Cumberland river on the Neosho to escort a large number of transports from Nashville, along with Carondelet, Fairplay, and Silver Lake. Neosho went down to Bell’s Bend while the rest of the convoy remained at about 2 miles away.
12/06
Unfortunately, the Confederate had reoccupied the area. Neosho engaged in the battle for about 2.5 hours and got struck for over one hundred times while it was difficult for Neosho to even hit the Confederate army due to the protection formed by the hills. During the battle, a shell burst on the muzzle of one of Neosho's guns, with six to eight men being “somewhat bruised and scratched in the face” by the explosion. After the battle, a Medal of Honor was granted to John Dizenback of the Neosho for saving the flag. The convoy was forced to return to Nashville due to the blockage. Fitch claimed that they disabled 2 confederate guns.
Letter from Commander Fitch to General Thomas
During those days, the US navy played an important role in protecting supplies from being captured under the circumstance that they didn't know where enemies were located exactly.
The US Navy spent the next few days repairing the damaged gunboats. Fitch’s strategy was to induce the Confederates to stay in the battery so later they would beat them in cooperation with the Federal army.
Listed below are some snippets of letters between Fitch and the major general, Sherman. To put it briefly, the union wanted to capture the enemy to fully destroy their plan but they were just waiting for good weather and river conditions.
I could easily have silenced and driven off, but our army had not yet advanced sufficiently to insure their capture. -LeRoy Fitch
I am instructed to say that should there really be a change of weather and a rise in the river result sufficient to enable you to move your fleet with facility, it is the desire of the major general commanding to have you cooperate in any move which may take place against the enemy, by engaging the batteries on the river below the city, and thus attracting their attention while the troops are in motion against the enemy's position. -Robert H. Ramsey
I would send the Neosho, but at the present stage of water and severity of the weather it is almost impossible to do anything with her. -Le Roy Fitch
12/13 10PM
At 10 pm on 12/13, US Navy moves down from Hyde’s Ferry to Bell’s Bend again to determine whether the Confederates were still active there. Ships engaged in this action were: Neosho, Carondelet, Moose, Reindeer, Fairplay, Brilliant, Silver Lake. Neosho went into the bend first and reported four guns.
12/14 8PM
Fitch received an order saying that the federal army would attack Hood’s army early the next day from the rear. Fitch was asked to distract the Confederates from the river but he should be careful not to cause injury to the federal attackers.
12/15 Daylight
Fitch went to Bell’s Bend in Moose, accompanied by Neosho, Carondelet, Reindeer, Fairplay, Brilliant, and Silver Lake. Meanwhile, two cavalry brigades, one mounted and one unmounted, commanded by Richard Johnson, were approaching Bell's Bend. Then, the fleet stopped at 6 miles downstream from Nashville. Then, Neosho went down to distract the Confederates.
12/15 Afternoon
The confederate artillery battery was about two hundred yards from the river. After some delay, the Union cavalry, led by Richard Johnson, approached and attacked the Confederates from Charlotte Pike. The Confederates were driven back and made a final stand at Davidson’s house.
12/15 Afternoon
Johnson’s troopers attempted an attack but got driven back. He sent a messenger to Neosho and Carondelet which remained at the north bank of the river saying that the cavalry was “considerably annoyed” by a four-gun battery on the side of a hill about half a mile from the river. Then, shells fired from ships together with Johnson’s army silenced the guns. After those guns were removed, Johnson’s army easily took over the battery and finished the battle.
12/16-
After the battle, Johnson reported that they left a battery of six guns abandoned by the enemy and they were later occupied by the gunboats. However, Fitch denied that he took those guns.
Johnson rejoined the main army after this battle and contributed more to the ensuing battle while Fitch and his gunboats played a minor role in the rest of the battle of Nashville.
Le Roy Fitch attained the rank of Commander and died at home in Logansport, Indiana in 1875. In 1942 the destroyer U.S.S. Fitch was commissioned and named after his honor.
A biography of Fitch written by Myron Smith(Left) U.S.S. Fitch named after him (Right)
The Confederate Army in Tennessee was seriously destructed with an estimated 6000 casualties. Thomas’s victory gave Sherman the freedom to devote his full attention to razing the Georgia countryside. A secure Tennessee and a shattered Confederate army meant that the Union was closer than ever to winning the war.
A today's view of the Confederate battery
Due to the scope of this storymap, we are not able to cover all the details. Hope you enjoyed this work and I would definitely recommend checking out the references where I found most of the information.
Bibliography
- Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Volumes 1-26
- The Battle of Nashville Trust
- Battle of Nashville, Encyclopædia Britannic a
- Category: Gunboats of the United States Navy , Wikipedia
