December 15, 2013
WREATH EVENT HONORS 149th ANNIVERSARY
The 149th anniversary of the Battle of Nashville was commemorated on Sunday, December 15, 2013, by the traditional laying of the wreath at the summit of Shy’s Hill.
Past BONPS President Philip Duer, organizer and developer of the Shy’s Hill Memorial for 2012 and 2013, listens as historian Thomas Flagel describes the battle’s significance.
The event was attended by visitors and descendants of the participants of the battle. It included comments by the wreath ceremony organizer, Philip Duer, former President of BONPS, who described what the top of the hill would have been like on December 16, 1864, when the violent clash began in the late afternoon and put an end to the Army of Tennessee. With the leaves off of the trees on a cold, cloudy afternoon, attendees could clearly see the flat land surrounding Shy’s Hill and imagine the waves of bluecoats and the racket of artillery and rifle fire which would have defined the day.
Following Mr. Duer’s remarks, history professor and Civil War author Thomas Flagel presented his insights into the significance of the Shy’s Hill Battle and the Battle of Nashville in general. Standing under the three masts flying the American, Minnesota, and Confederate battle flags, he described how news of the battle traveled slowly and inaccurately around the country.
Thomas Flagel puts the Battle of Nashville in perspective during Wreath event
Newspapers in the North, where presses were still running without interruption, received the news reasonably quickly, within days if not weeks, of the battle, and knew of the Federal victory in Nashville. War news in the southern states, however, where newspapers were barely in existence and news traveled only by copies of northern papers or word of mouth, was delayed by weeks or months. Even a couple of weeks after the December 15-16 battle, some southern states were still receiving the triumphant news that General Hood and his forces had reached the Cumberland River. It took weeks after that for news of the devastating defeat of the Confederate Army to reach many parts of the South.
Tom Carr (L) and Scott Hessey present the wreath on behalf on ancestors for the North and South who fought in the Battle of Nashville
The commemorative wreath, honoring soldiers in both armies who died in the Battle of Nashville, was placed by two new additions to the descendants’ list: Tom Carr, attending with his daughter and grandchildren, placed the wreath for the U.S. Army in the name of Mr. Carr’s great-grandfather, Robert Hancock Walter of the 65th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was positioned on the west side of Shy’s Hill. Scott Hessey and Wife Wendy of Hermitage, Tennessee, placed the wreath for the Confederacy in the name of his ancestor, L. C. Hessey of the 20th Tennessee, which defended the top of Shy’s Hill.
BONPS board member Gary Burke (L) and fellow reenactor Bill Heard stand by the Shy’s Hill Napoleon
The ceremony was highlighted, as it had been in 2012, by the violin music of Linda Gale Rose and the martial drums of Paul Smith. A number of re-enactors attended as well, including BONPS Board member Gary Burke, representing the USCT in his woolen blues, and John Mansfield, a.k.a. President Lincoln. Reenactors ended the event with the firing of a three-gun salute.
Philip Duer makes preliminary comments at 2013 Wreath Ceremony