December, 2025
CLEAN-UP REVEALS PREVIOUSLY HIDDEN CIVIL WAR BREASTWORKS ON VANDERBILT CAMPUS
Amidst the noise of the never-ending construction on the Vanderbilt University campus, a once-forgotten commemoration of the Battle of Nashville is again visible. Obscured by shrubs until recently, a bronze plaque marking the defensive fortifications of Nashville during the Civil War can be seen on the back of the Round Wing of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center near the Eskind Biomedical Library and the Zerfoss Student Health Center.
Originally set in 1939 by the Vanderbilt Garden Club, this plaque was placed on an earthen mound thought to be the last remnant of the breastworks of the Civil War on Vanderbilt’s campus behind what was then the University Chancellor’s mansion.
The plaque marked the location of the entrenchments until the early 1960s when both the Chancellor’s mansion and the entrenchment were demolished to make way for the Medical Center’s Round wing (originally called the West Wing) completed in 1962 and later the Zerfoss Student Health Center. The breastworks it commemorated are mentioned on a Tennessee Historical Commission marker on 21st Ave near Medical Center drive, but shrubs obscured the plaque from view until a clean-up of the landscaping in early 2025 revealed the still legible plaque which then became easily visible from the sidewalk behind the Round Wing.
