“The Enemy is Passing in My Front”

John Bell Hood’s veteran Army of Tennessee had finally moved into position to cut off John Schofield’s forces near Spring Hill, Tennessee. 
With the rapid onset of an early winter’s darkness, Confederate forces under the command of Patrick Cleburne stood ready to cut the Union escape route along the Columbia Pike.  

Confederate triumph at Spring Hill seemed certain, but confusing orders, angry threats, bold Union defense and November darkness worked against the Rebel army that night.  With Confederate campfires studding the cold hills, Schofield’s forces quietly slid by and marched on to Franklin.  Hood’s failure at Spring Hill, manifested in the next day’s bloodletting at the Battle of Franklin, “would be something that would haunt the survivors of the Confederate Army the rest of their days.”

Today, the Civil War Preservation Trust is working with General Motors to save 84 acres of the Spring Hill battlefield, the very acres where Cleburne and Edward Johnson’s men camped along the Columbia Pike.  Join us in working to save this historic land.