American Civil War Monuments 
The Battle of Nashville Peace Monument
Nashville, Tennessee 

Photos Courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell 

Text Courtesy of LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans 

Giuseppe Moretti was commissioned to create the Battle of Nashville monument, dedicated in 1927 on Armistice Day. The monument honors both Union and Confederate troops as well as World War I soldiers with a young man representing WW1 soldiers holding two horses symbolizing Union and Confederate forces, these joined by a banner "Unity". Due to interstate highway construction in 1980s, the monument was left isolated in a small plot after also being damaged during a 1974 tornado. The monument was restored and in 1999 was moved and rededicated at the Nashville Battlefield Park just north of the Confederate line on the first day of the battle.

Battle of Nashville Dec. 15-16, 1864
Army of Tennessee under John Bell Hood 
Combined Forces of Union Army under George Thomas 
After actions at Spring Hill where he failed to destroy John Schofield's Union forces, and then the disaster for the CSA that was the Battle of Franklin, Hood proceeded on to Nashville. There he faced the George Thomas's combined forces of some 55,000 men including John Schofield's XXIII Corps and Thomas J. Wood's IV Corps and was soundly defeated. 

Inscriptions from http://www.bonps.org/original/inscript.htm:

East Face (Main Face) BATTLE OF NASHVILLE 1864 

West Face: Erected A.D. 1926 By The Ladies Battlefield Memorial Association Aided By Contributions From Patriotic Citizens The State Of Tennessee And The County Of Davidson 

South Face: The Spirit Of Youth Holds In Check Contending Forces That Struggled Here At The Fierce Battle Of Nashville, Dec. 16th, 1864, Sealing Forever The Bond Of Union By The Blood Of Our Heroic Dead Of The World War 1917 - 1918. A Monument Like This, Standing On Such Memories, Having No Reference To Utilities, Becomes A Sentiment, A Poet, A Prophet, An Orator To Every Passerby.

North Face: "Oh, Valorous Gray, In The Grave Of Your Fate, Oh, Glorious Blue, In The Long Dead Years, You Were Sown In Sorrow And Harrowed In Hate, But Your Harvest Today Is A Nations Tears. For The Message You Left Through The Land Has Sped From The Lips Of God To The Heart Of Man: Let The Past Be Past : Let The Dead Be Dead. Now And Forever American!"