BGuthrie Photos: TN -- Spring Hill -- Rippavilla

TN -- Spring Hill -- Rippavilla:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.145.59.187 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

[1] RIPPAV_140526_003_STITCH.JPG

[2] RIPPAV_140526_004_STITCH.JPG

[3] RIPPAV_140526_005_STITCH.JPG

[4] RIPPAV_140526_006_STITCH.JPG

[5] RIPPAV_140526_008_STITCH.JPG

[6] RIPPAV_140526_009.JPG	[7] RIPPAV_140526_012.JPG	[8] RIPPAV_140526_015.JPG
[9] RIPPAV_140526_022.JPG	[10] RIPPAV_140526_025.JPG	[11] RIPPAV_140526_031.JPG
[12] RIPPAV_140526_035.JPG	[13] RIPPAV_140526_046.JPG	[14] RIPPAV_140526_053.JPG
[15] RIPPAV_140526_054.JPG	[16] RIPPAV_140526_061.JPG	[17] RIPPAV_140526_064.JPG
[18] RIPPAV_140526_068.JPG	[19] RIPPAV_140526_078.JPG	[20] RIPPAV_140526_079.JPG
[21] RIPPAV_140526_086.JPG	[22] RIPPAV_140526_089.JPG	[23] RIPPAV_140526_099.JPG
[24] RIPPAV_140526_103.JPG	[25] RIPPAV_140526_107.JPG	[26] RIPPAV_140526_113.JPG
[27] RIPPAV_140526_122.JPG	[28] RIPPAV_140526_126.JPG	[29] RIPPAV_140526_129.JPG
[30] RIPPAV_140526_137.JPG	[31] RIPPAV_140526_139.JPG	[32] RIPPAV_140526_147.JPG
[33] RIPPAV_140526_151.JPG	[34] RIPPAV_140526_158.JPG	[35] RIPPAV_140526_161.JPG

[36] RIPPAV_140530_04_STITCH.JPG

[37] RIPPAV_140530_05.JPG	[38] RIPPAV_140530_08.JPG	[39] RIPPAV_140530_24.JPG
[40] RIPPAV_140530_37.JPG	[41] RIPPAV_140530_40.JPG	[42] RIPPAV_140530_48.JPG
[43] RIPPAV_140530_52.JPG	[44] RIPPAV_140530_60.JPG	[45] RIPPAV_140530_65.JPG
[46] RIPPAV_140530_71.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. RIPPAV_140526_009.JPG: Civil War Trust Spring Hill Battlefield: Rippavilla November 29, 1864 Hood's Tennessee Campaign September 18 - December 27, 1864
2. RIPPAV_140526_015.JPG: The Battle of Spring Hill The Great Escape By 3 p.m. on November 29, 1864, Union Gen. John M. Schofield realized that his command was in great danger. The bulk of his army was posted near Columbia, Tennessee, while Confederates Gen. John Bell Hood's troops were north of him, approaching the Columbia Turnpike near Spring Hill. To prevent being cut off from the rest of the Federal army at Nashville, Schofield moved northward. At about nightfall, the leading elements of his army were approaching Spring Hill. Gen. Thomas H. Ruger's division led Schofield's column and soon passed to the north, moving right past the Confederate troops camped here. Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox's division followed and next came Gen. Thomas J. Wood's division. As these troops passed, they saw the shimmering lights of thousands of Southern campfires in the fields around you. The hours ticked by. At about 1 a.m., Gen. Nathan Kimball's division marched north and also slipped away. Finally, at about 5 a. m., Gen. George D Wagner's division, which had arrived at Spring Hill about noon on November 29 and helped fend off Gen. Patrick Cleburne's movement toward the turnpike, began to withdraw and move north toward Franklin. Five relatively vulnerable Federal divisions had just marched directly past Hood's Confederates in perhaps the greatest escape in the history of the war. "We came within plain view of Hood's army as they were in bivouac to our right, not more than half a mile. They had thousands of fires burning brightly…It was a rare and grand spectacle." -- Pvt. Tillman Stevens, 124th Indiana Infantry, USA (captions) (upper left) With Federal soldiers marching directly past a campfire-lit Confederate camp near Spring Hill, the scene must have looked very much like this Edwin Forbes drawing, made somewhere in the eastern theater. Courtesy Library of Congress (lower left) Gen. John Bell Hood, left, and Gen. John McAllister Schofield both graduated from West Point in 1853. They began the war on opposite sides as lieutenant and captain, respectively, but both were generals within a year. Both compiled impressive war records and marched to Spring Hill as experienced commanders. Within one month, Hood was relieved at his own request while Schofield continued his rise to the very top of the postwar army. -- Both images courtesy Library of Congress (lower right) As Union Gen. William T. Sherman left Atlanta and marched to the sea, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood, joined by renowned Confederate cavalryman Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, moved toward Middle Tennessee. Here, at Spring Hill, Hood lost the opportunity to cut off Gen. John M. Schofield's forces from Union troops at Nashville under Gens. Andrew J. Smith and George H. Thomas.
3. RIPPAV_140526_025.JPG: The Battle of Spring Hill Blocking the Columbia Turnpike Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood hoped to block the road in front of you -- the Columbia Turnpike -- and cut off Union Gen. John M. Schofield's force at Columbia from a larger Federal army to the north at Nashville. Confederate divisions under Gens. William B. Bate and Patrick Cleburne neared the turnpike about nightfall on November 29, 1864, and encountered the leading elements of Schofield's troops at and around the pike. While Cleburne engaged in an intense firefight closer to Spring Hill, Bate advanced across this field. His men exchanged a spattering of rifle fire with Federal troops before Bate was ordered to pull his division away from the road and connect with Cleburne's division. Bate protested the order to his superior, Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham, but was told he could either follow the directive or report under arrest. Grudgingly, Bate withdrew his division and in the darkness managed to connect his right flank with Cleburne's left. The best opportunity to block the pike had been lost, and Federal troops continued their northward movement along the road. "I was moving so as to strike the turnpike to the right of Major Nat. Cheer's residence when I received an order from General Cheatham to halt. My main line was within 200 yards of the turnpike." --- Gen. William B. Bate, CSA Not well known to most Civil War enthusiasts, Tennessee native William Bate started the war as a private and ended it as a major general. Wounded three times, and with six horses shot out from under him, Bate later became governor of Tennessee and a United States Senator. There are no known 19th-century photographs of the Columbia Turnpike near Spring Hill. This view, however, taken some two decades after the war along the pike just south of Franklin, approximates what the troops would have seen at Spring Hill. Bate's division halted just short of the Columbia Turnpike and connected with Cleburne's division. Maintaining a light defensive position outside Spring Hill, Union forces marched on, division after division, toward Spring Hill and Franklin.
4. RIPPAV_140526_031.JPG: Bate's division halted just short of the Columbia Turnpike and connected with Cleburne's division. Maintaining a light defensive position outside Spring Hill, Union forces marched on, division after division, toward Spring Hill and Franklin.
5. RIPPAV_140526_054.JPG: The Battle of Spring Hill Opportunity Lost After nightfall, Confederate Gen. Edward Johnson's division began moving into position on the left of Gen. William B. Bate's division. Johnson, whose unit was part of Gen. SD Lee's corps, had been ordered forward from the vicinity of Rutherford Creek by Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham. On approaching the Columbia Turnpike, Johnson's men went into bivouac several hundred yards from the road and lit campfires -- fires that many Federal soldiers saw as they marched north along the highway. Late at night, Confederate commander John Bell Hood became concerned that enemy troops were marching past his army. Cheatham was ordered to place troops across the road, and Johnson's division was tasked with the responsibility. Johnson complained of being "loaned out," and only after prompting by a staff officer did he begin preparing his men to move. While the troops readied themselves, Johnson and Maj. Joseph Bostick rode toward the turnpike, only to find it empty. They had just missed the trailing end of the last Federal division that had marched up from Columbia. The stage was set for the next day -- one of the most terrible of the war -- when the troops would slaughter each other in savage combat at a small town to the north called Franklin. "We waited hour after hour for the order to come to charge the enemy, who we understood were retreating along the pike four hundred yards in front of us toward Franklin." -- Col. William H. Sims, Commander of Sharpshooters, Johnson's Division, CSA Among the men of Johnson's division who were ordered to block the road were those of the 9th Mississippi Infantry, shown here as raw recruits in 1861. By November 1864, they were fewer in number and lean but experienced veterans of many hard-fought battles. Gen. Edward "Old Allegheny" Johnson" had seen plenty of action in the Shenandoah Valley and as commander of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's old division at Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. Captured at Spotsylvania and soon exchanged, he was transferred to the Army of Tennessee only a few months before he marched his four brigades to Spring Hill. The great escape at Spring Hill led directly to the savage fighting on both sides of the Columbia Turnpike the next day at Franklin. Here the Carter Cotton Gin looms over the turnpike in the early 1880s.
6. RIPPAV_140526_068.JPG: Former Saturn plant
7. RIPPAV_140526_079.JPG: Confederate Movements After Sunset November 29, 1864 After the sun set, Confederate plans began to quietly fall apart. Hood appeared confident that Forrest held the pike north of Spring Hill, and thus was not unduly concerned with cutting the pike south of town. Hood's orders suggest an unfamiliarity with the terrain. To add to the confusion, division commanders began to receive conflicting orders from Hood and Cheatham. While Cheatham's orders were aimed at an assault on Spring Hill to the north, Hood continued to issue orders orienting movements towards the pike to the west. Hood's men had made long and exhausting march, they were unfamiliar with the terrain, and it was pitch dark. The tired and confused Confederate army sat down for the night, cooked supper and went to sleep. John Bell Hood later stated that this movement on Spring Hill had been "the best move in my career as a soldier… I was thus destined to behold to naught."
8. RIPPAV_140526_086.JPG: Schofield's Retreat Night of November 29-30 For a number of reasons, Major General John Schofield had been tardy in evacuating his position at Columbia and retreating to Franklin. Although starting late, the Federal army performed a well planned and executed retreat. Schofield and his subordinates made their headquarters in the saddle, and issued clear, concise instructions. All that evening and past midnight the Federal wagons, artillery, and long columns of infantry marched north toward Franklin on the dark macadam road. Lieutenant Chesley Mosman of the 59th Illinois Infantry remembered: "The rebels were in line of battle south of town, a quarter of a mile from the Pike along which we marched, and their long lines of campfires burnt brightly. Staff officers were stationed along the Pike to caution the men not to talk or let their canteens rattle so as to make a noise; that those were the fires of the enemy. So we passed time sub silentio if not "with averted eye.' We…realized our situation…and move rapidly and march to Franklin." The Union army had lost the "Spring Hill races," but had escaped the trap unscathed.
9. RIPPAV_140526_089.JPG: Bivouac of Johnson's Division Night of November 29-30, 1864 Along the ridge just east of the large tree in the field, the Confederate division of Major General Edward Johnson, the only portion of Stephan D. Lee's corps present on the field, spent the night of November 29-30, 1864. They arrived at this position at 10:00 p.m., and were on the extreme left of the Confederate battle line. Johnson's line of pickets was sent as far ahead as the low ground only a few hundred yards from the Columbia-Franklin Pike. At about 2:00 a.m., Cheatham ordered the division to advance and seize the Columbia-Franklin Pike, but a reconnaissance found the road empty. Johnson was unfamiliar with the terrain and did not know the position of adjacent Confederate units. Johnson noted, "If [my soldiers] went to moving about in the dark, [they] would be liable to run into some of our own troops, and they would fire at each other." Accordingly, Cheatham canceled his orders, and the exhausted men went back to sleep. While they lay wrapped in their blankets, the Union army marched north, escaping Hood's trap.
10. RIPPAV_140526_099.JPG: "As Wrathy as a Rattlesnake" Confederate Leadership Breakfast at Rippavilla Morning, November 30, 1864 The morning of November 30, 1863 [sic], found Schofield's army at Franklin, digging in to cover the Harpeth River crossings. John Bell Hood awoke to discover that the Union army had escaped, and he was infuriated. A Confederate staff officer wrote that "He is as wrathy as a rattlesnake this morning, striking at everything." In a morning breakfast at the Nathaniel Cheairs home (Rippavilla), Hood lashed out angrily at his commanders, heaping abuse upon them and condemning their failures. Late that afternoon, a still livid Hood ordered a nearly suicidal frontal assault on the Union army at Franklin. By ten o'clock that night, the Confederate Army of Tennessee no longer existed as a cohesive, viable fighting force. The roots of that destruction reached directly to the engagement and military operations that had occurred on November 29th and the early morning hours of November 30th at Spring Hill.
11. RIPPAV_140526_161.JPG: Rippavilla Plantation In 1811, the Cheairs family settled at this site. Nathaniel and Susan McKissack Cheairs began construction of this home, Rippavilla, in 1851. Cheairs raised two companies for the Confederate Army in 1861. In February of 1862, Maj. Cheairs carried Gen. Grant's "unconditional surrender" demand to Gen. Buckner at Fort Donelson. Gen. Hood's command had a rancorous breakfast at Rippavilla the morning of the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864. The Saturn Corporation, the United Auto Workers, and the Maury County Government restored the home in 1997.
Description of Subject Matter: Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV, a French Huguenot descent, was born on the property on December 6, 1818. As he matured, he began courting a girl from Spring Hill. The object of his affection was Miss Susan Peters McKissack, daughter of Master William McKissack II. When Nathaniel IV announced to his father of his intentions of marrying Susan, his father had only one objection. All of the “Nathaniels” prior to Nathaniel IV had married girls by the name of “Sarah.” His father wanted him to carry on that tradition and find someone else to wed. Nathaniel IV wanted his father’s blessing on the marriage and persisted about marrying Susan. His father even offered his son a sum of gold worth $5,000 to find another bride, but Nathaniel IV would not accept. Then, Susan’s father made an offer that Nathaniel IV could not refuse. Being the owner of the brickyard in Spring Hill, Master McKissack offered to supply all of the free bricks and free slave labor needed to construct a house once Nathaniel and Susan were married. Being the wise businessman that he was, Nathaniel III saw that offer and gave his blessing upon his son’s marriage. Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV and Susan Peters McKissack were wed on September 2, 1841. As a wedding gift, Nathaniel III gave his son the $5,000 in gold that he had previously offered his son.

For ten years, Nathaniel and Susan made their home in a two-story log cabin located at the back of the property. Susan gave birth to three of their four children while living in the cabin. In 1851, the smokehouse and kitchen house were completed. The Cheairs would reside in the upstairs of the kitchen before and during the construction of the mansion. Construction on the mansion commenced in 1852 and was completed in 1855. Completion of the mansion was delayed for three years because of Nathaniel’s own vision of the home. He stated that he wished the house to stand for over 100 years. Construction of the home was halted three separate times. The mansion was over 50% complete all three times that he had construction stopped, and each time the walls were torn down. The first occasion was when Nathaniel did not think that the walls were straight, the second occasion was when Nathaniel did not like how the mortar had bonded, and the third occasion was when a bit of cold weather had struck the area, and Nathaniel thought some of the mortar might have frozen. Fearing that it would lead to the downfall of the house, he once again had the walls torn down. Eventually, the mansion was completed, and Susan gave birth to their fourth, and last, child shortly after they moved in. The family resided happily in their new home for the several years that remained before the Civil War broke out.

The above was from http://www.rippavilla.org/
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].