Into a Trap

At about 10 A.M. on December 15, 1864, during the first day of the Battle of Nashville, U.S. Colored Troops in the 14th, 44th, and 17th regiments of Col. Thomas Morgan's First Colored Brigade charged across open ground to attack entrenched Confederate troops about 600 yards away. The assault ran into the 20-foot-deep cut of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, which had not been detected during pre-attack reconnaissance. Union commanders had also underestimated the strength of the Confederate line and failed to spot a four-gun artillery battery. Confederate infantry and artillery then poured fire into the trapped troops, and Confederate infantry moved across the mouth of the cut to close the trap. The attack was defeated in less than 10 minutes. The 17th USCT alone lost 110 enlisted men and seven officers. Most Union troops in this area retreated to Murfreesboro Pike. The next day, USCT regiments also fought valiantly at Peach Orchard Hill, five miles south.

Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance), Tennessee · United States