During the Battle of Spring Hill, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood sought to block the Columbia Turnpike and cut off Union Gen. John M. Schofield's force at Columbia from a larger Federal army at Nashville. Near nightfall on November 29, 1864, Confederate divisions under Gens. William B. Bate and Patrick Cleburne approached the turnpike and encountered the leading elements of Schofield's troops. While Cleburne fought an intense fire-fight closer to Spring Hill, Bate advanced across this field and exchanged scattered rifle fire with Federal troops before being ordered to pull away from the road and connect with Cleburne's division. Bate protested to Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham but, faced with arrest if he refused, withdrew and in the darkness linked his right flank with Cleburne's left. The best chance to block the pike was lost, and Union forces, holding only a light defensive position outside Spring Hill, continued moving north along the road toward Spring Hill and Franklin.