The Union Supply Depot

Johnsonville was a vital part of the Union war machine, a busy, noisy, sprawling complex of wharves, docks, warehouses, and corrals where steamboats crowded the wharf and laborers moved everything from blankets to cattle to rifles from boats onto trains bound for Nashville day after day. In 1864 it was ugly and bare, with trees leveled to give soldiers in the fortifications a clear field of fire in case of attack, rough unpainted new buildings, constant noise from steam whistles, trains, the sawmill, men, and horses, and unbelievable winter mud, but conditions mattered less than keeping supplies moving to the front. The depot fed, clothed, and armed the Union armies pursuing the Confederate Army of Tennessee, helping drive them out of Tennessee and supplying General William T. Sherman’s successful Atlanta Campaign.

Tennessee · United States