The Battle of Nashville Monument
The Statue
The Battle of Nashville Monument was commissioned by the Ladies Battlefield Association (Mrs. James E. Caldwell, President) and created by Giuseppe Moretti. (Look for his signature at the lower right front of the bronze.) It was dedicated on Armistice Day, 1927, on Franklin Road near Woodmont Boulevard.
Mrs. Caldwell envisioned a memorial dedicated to the struggle of both the Union and the Confederate forces who clashed here on December 15-16, 1864. Moretti interpreted the scene with two charging horses representing the North and South divided by a wall of Antagonism. The horses are halted and quieted into the spirit of teamwork by a youth who embodies the Spirit of Unity. Note the word UNITY on the banner with which he entwines the horses. At the summit of the shaft, an Angel of peace, protects the group.
The monument is nationally significant for it was the first memorial in the country erected in memory of the heroes of both North and South, and stands symbolic of our national Unity.
The Restoration
At its original location, a 1974 tornado destroyed the statue's 30-foot carrara marble obelisk and angel that surmounted it. During the 1980's, the building of an interstate interchange left the bronze figures of youth
and horses isolated on a bluff behind a chain link fence.
The Tennessee Commission selected the new site on Granny White Pike for the monument in 1992 and subsequently won consensus, public funding and private contributions for its complete restoration. Both Union and Confederate Soldiers fought over this ground during the Battle of Nashville. The new carved stone and obelisk are of timeless white granite, quarried at Elberton Georgia. The bronze figures - preserved and refurbished from Moretti's original work - face due east toward the rising sun as Moretti intended. The six-foot angel at the apex of the obelisk was carved by local sculptor Coley Coleman.
The Tennessee Historical Commission officially rededicated the monument to Peace on June 26, 1999.
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