The Battle Of Nashville Monument............................

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Photo's Courtesy of Miss Nastily.....

Amazing to realize how much history is soaked in to the ground underneath your feet....These are pictures of our rainy day visit to the Battle Of Nashville Monument. It's our Moretti connection.....




It is one of the few Civil War statues that honors the memory of both the Union and Confederate dead. The bronze figure of the young man also stands for Americans from north and south who fought again, now under a common flag of a reunited nation, in the Spanish-American War and in the first World War.

The Monument's original builders understood and interpreted it for their time, and we may do the same for ours. Perhaps its meaning today is that what we have in common as Americans is more important than what divides us into bitterness over issues of race or class or ethnicity or gender.

I congratulate the Tennessee Historical Commission on this occasion, and thank it for restoring this grand old sculpture for the instruction and enjoyment of all our people.

With warm regards,
Don Sundquist




Erected A.D. 1926
By
The Ladies Battlefield Memorial Association
Aided By Contributions From Patriotic Citizens
The State Of Tennessee
And
The County Of Davidson




The Spirit Of Youth Holds In Check Contending Forces That Struggled Here At The Fierce Battle Of Nashville, Dec. 16th, 1864, Sealing Forever The Bond Of Union By The Blood Of Our Heroic Dead Of The World War 1917 - 1918.
A Monument Like This, Standing On Such Memories, Having No Reference To Utilities, Becomes A Sentiment, A Poet, A Prophet, An Orator To Every Passerby





Oh, Valorous Gray, In The Grave Of Your Fate,
Oh, Glorious Blue, In The Long Dead Years,
You Were Sown In Sorrow And Harrowed In Hate,
But Your Harvest Today Is A Nations Tears.
For The Message You Left Through The Land Has Sped
From The Lips Of God To The Heart Of Man:
Let The Past Be Past : Let The Dead Be Dead. --
Now And Forever American!





History of the Battle of Nashville Monument

The monument was originally created in 1927 by Giuseppe Moretti, who was commissioned by the Ladies Battlefield Assocation. In 1974, the obelisk and angel were destroyed by a tornado, and during the 1980s construction of a large interstate highway interchange obstructed the monument to public viewing. The new monument has been completely restored, with the bronze sculpture of the youth and horses refinished, and the marble base, obelisk, and angel reconstructed in granite, which is more durable than the original marble. It is a monument which was conceived, built, and dedicated as a memorial to those brave men and women, from both North and South, who fought so courageously in not only the War Between the States but also in World War I, known as the Great War. It is a monument intended to unify the country, which in the early part of this century and even up until World War I was still badly torn with strife resulting from the Civil War.


"There is a terrible war coming, and these young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen, but I tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the South, for I would free them all to avoid this war." - Robert E. Lee..........