Honoring the Minnesotans in the Battle of Nashville

Minnesota’s bloodiest single day of the Civil War was December 16, 1864, with 87 men killed taking Shy’s Hill in the Battle of Nashville. Total casualties from four regiments of Minnesota soldiers over two days of battle — 302 killed, wounded, or missing — comprised ten percent of the Union’s losses.

Attacking up Shy’s Hill on the Confederate left, the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Minnesota Infantry Regiments were instrumental in the Union victory. It was, one historian wrote, “the only major battle of the war in which a Confederate army was completely broken and disorganized.” The victory effectively ended the war in the West.

On December 16, 2024, American Experiment hosted an event honoring the memory and sacrifice of the Minnesotans who fought and died in the Battle of Nashville.

FEATURED SPEAKER: Ken Fliés

Our featured speaker was Minnesota Civil War author and expert presenter Ken Fliés. Ken is a member of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society and was the first “Yankee” to present to the Society in 1999 on the Minnesotans at the Battle of Nashville. He is also a past President of the Twin Cities Civil War Roundtable.

More on the Battle of Nashville and Minnesota in the Civil War:

The Road to Nashville: Minnesota in the Western war.

1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg: The true, seldom told story of overwhelming sacrifice and heroism.

Abolitionism in Minnesota: Minnesota’s implacable opposition to slavery.

Veterans Restore Lost Grave of MN Civil War Soldier: One of Minnesota’s long forgotten defenders of freedom was remembered for the first time in decades.