A Custom Civil War Tour for the Ages: Following the 90th Ohio From Stones River to Nashville
By Paul Whitten, Founder of Nashville Adventures
A family came to me with two names and a regiment.
The regiment was the 90th Ohio. The two names were ancestors, soldiers who marched through the worst of the western war, and the family wanted to stand where those men stood. So we built them a custom Civil War tour over two days that followed the 90th Ohio from the carnage at Stones River, down to the Battle of Franklin, and back up to Redoubt One at the Battle of Nashville.
We did not just point at markers. We recreated the fight and put this family on the exact ground where their blood once stood in the firing line. I will be honest with you, we do a lot of tours, this one I will remember for a long time.
What a Custom Civil War Tour Really Means
A custom Civil War tour is not a bus with a loudspeaker. It is a private, built-from-scratch experience where the history is yours, specifically, personally yours.
For this family, that meant pulling the service record of the 90th Ohio and tracing it battle by battle, then driving the actual roads their ancestors walked. The 90th Ohio was organized near Lancaster, Ohio in 1862 and went on to fight at Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the entire Atlanta Campaign, and then the twin hammer blows of Franklin and Nashville. That is nearly the whole western war in one regiment.
When you can tell a family "your great-great-grandfather was right here, doing this, on this date," the history stops being abstract. It gets personal, and it gets heavy.
From Stones River to Redoubt One: Their Ancestors' War
We started where their regiment first saw hell, at Stones River near Murfreesboro, where the fighting on December 31, 1862 was some of the most concentrated of the entire war.
Then we drove south to Franklin, to the Carter House, where you can still put your fingers in bullet holes from November 30, 1864. The photos with this post are from that stop, real daylight pouring through a wall that soldiers shot to pieces. Finally we came back to Nashville, to Redoubt One, the northernmost of five earthen forts on John Bell Hood's line, and the place where this family's ancestors were in the thick of the Union assault that broke the Confederate flank.
Their faces towards heaven, their feet to the foe. (inscription on the Hazen Brigade Monument, Stones River, built by soldiers in 1863)
Top 10 Things This Family Did Not Know Until We Showed Them
This is the part that gives me chills. Here are ten things we uncovered for this family that they had no idea about when they got off the plane.
Their regiment fought almost everywhere that mattered. The 90th Ohio saw Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. Two and a half years of the hardest marching and fighting in the western theater.
Stones River was one of the bloodiest battles of the war by percentage. The little cedar grove where the line held is still called Hell's Half Acre, because of what it cost.
The oldest Civil War monument in America still standing on its original ground is at Stones River. The Hazen Brigade Monument was built by soldiers in the summer of 1863, while the war was still being fought around them.
Franklin killed six Confederate generals in roughly five hours. It was one of the most concentrated bloodlettings of the entire war, and their ancestors were in the Union line that caused it.
The Carter House outbuildings are the most bullet-scarred Civil War buildings left in America. Historian Dennis Frye has called the Carter farm office the single largest Civil War relic in existence.
A Confederate captain died in his own living room. Tod Carter was mortally wounded about five hundred feet from the house where he was born, and carried back to die inside it while his family hid in the cellar.
At Nashville, their ancestors served in Thomas Wood's Fourth Corps, the corps whose divisions converged on and overran Confederate Redoubt One on December 15, 1864. We stood on that exact ground.
Redoubt One still exists. A surviving piece of Hood's line sits quietly in a Green Hills front yard, and after it fell to the Union it was used as a field hospital.
The Union commander nearly got fired right before the greatest victory of the war. A general was already on a train to replace George Thomas for moving too slowly when Thomas attacked and destroyed an entire army.
The Confederacy's most feared cavalryman was not even there. Hood had sent Nathan Bedford Forrest off toward Murfreesboro, leaving his army blind on both flanks at the worst possible moment.
By the end of the second day, this family was not reading history. They were standing inside it.
This Is the Work We Live For
Here is my honest pitch, from one history lover to another.
Anybody can drive you past a monument. What we do at Nashville Adventures is different. We take your family, your regiment, your two names, and we build a custom Civil War tour that puts you on the precise ground where it happened, then we use our tools to recreate the fight so you feel it, not just hear about it. If you want to understand how we bring a battlefield back to life, read how we use XR technology to recreate history. If you want the city side of the story first, start with the occupied city that refused to break and our guide to the dark history of Franklin, Tennessee.
Have an ancestor who fought here? That is exactly the tour we love most.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a custom Civil War tour?
A custom Civil War tour is a private, personalized experience built around your interests or your family's history. At Nashville Adventures we research a specific regiment or soldier, then take you to the exact battlefields and sites where they fought, from Stones River to Franklin to the Battle of Nashville.
Did the 90th Ohio fight at the Battle of Nashville?
Yes. The 90th Ohio Infantry fought at the Battle of Nashville on December 15 and 16, 1864, as part of the Union Fourth Corps under General Thomas Wood. The regiment had also fought at Stones River, Chickamauga, and the Battle of Franklin two weeks earlier.
Can you visit Redoubt No. 1 in Nashville today?
Yes. A surviving section of Confederate Redoubt No. 1 still sits in the Green Hills area of Nashville. It was the northernmost of five earthen forts on Hood's line and was overrun by Union forces on December 15, 1864. You can learn more through the Battle of Nashville Trust.
Can Nashville Adventures build a tour around my own ancestor?
Absolutely, it is one of our favorite things to do. Give us a name, a regiment, or a unit, and we research the record and build a private tour that follows your family's path across the battlefields around Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Come Walk Your Family's War With Us
Every family has a story buried in this ground. Ours is to help you find it and stand in it.
If you have an ancestor who fought at Stones River, Franklin, or Nashville, let us do for you what we did for this family. Book a private Civil War tour with Nashville Adventures, browse all our tours, or just reach out with a name and a regiment. We will take it from there, and we will make it unforgettable. For the wider story, our guide to why Nashville's Civil War history matters is a good place to start.
