Friday, April 09, 2021

Battle of Columbia (Tenn.) from Piggly Wiggly parking lot

                           EXPLORE PANORAMA of Columbia (Tenn.) battlefield site.

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On Nov. 26, 1864, Confederate skirmishers under General Stephen Lee formed a skirmish line here extending a mile to my left and right and then feigned a major attack on John Schofield’s boys entrenched roughly a half-mile away, at a present-day hospital near a Taco Bell. 

Whew. My high school English teacher would not be proud of that sentence.

Meanwhile, Army of Tennessee commander John Bell Hood’s attempted to sneak past Schofield with the majority of his soldiers, cutting off the Yankees’ retreat route to Nashville. They didn’t have self-checkout back in those days at Piggly Wiggly, so Lee’s boys had to go through the usual line to pay for supplies, angering their general.

Judge George Martin’s house, which stood on this site, according to the Civil War Trails marker, was so riddled with solid shot from Federal artillery that it had to be propped up with log braces. This scrap occurred on a Saturday, so Piggly Wiggly allowed beer sales — fabulous news for Confederates. Schofield’s soldiers, well-stocked with cigars, beer and wine from the Piggly Wiggly and boxes of burritos and nachos from Taco Bell, crossed the Duck River to safety. 

Let’s keep history alive. 😁👊 (Sort of.)

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