Battle of Nashville Investigation
This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer.
The air was cloudy with gunsmoke the afternoon of December 16th. The year was 1864, and soldiers were amidst their second day of battle. 1,500 artillery shells layered the ground before the Confederate fell to the Union soldiers. As a result, blood was shed, and lives were lost. The Confederate soldiers surrendered, and the Battle of Nashville had officially ended... but what started it? The answer to that question lies within the Confederate Army.
John Hood was a Confederate General during the Civil War. He was an uncompromising man with a vision in his mind. He planned to take Tennessee’s capital, gather volunteers in Kentucky, and head East to join forces with Robert Lee. Hood arrived in Nashville on December 2, 1864, and his motive was to attack the Union soldiers. Federal Major General George Thomas was receiving telegrams from Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln to jump the gun on the Confederate soldiers. Thomas held off on this attack for weeks and was almost fired before he finally prepared to strike Hood’s army.
December 15th came, and the battle had begun. Confederate troops were on Compton’s Hill in Nashville when Union soldiers arrived. Confederate redoubts 1-5 fell as Federal troops surrounded them from the left. Soldiers from the Federal then attacked the Confederate Right. Hood was losing all of his men, and he was losing them fast. What was left of the Confederate men had retreated two miles South of Compton’s Hill. They intended to come up with a new defensive line.
Confederate troops re-established their plan and began digging trenches into the night. While this seemed like a good plan and way to get ahead, they miscalculated terribly. As daylight broke, they realized they couldn’t see down the slope to catch Federal soldiers coming up the hill. They also noticed the trench lines were not aligned with the grounds, so they had to quickly readjust the lines to the South. To make matters even worse, the 34 cannons were unable to get into fighting position, and the artillery needed to be moved. It appeared no matter how much the Confederate side tried to prepare, they were met with another setback. Then the Federal Army arrived.
Thomas renewed the attack on the Confederates for the afternoon of December 16th. Brigadier General John McArthur ordered three brigades to charge Compton’s Hill. Their strategy was to send one up at a time and send the next brigade when the other was halfway up the hill. This attack almost took out the entire Confederate Army, and most of the troops retreated to Granny White Pike and Franklin Pike. Anyone else who stayed in battle was either captured or killed, including the death of Confederate’s Colonel William Shy.
William L. Shy was a Colonel commanding the 20th Tennessee when he lost his life on Compton’s Hill. He was approached and killed due a close-range gunshot wound to the head. After his death, he was taken to the Felix Compton house nearby and placed on the front porch with a blanket rested on him. Compton’s Hill was renamed to be Shy’s Hill in honor of Colonel Shy.
In terms of paranormal activity, we were unable to find reported sightings of spirits at Shy’s Hill. Two Halves and Nicole still wanted to turn up at this location to determine if there was any residual energy present. Even if there aren't any active spirits haunting the hill, this tragic event could still be energetically replaying on a loop.
We arrived at Shy’s Hill on the afternoon of April 28, 2023. The GPS took us to the other side of the hill, so we initially had to drive around to find the actual hill. We took our time to read the markers and scope out the area while we walked the hill to the top. Fortunately, there was a path for us to follow all the way up. Halfway up the path, I decided to run the iOvilus to see if any words would generate. We received “Messenger, Division, Leather” all at once. Shortly after, we got the words “Chris, Straight.” Because we were already walking straight, we’re unsure if Chris was a spirit who actually approached us or if we were picking up on residual chatter. The iOvilus spat out one more word after we asked if he wanted us to walk straight: Friend.
After walking the hill, we went back to the car to perform an Estes. Other people were coming and going at this time, so we figured doing the session in the car would be more respectful. We began by introducing ourselves, and in response, Swan said, “Battle, Top of.” I asked if spirit meant the top of the hill, and the answer was “Out, Don’t stop, Wondering, Back.” The more questions we continued to ask, the more complicated the responses were. We were beginning to believe our Estes Method session was picking up on the residual energy we expected to receive. I asked if we were speaking with anyone in particular, and no one said a thing. The rest of the responses were as follows:
ROAD, TEARS, CRIED, THE STATE, THE WORST INTENTIONS, NOW, 9 SOLDIERS, HOW DID WE GET UP, MURDERS, WHERE WE LAY, DYING, YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF-, THE RIGHT, POINT
In terms of the rest of the evidence we received, there was a point in the session where the temperature gauge sounded really loud. The noise was slow at first, mocking the sound of a heart beat. The heart beat sound started to get faster, as if there was an increase in the heart rate. Moments after, the sound started to slow until it stopped. We believe this was imitating a scenario where a soldier lost his life on Shy’s Hill. This overwhelmed us greatly, and we only listened a few more minutes before we brought the session to a close.
We are uncertain if we actually made contact with a soldier on Shy’s Hill, but we can confirm through our evidence that there is significant residual energy on it. We are still actively looking into lists of soldiers from the Confederate and Union Army at this time to determine if Chris can be confirmed. With everything else aside, we highly recommend visiting and paying respects at Shy’s Hill. There is also a Battle of Nashville Monument Park that can be visited, and it is located at Granny White Pike in Nashville, TN. Thanks for reading.
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