Oaklawn

Oaklawn. The Absalom Thompson House. , Late in the afternoon of November 29, 1864, Hood established the headquarters of the Army of Tennessee at this location. Hood spent part of the evening sitting on a log near the fish pond of the house while officers and generals came and went seeking orders. While Confederate attacks and units went awry south of town, Hood told one general, “General Forrest…holds the turnpike with a portion of his forces north of Spring Hill and will stop the enemy if he tries to pass toward Franklin, and so in the morning we will have a surrender without a fight…We can sleep quietly tonight.” The Thompson family provided Hood and his staff with “a big feast.”, Hood, his left arm crippled at Gettysburg and his right leg amputated at Chickamauga, had to be strapped into his saddle. During the afternoon, his horse had slipped on the treacherous roads and fallen on Hood. He was in physical pain and it has been suggested that he used whiskey or laundanum (an opium derivative) to dull his agony. Believing that Schofield’s army was trapped and being incapacitated by his injuries, Hood went to bed at 9:00 in the evening. Meanwhile, Schofield’s army was continuing to move north on the Columbia-Franklin Pike.