Colonel Sidney Post and General John Bell Hood at Loftin Hill

On this hill, mid-morning, Colonel Sidney Post, Commander of the Illinois 58th Union Infantry, observed the Confederate army preparing to cross the Duck River, southeast of this point at Davis Ford. He sent word to Maj. Gen. John Schofield that Confederate General John Bell Hood was flanking Columbia, headed northeast. By early afternoon, Hood sat on a log on this hill and surveyed the area as his army marched northward. Continued - Beyond lay the fertile valley of the Duck River and the town of Spring Hill. Later that night, the Union soldiers slipped by Hood's troops near Rippa Villa, a Greek Revival plantation home with 75 enslaved people and 15 enslaved structures. When Hood arrived the next morning, he understood that his well-orchestrated maneuver had failed. The next day, the armies met at the Battle of Franklin.