On a sloping plot of land in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, a line of 19th century cannons point out over a valley with a commanding view of the city skyline and state capitol in the distance. It’s known as Redoubt One, and it’s where Confederate Army soldiers tried – and failed – to hold the line against advancing Union Calvary from the north as the first shots rang out in the 1864 Battle of Nashville.
Today, this hill is owned and preserved by the Battle of Nashville Trust as a historic site and open parkspace. But the strategic view of the valley once prized by the Confederate forces has slowly vanished to rising tall and skinny three-story homes. It’s a battle Bobby Whitson, the president of the trust, has been fighting for years.
“All of those soldiers should be honored and respected, and that's what we're trying to do here,” Whitson said. “So when we're faced with this much urban growth and spread and sprawl, it's so difficult for us to try to reclaim it.”
A few months ago, Whitson and his team entered negotiations to acquire about an acre of land directly adjacent to Redoubt One. Their hope was to put a stop to the rapid development, and preserve as much of the position as possible. The developers won out.
“My biggest thing is, I hate for people to die the second death,” Whitson said. “The first death is when you die … but the second death is when you're forgotten. And that's the biggest thing that I personally am trying to help overcome here is to make sure that these soldiers don't die that second death.”
The fight to preserve these and other Civil War sites in the region has been an uphill battle as land values continue to skyrocket in the region. People like Whitson volunteer their time to seek out and preserve plots of land, which can frequently cost millions of dollars.
To help foot these costs, the state awards millions in grants each year through the Tennessee Wars Commission, which was established by the General Assembly in 1994 to help preserve the state’s historic war sites. Director of Programs Nina Scall is the sole employee of the commission, in charge of distributing the grants along with educating the public about Tennessee’s wartime history.
“So many people are moving here,” Scall said. “We need affordable housing, but a lot of what's going to the wayside are these battlefields. And a lot of times we're not getting the opportunity to do archeology prior to this development.
“So we're losing a lot of really important historical information, artifacts and context.”
Shrinking grant fund
Since 2013 when the grant fund was set up, the commission has distributed more than $20 million to help save around 1,100 acres of battlefields. In 2025, they distributed about $2 million alone. But the grant fund comes from a tiny percentage of the real estate transfer tax revenue in the state. As the state economy continues to slow, so do the funds available for the program.
“So during COVID we had a lot of people moving here,” Scall said. “That fund was tick, tick, tick, tick, ticking up. That has since slowed to a basic halt, and we've been spending against that. And we're really, really low on funds.”
That’s bad news for The Battle of Nashville trust, which is just beginning to ramp up their efforts. They rely heavily on the commission for grants, such as last year when they were awarded $505,000 to help purchase a $1 million parcel of land on the battlefield. It had been slated to become a multi-million-dollar suburban home.
“We've got to grow the inbound fundraising efforts,” Whitson said. “Franklin has done a masterful job of this, so we're going to kind of mirror a lot of what they've done down there.”
The ‘miracle’ at Franklin
Three decades ago, the town of Franklin, Tennessee was home to around 20,000 people. The center of town was developed with fast food restaurants, liquor stores and heavy industrial sites. If somebody didn’t already know, it would be almost impossible to tell the town was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War, where over 8,000 soldiers were killed fighting for control of Middle Tennessee.
Today, Franklin is almost unrecognizable. The population has more than quadrupled in size. But many of the strip malls and industrial sites have been torn down in favor of open greenspaces honoring the legacies of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Franklin 160 years ago.
It’s often cited by groups across the country as a “miracle,” being one of the biggest success stories in historic land reclamation. It’s what drew Patrick and Melinda Madden to retire there. Each day the two go for walks across the open greenspace in the middle of town, past cannons, wagons and interpretive signs.
“I was reading, and I found out about the Battle of Franklin,” Patrick said. “And I said, ‘maybe I can have my own battlefield,’ which I have. And I've retired here, and that's been wonderful.”
Clay Perry is the president of Franklin’s Charge, a volunteer group which helps buy up parcels of land on the Franklin Battlefield for preservation. He says their success has been fueled largely by interest from community members and the local government.
“Whether you're a civil war enthusiast, a Battle of Franklin enthusiast or preservationist or not, you can still enjoy the great trails … and sights and sounds out there, versus having another neighborhood,” Perry said.
Despite the local interest, Franklin’s Charge still relies heavily on The Tennessee Wars Commission for funds. In 2025, the group received a $1 million grant to acquire a 14-acre parcel which was once home to the Sedberry Building, an industrial warehouse built on battlefield land.
As funds for the state grants continue to dwindle, Gov. Bill Lee made an emergency appropriation of $3 million to keep the program running next year.
Scall says they’ll spend all of it. After that?
“Who knows? If there's no money, I can't award grants,” she said.
