Alcove 7:
The Civil War

One of artist Gregory Ridley's favorite subjects was the Civil War and he portrayed it with passion. Panel 1 is a bold close-up of a Confederate soldier facing right with pistol drawn. Wearing the fashionable facial whiskers of a southern gentleman, he stands below an unfurled Confederate battle flag in front of the rolling Tennessee landscape he aims to defend. Panel 2 shows the Tennessee State Capitol under siege by Union troops who secured its strategic hilltop site when they occupied the city of Nashville in February 1862. The State Capitol building was used as a Union barracks. Panel 3 depicts Fort Negley, a stone fortification just south of the city that was built by Union troops and free and slave blacks. In Panel 4, Confederate and Union soldiers clash in the Battle of Nashville, a last-ditch effort in December 1864 by General John B. Hood to retake Nashville for the Confederacy. The two-day battle, a resounding defeat for Hood, was the last major battle of the Civil War. In Panel 5, the profile of a Union soldier looks left, proudly hoisting the Stars and Stripes over his head.

Alcove 8: Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction