Every year on Nov. 29th , Rippavilla hosts a candlelight tour commemorating the Battle of Spring Hill known to many as one of the biggest military blunders of the Civil War.
Visitors will enjoy a guided battlefield tour and a candlelight tour of the first floor of the Cheairs home. Guided by Jamie Gillum, author of “Twenty-Five Hours to Tragedy,” guests will be able to walk the battlefield while Gillum points out key locations where Union and Confederate troops were positioned on November 29, 1864. Gillum will offer the one-hour walking battlefield tour at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., weather permitting.
On the lawn, guests will hear reenactors offering first-personal accounts of Union and Confederate soldiers before touring the candlelit mansion to hear accounts from Susan Cheairs’ collection of personal correspondence and diary describing encounters with both Union and Confederate Armies. The house tour will end in the original dining room where Hood issued the orders for the Battle of Franklin. Grounds and mansion tours will be offered every 45 minutes starting at 1:30; the last tour of the grounds and mansion will be offered at 3:45 p.m.
The commemoration ends at 5:00 p.m. with the lighting of 1000 luminaries on the battlefield and a cannon volley by Maury Light Artillery, weather permitting.
Admission for the annual event is $10.00 per person for ages 13 to 61. Ages 62 and up are charged $8.00 per person and children, ages 6 to 12, are charged $5.00 per person.
Members of the Rippavilla Plantations Society receive a 20% discount on admission. Reservations are not required.
All proceeds from this event benefit Rippavilla, Inc. For more information, call 931 486-9037.
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