Crowning the hill above you is the Tennessee State Capitol, a Greek Revival limestone building completed in 1859 by Philadelphia architect William Strickland, who died during its construction and is entombed within its walls. The capitol sits on a hill above downtown Nashville, its classical columns and tower visible from much of the city, and it has occupied that position through some of American history's most turbulent episodes. Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861, the last state to do so.
Less than a year later, in February 1862, Union forces captured Nashville — making it the first Confederate state capital to fall to federal troops. The building served as a Union Army headquarters and fortification for the remainder of the war. Andrew Johnson, who would succeed Lincoln as president after the assassination, served as military governor of Tennessee in this building.
The battle of Nashville in December 1864, one of the most decisive Union victories of the war, was commanded from this hill. Inside, the building's original interiors survive largely intact. On the grounds, James K. Polk and his wife Sarah are buried in a tomb — Nashville's eleventh-president connection that often surprises visitors.