Confederate flags removed from I-65-area site

The Crieve Hall property running along Interstate 65 and on which once stood a controversial statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest has seen the removal of 13 flags honoring the Confederacy and the Battle of Nashville.

An LLC owns the 3.59-acre property, having paid $420,000 for it in April 2023, Metro records note. The address is 701 Hogan Road.

A trust involving the estate of the late William “Bill” Dorris willed the bulk of the property in April 2020 to the Battle of Nashville Trust (BONT). Dorris died in November 2020, garnering national headlines for setting up the trust, reportedly valued at $5 million, for his border collie Lulu. The Dorris will stipulated that nonprofit organization Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) control the flags and their poles via a 99-year deed (and accessed via an easement on the property).

As noted, the Battle of Nashville Trust sold the property 1.5 years ago to an LLC affiliated with Philip Lindsley, who owns a local business that handles custom auto work and vehicle stereo installation. The 2023 sale stipulated that the flag poles and flags remain on the site, as dictated by the Dorris will and its legally binding contract with the SCV. 

Years ago, Dorris enlisted Jack Kershaw — a co-founder and board member of the League of the South — to create the statue that has since been removed. This fiberglass art piece offered a sword-and-gun-wielding Forrest sitting astride a rearing warhorse (and that many locals felt was cartoonish looking). From 1867 to 1869, Forrest served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The Southern Poverty Law Center characterized the League of the South as a hate group in 2000. (The statue, which was vandalized with pink paint in 2017 and toppled at some point after that, was removed from the site in 2021.)

According to H. Edward Phillips III, a Franklin-based attorney who represents the Sons of Confederate Veterans, at the time of the 2020 testamentary gift, the majority of the historic property was granted to the Battle of Nashville Trust. However, the Dorris estate provided an easement for the flag park and two smaller historical features for the SCV, headquartered in Columbia. This was based on historical considerations that the flag element should remain as is.

However, according to Phillips, the BONT trustee was requested to resolve the dilemma between the two nonprofits regarding what flags should be displayed. It was decided that a multitude of Confederate battle flags failed to represent both sides that fought in the Battle of Nashville, and the trustee opted for an updated display — with the United States flag and current-day state flags of both Union and Confederate states that participated in the December 1864 battle as more site appropriate. As a result, the replacement flags were recently installed.

Phillips said he respects the trustee's decision to make the change.

"While I understand the decision, it is my hope that the SCV in partnering with the BONT, we may be able to return the First National Flag of the Confederacy, commonly referred to as the Stars and Bars — and which is similar to the U.S. Betsy Ross flag — to the display.”

This article was first published by our sister publication the Nashville Post.