Ben,

Of course you know there were two days of fighting at Nashville - December 15th and December 16th.

For the 15th, the 5th Mississippi, in Lowrey's Brigade was on the Confederate left near Redoubt One, facing Garrard's Division. The 12th Iowa was in Hill's Brigade of McArthur's Division and they struck the CS line down about Redoubt Three to the south of Lowrey.

On the 16th Lowrey was still on the CS left on the back side of Shy's Hill. McArthur's Division struck the CS line to the front of Shy's Hill and to the Confederate right of line. The 12th Iowa was in Marshall's Brigade (Hill having been killed the day before) and they guided on the Granny White Pike as their right and so struck the stone fence held by Loring's Division (Adams, Scott and Featherston's Brigades) and were not close to where Lowrey was.

A slight chance of them meeting on the 15th but I doubt it for the 16th as the Confederates falling back funneled down the pike and there were 9 Confederate brigades to the right of Lowrey before that pike so the 12th Iowa would have encountered many other units well before they reached Lowrey's troops.

Hope this helps.

Greg Biggs