Once a beautiful wilderness, Spring Hill was an ideal hunting ground, claimed by the Cherokee. Tribes of Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Shawnee also hunted in the area. The location of the original settlement is the meeting point of three land grants. Lands belonging to Revolutionary War soldiers, Major George Doherty, John Hardin and Major Ezekiel Polk, who received these grants in lieu of money, came together at a point near the intersections of Duplex Road, Old Military Road and U.S. Highway 31

On November 29, 1864 both Federal and Confederate forces converged on the town of Spring Hill. The Army of Tennessee with Hood, Forrest, Cleburne and Brown met the 103rd Ohio, the 100th Illinois, 26th Ohio, 97th Ohio, 2nd Michigan and the 40th and 57th Indiana. Some 30,000 men fought throughout the afternoon and by nightfall there were estimated casualties of 350 Union soldiers and 500 Confederate soldiers. During the night Scholfield slipped his Union forces north; the bloody battle of Franklin ensued the following day as the Southern troops caught up to them.

The Spring Hill Battlefield is located just Northwest of the Saturn Parkway (Kedron Road exit) in Spring Hill and is preserved and protected from development by the Association for Preservation of Civil War Sites. The Battlefield is located 12 miles South of civil wars sites in Franklin (Franklin Battlefield, Carnton Cemetery) and approximately 32 miles west of Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro

There are several historic homes in Spring Hill. Rippavilla, was built by Nathanial Cheairs in 1854. White Hall was built in 1844 by Dr. and Mrs. Aaron White and was used as a hospital during the battles of Spring Hill and Franklin. It was the first headquarters established by Confederate General Earl Van Dorn in 1863. The McKissack Home was built in 1845 and thought to be the first brick home to be built in Spring Hill, It is the childhood home of Jessie McKissack Peters. Oaklawn was built in 1835 and was the Civil War Headquarters of Confederate General John Bell Hood. Gorham Wing House is known as "The Doctor's Shoppe". It was built in 1825 and is perhaps the oldest home still standing in Spring Hill. Cheairs Mansion, was built by Martin Cheairs in 1854, Cheirs Manson is the home where Confederate General Earl Van Dorn was murdered by the jealous husband of Jessie McKissack Peters.

Today, the town is one of the state's fastest growing cities, with a population closing in on 8,000. Dozens of new subdivisions dot the northern end of Spring Hill, on the Williamson County side of this split-county city.