A three-day affair to end 1862 and begin the new year, the Battle of Stones River – also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro – resulted in the highest percentage of casualties of any major battle of the American Civil War. 32.7% of the 78,400 who fought died, became wounded or went missing or captured after the battle’s end. Four brigadier generals died either outright or from mortal wounds from the battle – two on each side. Braxton Bragg’s newly renamed Army of Tennessee moved first on the morning of 31 December rolling through the Federal lines. But true to his nature, Bragg would find a way to turn victory into a tactical defeat. Much of Tennessee remained under Federal control as 1863 began.
STONES RIVER NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD
The battlefield was a latecomer to battlefield preservation movement only gaining Congressional approval for the establishment of a national military park in 1927. Part of the War Department initially, the park fell under the realm of the National Park Service in the summer of 1933 being classified as a national battlefield in 1960, one of seventeen sites preserved by the federal government.
Charge of Moses B. Walker’s Brigade sketched by a soldier of the 31st Ohio.
The sketch dates the action to 2 January, but the time was actually afternoon of 31 December 1862.
While nowhere close to the granite forests seen at Gettysburg, Shiloh or Chickamauga, Stones River does include one of the oldest surviving Civil War monuments erected with the Hazen Brigade Monument – 1863 – erected just outside of the Stones River National Cemetery. Only the monument to the German Americans of the 32nd Indiana at Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky is older. The cemetery dates to 29 March 1864 and includes graves from not only Stones River, but several other battles that continued to plague central Tennessee for the next two years.
“The thirty-first day of December Three thousand dressed blue and gray All sons of the heavenly father Lay in a watery grave And the river runs red The river runs red.” Opening lyrics to the Steeldrivers 2015 song “River Runs Red”
PRELUDE TO BATTLE
The battle at Stones River came about with political leaders from both the Federal and Confederate sides pushing their military leaders to bring the other side to bear. Confederate General Braxton Bragg spent much of the summer of 1862 trying to push Kentucky into the ranks of the 13 Confederate States after the bloodbath of Shiloh in April. Bragg took over from the Confederate commander at Shiloh, Albert S. Johnston, who died on the first day of that battle.
Bragg had successfully pulled Union forces out of northern Alabama and much of middle Tennessee. But Kentucky had not responded to Bragg’s call and after a tactical indecisive affair at Perryville in northern Kentucky, Bragg pulled his force back through the Cumberland Gap to Knoxville. In a letter to his wife, Bragg wrote, “Why should we be expected to conquer the whole Northwest with only 35,000 men? Our only hope was in Kentucky. We were assured she would be with us to a man, yet in seven weeks occupation, with twenty thousand guns and ammunition burdening our train, we only succeeded in getting about two thousand men to join us and at least half of them have now deserted.”
the armies come together
While Bragg had his critics both in Richmond and within his army, the Federal commander, Don Carlos Buell, had more. After failing to pursue Bragg following Perryville, Buell was replaced by William Rosecrans on 24 October. Rosecrans moved his army, renamed as the Army of the Cumberland, first to Nashville where he resupplied his army before finally pushing south to belatedly pursue Bragg.
Bragg had retreated further from Knoxville to Chattanooga before turning northwest to take up a defensive position on the West Fork of the Stones River at Murfreesboro. His army divided into two corps with Willam Hardee and Leonidas Polk commanding. Rosecrans arrived on the scene on the evening of 29 December with about 41,000 troops to oppose Bragg’s 35,000.
BEST LAID PLANS
As the two opposing forces moved into parallel lines about four miles long running southwest to northeast, the generals conferred. Both decided to attack the enemy’s right flank and roll them from there. With both plans the same, that meant both were weak on the right and strong on the left. The first to attack would probably be first to the winner’s circle. Rosecrans ordered attacks to begin just after breakfast. Bragg ordered his men to attack at sunrise. The Confederates were first off the mark. Union commander on the Federal right, Alexnder M. McCook tried to fake out his Rebel counterparts by planting numerous campfires around his right wing. Bands from both armies dueled musically the night before the battle from only 700 yards apart.
“CONTRARY TO ORDERS”
McCook had notified Rosecrans of Confederate moves opposite his wing on the right. Rosecrans told him that would suit his purposes well. All McCook’s men had to do was to hold their ground for three hours, by which time Rosecrans own right hook would be underway led by left wing commander, Thomas L. Crittenden. While shaving shortly before 0630 on 31 December, McCook heard musketry coming from his lines. McCook threw down his razor in disgust shouting, “This is contrary to orders!” He was quickly advised the musket sounds were from the Confederates and not his own men.
McCook’s two divisions on the right were quickly overwhelmed. Hardee pushed the Federals back three miles to the railroad running between Nashville and Chattanooga. His third division, that of Philip Sheridan, gave ground, as well, but slower and only after inflicting a cost on the oncoming Confederates. Sheridan had his men up before dawn in anticipation of an early attack. All three brigade commanders died in the morning fighting. The division lost more than 30% of its men in the first four hours as the casualty lists soared fighting in the cedar forest known as “The Slaughter Pen”. The attack pushed the Federal line back 2.5 to 3 miles swinging to the northwest like a door.
rout stabilizes
Sheridan’s’ men withdrew to the Nashville Pike as their ammunition ran out. Support from reinforcements and massed artillery guns stopped the Confederate advance, many of the units moved into place by Rosecrans personally. The earlier routed divisions of Richard W. Johnson and Jefferson C. Davis were also able to regroup and consolidate the Federal position along the Pike.
On the Federal left, Colonel William B. Hazen’s brigade set up in the wooded Round Forest, a rocky 4-acre ground that became later known as “Hell’s Half-Acre”. Late attacks in the afternoon went solely at Hazen’s men. John C. Breckinridge’s division came across the river two brigades at a time before going into action in a piecemeal fashion. Repulsed with heavy losses, the other two brigades repeated the actions with the same results. The battle was over by 1630 with the early winter darkness.
“THIS ARMY DOES NOT RETREAT”
31 December 1862 may have been one of the most important battles for William Rosecrans. His example of courage riding amid the confusion to direct men to stabilize a bad situation from turning into a catastrophic one helped save the day. Rosecrans spent the day riding about in a uniform covered with the blood of his chief of staff and father confessor, Colonel Julius Garesché, who lost his head to a cannonball while the road together over the battlefield.
Rosecrans assembled his generals that night to decide what the army would do next. While a couple advised retreat, Rosecrans, with support from George Thomas – commander of the Federal center – and Thomas L. Crittenden – commander of the right wing – decided the army would stay and fight, a decision which boosted the morale of the men. Thomas reportedly said, “This army does not retreat”.
Bragg, on the other hand, thought he had a victory in the bag. True, there were 9,000 Confederate casualties, but he felt the Union forces had suffered far more. His report to Richmond was, “The enemy has yielded his strong position and is falling back. We occupy the whole field and shall follow him.” Fully expecting Rosecrans to retreat, Bragg spent the next day anticipating the Federal withdrawal.
“MY POOR ORPHANS!”
Early on New Year’s Day, Rosecrans ordered the division of Horatio P. Van Cleve to cross the river in an attempt at reviving his original plan to attack the Confederate right. Van Cleve earlier wounded, passed command to Colonel Samuel Beatty.
In response, Bragg ordered Breckinridge to attack – an attack Breckinridge was none too keen on – Beatty’s division the following day in the late afternoon – 1600. They pushed the Federals back across the river at McFadden Ford before running straight into 45 massed artillery pieces placed by Captain John Mendenhall on a ridge overlooking the for. Twelve more guns fired from a mile to the southwest to employ flanking fire. In less than an hour, over 1,800 Confederate casualties resulted from the artillery onslaught. A Federal counterattack at 1645 pushed Breckinridge’s men back to their starting point.
Breckinridge, a former US Vice President, and southern Democratic Presidential candidate in 1860 – his vice-presidential running mate, Oregon’s Joseph Lane – was from a well-known family in Kentucky. One of his brigades, led by Lexington lawyer Richard Hanson, came from Kentucky. Those troops earned the nickname “orphans”. They could not legally return to Lexington unless the Confederates captured the town in the future. The brigade – originally Breckinridge’s first Civil War command – suffered 37% casualties in the one hour’s battle. Hanson, himself, mortally wounded. Breckinridge became overwhelmed with the losses his home state units took. “My poor Orphans!” he kept crying out as he rode through the remains of his units.
RETREAT
By the end of 2 January, Bragg realized the Rosecrans was there to stay. He would continue to gain reinforcements while the Confederates could count on only 20,000. Convinced Rosecrans force would soon swell to 70,000, he began his retreat in the evening of 3 January to Tullahoma 36 miles to the south. The Army of the Cumberland occupied Murfreesboro on 5 January going into winter quarters, to resume the game in the spring. Rosecrans, wrote Crittenden after the war, “Bragg’s a good dog, but Hold Fast’s a better” in a retake on Charles Dickens expression from Great Expectations.
Both sides lost over 25,000 – almost 14,00 Federals and almost 12,000 Confederates – or 32.7% of all troops ended on the casualty list. This was the highest percentage of casualties of any major Civil War battle, as well as more in absolute numbers than the losses experienced at Shiloh or Antietam. The battle did nothing for the reputation of Braxton Bragg, placing him at further odds with some of his subordinates. Bragg already resented Breckinridge. His close ties to other Confederate commanders, plus he blamed Breckinridge for arriving late to the Kentucky Campaign for the lack of enthusiasm he encountered in his August raid. Things got much worse between the two after Stones River.
For the Federals, Stones River was enough of a victory to boost Union morale. Kentucky and middle Tennessee were secure. The next steps would wait until June.
VISITING STONES RIVER NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD
With national battlefields created in the 1890s, groups got together to push the idea of one here. It was not until 1927 before their efforts came to fruition. Unlike battlefields like Shiloh and Chickamauga, Stones River defines more of a military purist’s ideal of a battlefield, meaning, a dearth of monuments found at the other sites.
Date of the establishment has the most to do with this. By 1927, few Civil War veterans still lived on. Sixty-five years had elapsed since the fateful nights of the New Year of 1862-1863. Regimental monuments had been placed in honor of most of the Federal regiments of the Army of the Cumberland (and the predecessor, the Army of the Ohio at Shiloh) either at Chickamauga and or Shiloh. The political drives of the 1890s and early 1900s passed on by.
THE PARK
The park encompasses some of the ground – though far from all – of the ground where the fighting took place. There are several distinct areas to visit, making a car or a bicycle a good way to experience the park. The visitor center contains many exhibits dealing with the battle, events, and personalities. Located just off the Old Nashville Highway, formerly the Nashville Pile, the visitor center is located where the Federals were curled back to after the morning attack on 31 December 1862. An auto tour used to head out from the center retracing the retreat of Union soldiers, especially the retreat of the men of Sheridan’s division. The road today transformed into a hike, though an abbreviated tour still runs out to stops at The Slaughter Pen, the Hazen Brigade Monument and then crosses the highway to run past a paper mill to the McFadden Farm stop.
CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE ARTILLERY BATTERY
There are seven miles of trails to walk within the National Battlefield, the longest being the Boundary Trail running thorough woods and rocks figuring in the 31 December morning fight. A short trail from the visitor center takes you to the site where the Pioneer Brigade – men working as the army’s construction arm – and the cannons of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery helped stop the Confederate attack short of the Nashville Pike. The same Chicago Board of trade sponsored two infantry regiments, The 72nd Illinois and the 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The 88th fought here under the leadership of Colonel Francis T. Sherman. Sherman went on to brigade command after Chickamauga gaining fame leading that brigade up Missionary Ridge during the Battle of Chattanooga on 25 November 1863.
The Chicago Board of Trade Artillery Battery consisted of a six-gun battery attached to the Pioneer Brigade. The footprint occupied by the battery with all of its limbers and caissons full of powder and shells, the many horses – sixteen horse teams, men and cannons all together took up about the size of a football field with a one-hundred-yard front facing the enemy. Their flanks covered by the Pioneers. General Rosecrans, himself, personally directed the battery to their position here on the field.
cBoT AT sTONES RIVER
The artillerists each focused upon their individual part of the drill of loading, firing, and re-aiming their weapons oblivious to the events happening in front of them. Not that they could see much enveloped within a fog of white smoke as they fired off one round per minute. When a gun fired, the recoil set the gun back three to six feet. The men needed to grasp the wheel of the piece and push it back into position for the next round. They had to let time for some of the smoke to dissipate before re-aiming the gun. An officer or sergeant kept track of the fall of the shot so adjustments could be made in between rounds.
Against the oncoming Confederates here, case shot was used. The shells would explode ten yards above and in front of the enemy producing a shower of iron balls and shell casing that would smash into the oncoming infantry.
There were three attacks here on 31 December with one attack getting to fifty yards out from the Union line before they withdrew. The battery fired almost 1,300 rounds at the enemy that day.
CBoT after Stones River
Some of the cotton fields to the southeast of the visitor center had been unpicked at the time of the battle. It was all mown down to ground level by the end of 31 December. All the way back to the tree line from where the Confederate attacks began, wounded and dead littered the grounds. On the morning of 2 January, the gunners recovered an abandoned gun with a damaged carriage. Replacing the parts, the battery added the gun to its firing line. From then on, by command of General Rosecrans, the battery was a seven-gun battery until after the battle of Chickamauga.
The Chicago Board of Trade Battery was one of those batteries amassed by Captain Mendenhall atop the knoll above McFadden’s Ford on 2 January. Fifteen minutes of fire from 58 cannons cost Breckinridge 1,800 men. Federal batteries advancing across Stones River to support the counterattack of James S. Negley’s division needed to drag bodies out of the way to make way for their horse teams.
Horse Artillery
After Stones River, the CBoT Battery rested at Murfreesboro changing from a field artillery unit into a “flying” horse artillery unit, the only such unit in the western Union armies. Horse artillery put the gunners onto horses instead of riding on the carriages and guns. They could move quickly, unlimbering when arriving at a firing position. After firing, they could then quickly limber back up and move to a new position to avoid enemy counter battery fire.
Attached to the Second Division of Cavalry, they fought on the extreme right of the Army of the Cumberland on 20 September at Chickamauga. The battery monument is located next to several cavalry regimental monuments next to the Wilder Tower in the southwest corner of that park. They stayed very active for the rest of the war riding with the cavalry.
A special structure built in Chicago after the war housed the battery equipment. They did not survive the Chicago fire of 1871 except for one battery wagon and a traveling forge which were in the basement of the structure. That equipment is on display at the visitor center at Chickamauga.
About one hundred yards west of the visitor center at Stones River, the Pioneer Brigade built a square fieldwork of about thirty yards to a side. The work repeat many times as the Army of the Cumberland slowly made its way south to Atlanta.
THE SLAUGHTER PEN
The Slaughter Pen was among the cedars and limestone rocks beneath where the divisions of Sheridan and Negley fought a delaying battle to give time for Rosecrans to set up a new line near the Nashville Pike. The Federals fired from cover at the Confederates attacking over open fields. Sheridan’s men fired south while Negley’s men shot to the east. They held fast for two hours keeping half of Bragg’s army at bay until finally, around noon, out of ammunition, Sheridan’s men broke for the rear. Negley’s men began to be surrounded by oncoming Confederates. The rocky shelter became a pen for slaughter in the other direction.
HAZEN’S BRIGADE MONUMENT
Colonel William B. Hazen’s brigade held the line between the Nashville Pike and the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, an area known as the Round Forest. Four Confederate attacks were repulsed here with the carnage giving a new name to the area, Hell’s Half Acre. They were the only Federal troops not forced to retreat on 31 December.
monument construction
Following the battle, with the Confederate retreat to Tullahoma and the Army of the Cumberland in winter quarters, men of the brigade decided to build a monument to their fallen. The construction began in June 1863 just as the Army of the Cumberland began moving out to begin the Tullahoma Campaign. The work took about six months to complete. Two stonecutters with the 115th Ohio carved inscriptions into the four sides of the monument. The 115th Ohio spent their war protecting the rail line.
men remembered
The monument is the second oldest Civil War monument found in the west. It remains the oldest intact Civil War monument remaining at its original site. One hundred and thirteen men of the 9th Indiana – the original unit in charge of erecting the monument in 1863 – died at Stones River. In total, over 400 men from the brigade fell during the battle. Each of the regiments have men laying out in front of the memorial, ten from the 6th Kentucky, fourteen from the 41st Ohio, nine from the 9th Indiana and seventeen from the 110th Illinois. Additionally, two men from Battery F, 1st Ohio Light Artillery also rest here.
After the war, controversy arose between Hazen and other fellow Federal commanders on the field, especially Timothy Stanley and Thomas Wood. They claimed the monument stood on ground not defended by Hazen’s men on 31 December. Much of their argument also concerned postwar disputes on the western frontier which carried over here at Stones River.
STONES RIVER NATIONAL CEMETERY
The dead of Stones River were hurriedly buried after the battle in the frozen, muddy grounds around Murfreesboro. In 1864, it was decided to begin building a national cemetery to give a final resting place for the dead from Stones River and other battles that took place afterwards. Many of the dead include many who died in the area hospitals, too. Illness killed far more men than the actual battles overall.
Choosing the area between the Nashville Pike and the rail line gave easy access to both workers and visitors. Work on the cemetery began in 1865. The 111th US Colored Infantry got the task of reburying the dead. Today there are more than 6,100 Federal soldiers buried here along with another 1,000 veterans of other conflicts up to today. Of the Federal soldiers, the identity of 2,562 are unknown.
The Confederate dead were not eligible for burial in the national cemetery. About 2,000 lie 2.5 miles to the southeast in the Evergreen Cemetery. The identity of only 144 soldiers is known.
The 111th soldiers served until 1866 though some of the men remained as civilian laborers for the cemetery forming a Freedmen’s community, Cemetery.
CEMETERY MONUMENTS
A copy of the original 1883 cemetery rostrum has been rebuilt, one of the few remaining in national cemeteries today. Two monuments stand in the cemetery. One commemorates the duty of the Regular Army units fighting here at Stones River. Built in 1882, the monument remembers in particular, The US 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th Infantry Regiments and Batter H, 5th US Artillery. The Regulars fought as a brigade with the division of Lovell Rosseau in the fight. They played a significant role in forming the final Union line along the Nashville Pike. Over half of the division losses came from the Regulars Brigade – 561 dead and wounded.
Another, much smaller monument – basically an oversized grave marker – commemorates the dead from the 43rd Wisconsin and 180th Ohio, two regiments serving post battle protecting the rail line in the area.
MCFADDEN’S FORD
The last stop on the auto tour route is past the big paper mill on the north side of the rail line overlooking the West Fork of Stones River. This is where the Federal cannon line massed together by Captain John Mendenhall with 58 guns abruptly stopped the advance of Breckinridge’s men at a little past 1600 on 2 January. A path takes you down to the river’s edge where the Kentuckians tried to get across the waters at.
There is a tall monument erected to commemorate the gun line. The monument was built by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway after the war. The railway played a role in commemorating battlefields installing signs along the tracks to note battle locations. Special tours were planned by the line to present the southern battlefields to both veterans and others interested in the war.
A special station on the line – “Cemetery” – allowed passengers to disembark and walk to the National Cemetery, a half mile to the west.
WHAT IS IN A NAME
There are four designations for 25 battle sites preserved by the US federal government – eleven National Battlefields, nine National Military Parks, four National Battlefield Parks and one National Battlefield site. The term “park” seems reserved for the larger sites, so the 570-acre Stones River site makes it into the “battlefield” realm. The National Park Service does not differ in the preservation nor management between any of the four.
FURTHER READING
Several books have been written about the battle and events leading up to and beyond. One of the old stand byes was written by Peter Cozzens, No Better Place to Die. David Powell is probably better known for his works on Chickamauga, but he has a excellent book regarding what came next in Tennessee after Stones River, Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that changed the Civil War, June 23–July 4, 1863.
Christopher Kolakowski gives a good, combined account, dealing with the events following Perryville leading to Stones River and the Tullahoma campaign which followed, The Stones River and Tullahoma Campaigns: This Army Does Not Retreat.
For an excellent volume replicating a staff ride over the field – Various points of the battle are explained through the actual reports of the commanders involved in the various actions – read Winter Lightning; A Guide to the Battle of Stones River written by Matt and Lee Spruill. They have also written Decisions at Stones River: The Sixteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle.