Murfreesboro The Battle of Stones River, Dec. 31, 1862 - Jan. 2, 1863

James N.

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Part I of IV - Background
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The Battle of Stones River or Murfreesborough, Tennessee was one of the largest battles fought in that state, almost as large as its predecessor Shiloh but is far less known, overshadowed by the Union debacle at Fredericksburg which occurred only a short time earlier. The print above by the Chicago firm Kurz & Allison compresses the action into a single tableau with Federal infantry and artillery blasting successive waves of attacking Confederates as they emerge from the cedar brakes while Union commander William S. Rosecrans sits calmly and nobly astride his steed at left. In the middle distance, Stones River flows beside the railroad linking Nashville with Chattanooga, while just across the river more Confederates charge Union guns.

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Stones River was an outgrowth of the failed campaign into Kentucky by Confederate General Braxton Bragg, above left; Bragg's "invasion" was timed to accompany that of General Robert E. Lee in the East which came to grief at the battle of Antietam in September, 1862. Following an inconclusive battle at Perryville, Kentucky Bragg also began a retreat back into Tennessee, followed by the Union Army of the Cumberland led by Maj. Gen. William Starke Rosecrans, above right. Rosecrans was new to command, having been moved to replace his predecessor, Don C. Buell who the administration had found too slow, much like his friend George B. McClellan in the East. Because of this and despite the worsening December winter weather, Rosecrans determined to push on from his base in Nashville into Middle Tennessee, threatening Bragg at Chattanooga, just as McClellan's replacement Ambrose Burnside had marched futilely on Lee's army at Fredericksburg.

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Rosecrans' army was also called the XIV Corps, so instead of being divided into corps of its own, its component parts were known as wings, commanded by the men pictured above, from left to right: Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCook led the Right Wing which marched southeast from Nashville on several mud-choked country roads, finally coming to rest on the far right of Rosecrans' line as seen on the map below. Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas led the Center which marched first south then east, aligning itself with McCook and covering the Nashville Turnpike and the Nashville & Chattanooga RR with its left anchored on Stones River. Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden's Left Wing had marched east then south and was positioned slightly to Thomas' left rear. Rosecrans had complained to the War Department about the inadequacy and numerical inferiority of his cavalry force, led by Brig. Gen. David Stanley, but had yet to receive any reinforcement for that arm.


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Map by Hal Jespersen cwmaps.com

Rather than sit idle while Rosecrans advanced, Bragg also moved his Army of Tennessee forward to Murfreesboro; it was divided into component parts also known as wings since the Confederate Congress was only then authorizing corps-sized formations. These consisted of two divisions each and were led by the following men, from left to right below: Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee led the Left Wing, consisting of Breckinridge's and Cleburne's Divisions; Lt. Gen. Leonidas K. Polk led the Right Wing, composed of the divisions of Ben Cheatham and Jones Withers; and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler commanded all Bragg's cavalry. In addition to these, there was another small division which had been part of the command of Edmund Kirby Smith in Kentucky; for the battle it was attached to Hardee's wing.

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The night of December 30 was cold and damp from recent rains, as the two armies settled down facing each other. There was little rest that night, however, because both Rosecrans and Bragg intended to attack the following morning and moved their designated units into position. Waiting, regimental bands from both armies began to play and soon a battle of the bands preceded the actual shooting; finally, things quieted down with a duet of that favorite of soldiers on both sides, Home Sweet Home.

Next, Part II - The Battle Begins
 
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Part I of III - Background
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The Battle of Stones River or Murfreesborough, Tennessee was one of the largest battles fought in that state, almost as large as its predecessor Shiloh but is far less known, overshadowed by the Union debacle at Fredericksburg which occurred only a short time earlier. The print above by the Chicago firm Kurz & Allison compresses the action into a single tableau with Federal infantry and artillery blasting successive waves of attacking Confederates as they emerge from the cedar brakes while Union commander William S. Rosecrans sits calmly and nobly astride his steed at left. In the middle distance, Stones River flows beside the railroad linking Nashville with Chattanooga.

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Stones River was an outgrowth of the failed campaign into Kentucky by Confederate General Braxton Bragg, above left; Bragg's "invasion" was timed to accompany that of General Robert E. Lee in the East which came to grief at the battle of Antietam in September, 1862. Following an inconclusive battle at Perryville, Kentucky Bragg also began a retreat back into Tennessee, followed by the Union Army of the Cumberland led by Maj. Gen. William Starke Rosecrans, above right. Rosecrans was new to command, having been moved to replace his predecessor, Don C. Buell who the administration had found too slow, much like his friend George B. McClellan in the East. Because of this and despite the worsening December winter weather, Rosecrans determined to push on from his base in Nashville into Middle Tennessee, threatening Bragg at Chattanooga, just as McClellan's replacement Ambrose Burnside had marched futilely on Lee's army at Fredericksburg.

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Rosecrans' army was also called the XIV Corps, so instead of being divided into corps of its own, its component parts were known as wings, commanded by the men pictured above, from left to right: Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCook led the Right Wing which marched southeast from Nashville on several mud-choked country roads, finally coming to rest on the far right of Rosecrans' line as seen on the map below. Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas led the Center which marched first south then east, aligning itself with McCook and covering the Nashville Turnpike and the Nashville & Chattanooga RR with its left anchored on Stones River. Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden's Left Wing had marched east then south and was positioned slightly to Thomas' left rear. Rosecrans had complained to the War Department about the inadequacy and numerical inferiority of his cavalry force, led by Brig. Gen. David Stanley, but had yet to receive any reinforcement for that arm.


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Map by Hal Jepsen CWMaps.com

Rather than sit idle while Rosecrans advanced, Bragg also moved his Army of Tennessee forward to Murfreesboro; it was divided into component parts also known as wings since the Confederate Congress was only then authorizing corps-sized formations. These consisted of two divisions each and were led by the following men, from left to right below: Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee led the Left Wing, consisting of Breckinridge's and Cleburne's Divisions; Lt. Gen. Leonidas K. Polk led the Right Wing, composed of the divisions of Ben Cheatham and Jones Withers; and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler commanded all Bragg's cavalry. In addition to these, there was another small division which had been part of the command of Edmund Kirby Smith in Kentucky; for the battle it was attached to Hardee's wing.

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The night of December 30 was cold and damp from recent rains, as the two armies settled down facing each other. There was little rest that night, however, because both Rosecrans and Bragg intended to attack the following morning and moved their designated units into position. Waiting, regimental bands from both armies began to play and soon a battle of the bands preceded the actual shooting; finally, things quieted down with a duet of that favorite of soldiers on both sides, Home Sweet Home.

Next, Part II - The Battle Begins
I just finished reading 5 issues of the Chattanooga Daily Rebel from jan.3,1863 on and it gives an interesting account of the battle and the retreat.on the jan.8th issue it's funny as it says the retreat does'not matter.those old papers ae very interesting especially since the editor was a good friend of Bragg.
 
Part II - Confederates Overwhelm the Federal Right Wing
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Ironically, both commanders had decided on the exact same strategy: to hold with their right flanks while attacking with their left; this was the reverse of the war's first battle at Bull Run where Confederates were outflanked and almost defeated before rallying to eventually win. In this case, however, it was the Confederate troops that struck first, moving into position at 4 am well before first light. In order to deceive Bragg, Rosecrans ordered the commander of his Right Wing, Alex McCook to lengthen his line and build large bonfires as though the wing was stronger that it actually was. The ruse worked, but not the way Rosecrans had planned!

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Bragg obligingly stretched his own lines out along the muddy dirt road that led to Franklin well past where McCook's actually ended. In the lead was the small three-brigade division led by Maj. Gen. John McCown, followed by that of Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne to its right rear; both were to attack in echelon from the left and wheel to the north driving McCook's Federals before them as in the diorama above in the Stones River Visitor Center. In the dark and fog, the foremost Federal units were driven in and overrun, losing many prisoners as captured including Brig. Gen. August Willich.

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Rearward Federal units heard the commotion in their fronts but could do little but stand by their guns like the artillery above. Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill commanding a brigade in the division of Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan had suspected something was coming even before the attack and gone to his division commander with his worries; together they went to McCook but he brushed them off saying it was probably nothing but skirmisher outposts moving around in the dark.

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Confederate division commanders at Stones River included from left to right above: Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, former Vice President of the U. S. who was separated from Hardee's Wing and stationed across Stones River in a position that was to prove a grievous error on the part of Bragg; Maj. Gen. John C. McCown led the Confederate attack on the first day, scoring considerable success before his attack ran out of steam in late morning; Irish-born Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne whose division took up the assault and replaced McCown's as the left-flank assault element of Bragg's army; and Maj. Gen. Benjamin "Bluff Ben" Cheatham whose division was the next to come on line in the attack by echelon.

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As day dawned attacking Confederates began to lose their cohesion, allowing Union units more opportunity to withdraw rearward toward other supporting regiments and brigades like those waiting in line above. Successively, the individual regiments and brigades of McCook's divisions led by Richard Johnson and Jefferson C. Davis were overlapped by Rebel brigades and forced back, often losing half their number. They stubbornly retreated across the intervening Wilkinson Pike back towards Rosecrans' line of communication and supply, the northwest-southeast running Nashville Pike where the general had his headquarters tents and many of the army's wagon parks were located.

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Union Artillery played a crucial role at Stones River; batteries were attached to each brigade and they and their supporting infantry regiments leapfrogged to the rear. The battlefield was a confusing inter-mixture of cleared cotton fields and often dense woodlands like those seen here. When attacking Confederate units emerged from the cedars they began to be blasted severely with cannister from waiting Union guns. Phil Sheridan's twin batteries commanded by Captains Houghtalling and Hescock performed heroically beating back one wave after another until many of their horses were killed and both officers wounded before retiring to the rear along with the rest of the division. Tactics like these proved to lose a number of guns but bought time for Rosecrans to form a new line to the rear.

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Next, Part III - Rosecrans Forms and Holds a Last Line
 
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Stones River is indeed an interesting battle,Earl Hess calls it the zenith of Bragg's career.with today 's Internet you have much more access to primary records then the early historians of this battle such as Stanley Horn,Thomas Connelly and Peter Cozzens who always bash Bragg.there is an interesting article titled "Defense of General Bragg" by W.T.A.Martin that was published in the "Southern Historical Society Papers" #11 (1883) pages 201-06.
 
Union Artillery played a crucial role at Stones River; batteries were attached to each brigade and they and their supporting infantry regiments leapfrogged to the rear. The battlefield was a confusing inter-mixture of cleared cotton fields and often dense woodlands like those seen here. When attacking Confederate units emerged from the cedars they began to be blasted severely with cannister from waiting Union guns. Phil Sheridan's twin batteries commanded by Captains Houghtalling and Hescock performed heroically beating back one wave after another until many of their horses were killed and both officers wounded before retiring to the rear along with the rest of the division. Tactics like these proved to lose a number of guns but bought time for Rosecrans to form a new line to the rear.
Ector's Texas Brigade was right in the middle of that. A couple Texans mentioned the charge through the cedar brake and into the Federal artillery in their postwar accounts:

After resting a few minutes we sent forward a line of skirmishers and then followed in line of battle. We encountered the enemy at the edge of the cedar brake. The ground was level, but overspread with large lime rocks with many lime sinks from a foot to two or three feet deep. The timber was principally cedar, interspersed with large white oaks and other trees. For some distance we drove them, as we had been doing; but about this time the artillery opened on us and cut the timber off over our heads, and it seemed that the heavens and the earth were coming together. Our men sheltered themselves as best they could behind trees, ledges of rocks, etc. Their front line of battle (for they had several lines) seemed to take fresh courage and began to advance upon us, walking a few steps, then firing and falling down to load.
- 1st Lt. J. T. Tunnell, Co. B, 14th Texas Cavalry (dismounted)

We followed on through this cedar brake, which proved to be well known as the turning point of the battle. The cedars were very dense, making it difficult to keep an alignment while going through to open ground on the opposite side. Those who got through were met with such a volley of grape and canister from about forty cannon that had been hurriedly placed there by General Rosecrans that they beat a retreat back through the dense cedars as best they could, greatly demoralized. Ector's Brigade had several men captured among the cedars, among them two from my company, James Monkress and John Goodson. They were all exchanged, as this occurred before exchanges had ceased. Those of us who got back to an opening were greatly demoralized. The cannonading from so many cannon all at once appeared to completely demoralize the men. Littleton Fowler, who once preached at Jacksonville, took refuge among these cedars behind some rocks and said that the cannonading was so terrific that he could have caught birds that were so benumbed they could not fly.
- P. R. Jones, Co. I, 10th Texas Cavalry (dismounted)

Previous thread on Ector's Texans at Murfreesboro: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/texans-at-the-battle-of-stones-river-murfreesboro.120384/
 
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Part III - Rosecrans Stabilizes a New Line
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The new line Rosecrans formed was bent back like a hairpin at a less-than-90 degree angle from his original position and the divisions of McCook's Right Wing had been driven back as much as three miles. Richard Johnson's and Jefferson C. Davis' divisions were out of action reorganizing and replenishing their ammunition; fortunately their retreat had been in the direction of the ordnance trains parked along the Nashville Pike. In the scene above Rosecrans' new line is formed along the Pike at right with the artillery positioned between it and the railroad at left.

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In this modern photo taken in the Stones River National Cemetery which is also placed between the old Nashville Pike and the railroad tracks, the cannon might seem like a decoration but it marks the position of the battery in the view above. It is placed facing toward the Pike in the direction from which Confederate attacks by the divisions of Pat Cleburne and Ben Cheatham now came. From here the Rebels were beaten back in a close and hard-fought action.

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Rosecrans' line had actually become stronger as a result of the assault by Hardee's Wing in much the same way that U. S. Grant's Last Line at Shiloh had eight months earlier. His army had been pushed together in such a way that it now enjoyed interior lines making it easy to rapidly shift units from the reserve to threatened points all along it. Bragg realized too late that his own Left Wing was too weak to carry the new position and so called for the division of John C. Breckinridge to cross Stones River and join in the attacks on Rosecrans' Center.

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In Bragg's echelon attack the last Confederate division to be committed was that of Maj. Gen. Jones M. Withers but his front was squeezed between Cheatham's division and a loop or bend of Stones River in an area dubbed by the Union defenders Hel l's Half Acre, toward which the cannon above is pointing. Here at the angle of the Union front line stood the brigade of Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen, consisting of a regiment each from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky.

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Hazen's brigade was part of Thomas Crittenden's Left Wing and had the distinction of being the only one in Rosecrans' front line at the beginning of the battle to continue to hold its ground throughout the fight. The following spring and summer while Rosecrans' army held and fortified Murfreesboro as a great Union supply depot, the men of Hazen's brigade gathered their dead and buried them on the site where they had made their epic stand, erecting over them what may well be the very first monument of the Civil War.

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Union subordinate commanders at Stones River included the above, from left to right: Maj. Gen. Horatio Van Cleve whose division began Rosecrans' own early morning attack by advancing across Stones River to assault Bragg's right flank but was soon called back to support the main battle; Maj. Gen. John C. Palmer's division held part of the Union center later in the day; Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen was only a brigade commander here but is pictured as a later Major General commanding a division under W. T. Sherman; Brig. Gen. James S. Negley, whose division was driven across Stones River Jan. 2, 1863, before joining with Hazen to counterattack and regain the lost ground. Below at right, then-Brig. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's division of the Right Wing made a stubborn withdrawal on the first day that allowed time for the new line to be formed, beginning a career that would culminate with command of the post-war U. S. Army.

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Sheridan's success was not without personal loss, however; his friend and commander of one of his three brigades, Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill at center above, was killed early in the fighting. Sheridan memorialized him by naming one of the new forts later established in Indian Territory for his friend; today Ft. Sill, Oklahoma is the U. S. Army's School for Artillery. Another casualty of this day's fighting was Col. Julius P. Garesche, at left above, who was Rosecrans' Chief of Staff. As the General frantically raced from one threatened position to another - so unlike the calmness depicted in the print at the top of this page - he was accompanied by his staff pounding alongside or behind him as shown in the drawing below by artist-correspondent Arthur Lumley. Garesche had had a premonition of death in this battle; how it came true can be seen by his exploding head as he rides just behind and to Rosecrans' left in Lumley's drawing, decapitated by a shell which killed him instantly.

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Bragg's summons to Breckinridge came too late to affect the action of the first day, thereby saving his division from the fighting on Dec. 31. When he received it, Breckinridge was concerned about Van Cleve's Union division in his front, sending word to Bragg about the same time Van Cleve began to recross Stones River. Late in the day Breckinridge finally crossed to support Withers who had frittered his own force away by making futile brigade-sized attacks on Hazen in the Round Forest and at Hel l's Half Acre. His constricted front only allowed a single brigade at a time to attack and the buildings of the Cowan House and farm above further broke up unit cohesiveness, first wrecking Brig. Gen. James Chalmers' brigade and then repulsing those of Preston and Palmer who made rather feeble assaults in the growing winter twilight. Soon the battle sputtered out altogether.

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Next, Part IV - Another futile Confederate attack brings defeat to Bragg.
 
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Part III - Rosecrans Stabilizes a New Line
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The new line Rosecrans formed was bent back like a hairpin at a greater-than-90 degree angle from his original position and the divisions of McCook's Right Wing had been driven back as much as three miles. Richard Johnson's and Jefferson C. Davis' divisions were out of action reorganizing and replenishing their ammunition; fortunately their retreat had been in the direction of the ordnance trains parked along the Nashville Pike. In the scene above Rosecrans' new line is formed along the Pike at right with the artillery positioned between it and the railroad at left.

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In this modern photo taken in the Stones River National Cemetery which is also placed between the old Nashville Pike and the railroad tracks, the cannon might seem like a decoration but it marks the position of the battery in the view above. It is placed facing toward the Pike in the direction from which Confederate attacks by the divisions of Pat Cleburne and Ben Cheatham now came. From here the Rebels were beaten back in a close and hard-fought action.

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Rosecrans' line had actually become stronger as a result of the assault by Hardee's Wing in much the same way that U. S. Grant's Last Line at Shiloh had eight months earlier. His army had been pushed together in such a way that it now enjoyed interior lines making it easy to rapidly shift units from the reserve to threatened points all along it. Bragg realized too late that his own Left Wing was too weak to carry the new position and so called for the division of John C. Breckinridge to cross Stones River and join in the attacks on Rosecrans' Center.

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In Bragg's echelon attack the last Confederate division to be committed was that of Jones Withers but his front was squeezed between Cheatham's division and a loop or bend of Stones River in an area dubbed by the Union defenders Hel l's Half Acre, toward which the cannon below is pointing. Here stood the brigade of Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen, consisting of a regiment each from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky.

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Hazen's brigade was part of Thomas Crittenden's Left Wing and had the distinction of being the only one in Rosecrans' front line at the beginning of the battle to continue to hold its ground throughout the fight. The following spring and summer while Rosecrans' army held and fortified Murfreesboro as a great Union supply depot, the men of Hazen's brigade gathered their dead and buried them on the sight where they had made their epic stand, erecting over them what may well be the very first monument of the Civil War.

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Union subordinate commanders at Stones River included the above, from left to right: Maj. Gen. Horatio Van Cleve whose division began Rosecrans' own early morning attack by advancing across Stones River to assault Bragg's right flank but was soon called back to support the main battle; maj. Gen. John Palmer's division held part of the Union center later in the day; Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen was only a brigade commander here but is pictured as a later Major General commanding a division under W. T. Sherman; Brig. Gen. Negley joined

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Nice photo essay James N.
 
Part IV - A New Year Brings Confederate Defeat
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The night of Dec. 31, 1862 William Rosecrans called a council of war in a small log cabin behind his final line and asked his subordinate commanders if they thought the army should stand and fight. According to witnesses, McCook and Crittenden both recommended retreat to Nashville with Thomas saying only that he would support whatever was decided. Two versions exist of Rosecrans' choice: According to one, he said the army would remain, ordering the generals to wait while he and Stanley examined the position before returning an hour or so later to issue orders for their final positions. In the other version, Rosecrans and Stanley leave to look for a suitable avenue of retreat; finding campfires burning to the north along the Nashville Pike indicating their retreat was now blocked by Wheeler's Rebel cavalry, they returned and issue orders for defense. Either way it happened, the next morning Braxton Bragg was perplexed to find the Union army still there, as seen in the news print above.

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Map by Hal Jespersen cwmaps.com

It has been said of Bragg's fellow General P. G. T. Beauregard, whom he had replaced at the head of the Army of Tennessee only some seven months earlier, that while he could perfectly well plan a battle, once it was underway he seemed incapable of reacting to any changes in that plan; at Murfreesboro Bragg proved himself equally incapable. He had expected to wake and find a defeated Union army gone back to Nashville - Wheeler's cavalry in any case had not severed Rosecrans' retreat route and now Bragg was stymied. His own army had pulled back in the night to the positions shown in the map above and begun to throw up hasty breastworks, as had their opponents. Here both armies ushered in the New Year glaring at each other with only desultory artillery and skirmisher fire to disturb the peace. Bragg still hoped against hope that Rosecrans would retreat that night and once again he was to be disappointed.

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Bragg felt he still retained one ace-in-the-hole in Breckinridge's as yet largely uncommitted division. High ground across Stones River seemed to offer a suitable position from which to bombard the constricted Federal army, so he once again ordered Breckinridge across to the north side to seize it. In the meantime, Van Cleve's division had also recrossed and occupied the ground in question. Breckinridge protested this attack to Bragg but formed his division to make the assault, purposefully waiting until late in the afternoon of Jan. 2. He sought out one of his brigadiers, telling him, "General Preston, this attack is made against my judgement, and by the special orders of General Bragg. Of course we all must try to do our duty, and fight the best we can. If it should result in disaster, and I be among the slain, I want you to do justice to my memory, and tell the people that I believed this attack to be very unwise, and tried to prevent it."

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Breckinridge's attack at first was remarkably and unexpectedly successful, seizing the high ground and driving the Federals into and then across Stones River, but unfortunately for the Confederates their luck then ran out. Crittenden's Chief of Artillery Capt. Mendenhall had organized a defense against this very thing, collecting more than fifty guns from a dozen different batteries on a ridge just south of the river where the present Artillery Monument seen above now stands. Once the Federal infantry retreated into the valley of shallow Stones River they enjoyed a clear field of fire against the massed Confederates who nevertheless charged into and some even over the stream before turning back in full flight. The crestfallen Breckinridge rode among the members of his old Kentucky Brigade saying over and over, "My poor orphans" thereby giving them the name by which they have been immortalized. Following the rout of Breckinridge, Negley's division, joined by Hazen's doughty brigade and other units charged over the river to seize and hold the hills.

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The battle was a harsh one among subordinate officers on both sides, especially leaders of regiments and brigades. Confederate losses included above from left to right Brig. Gen. James Chalmers who was severely wounded during the attack on the Round Forest, leaving his leaderless brigade to fall back; Brig. Gen. Roger Hanson commanding the Kentucky ("Orphan") Brigade was killed early in Breckinridge's attack; and Brig. Gen. James Rains was among the very first to die at the head of his Tennesseans in McCown's initial assault Dec. 31. Bragg's army of some 39,000 men suffered almost 10,000 losses, 1,800 of them in the foolish last-ditch assault by Breckinridge. On the Federal side, Rosecrans lost around 13,000 - 3,000 of them prisoners - of some 45,000 total, a percentage loss even greater than that of Shiloh or Antietam. Still, to Old Rosey went the laurels; after another futile day of waiting Braxton Bragg set his army in motion, retreating to the Tullahoma, Tenn. line where he would await Rosecrans' next move through the spring and summer of 1863 while rebuilding and restoring his own shattered force. Below, the Monument to U. S. dead in Stones River National Cemetery

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Stones River is indeed an interesting battle,Earl Hess calls it the zenith of Bragg's career.with today 's Internet you have much more access to primary records then the early historians of this battle such as Stanley Horn,Thomas Connelly and Peter Cozzens who always bash Bragg.there is an interesting article titled "Defense of General Bragg" by W.T.A.Martin that was published in the "Southern Historical Society Papers" #11 (1883) pages 201-06.

In his relations with subordinates like Breckinridge here at Murfreesboro, it's easy to see how Bragg sabotaged his own efforts. After this I think their relations were so strained it probably affected their ability to cooperate with each other. Earlier, Polk had sent a letter to Bragg stating that his command was so demoralized they couldn't be depended on to attack again! This was why he then turned to Breckinridge and his as yet uncommitted division. What mystifies me is that in what was in reality a fairly small area Bragg didn't simply go and see things for himself before making such rash decisions.
 
Part IV - A New Year Brings Confederate Defeat
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The night of Dec. 31, 1862 William Rosecrans called a council of war in a small log cabin behind his final line and asked his subordinate commanders if they thought the army should stand and fight. According to witnesses, McCook and Crittenden both recommended retreat to Nashville with Thomas saying only that he would support whatever was decided. Two versions exist of Rosecrans' choice: According to one, he said the army would remain, ordering the generals to wait while he and Stanley examined the position before returning an hour or so later to issue orders for their final positions. In the other version, Rosecrans and Stanley leave to look for a suitable avenue of retreat; finding campfires burning to the north along the Nashville Pike indicating their retreat was now blocked by Wheeler's Rebel cavalry, they returned and issue orders for defense. Either way it happened, the next morning Braxton Bragg was perplexed to find the Union army still there, as seen in the news print above.

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Map by Hal Jespersen cwmaps.com

It has been said of Bragg's fellow General P. G. T. Beauregard, whom he had replaced at the head of the Army of Tennessee only some seven months earlier, that while he could perfectly well plan a battle, once it was underway he seemed incapable of reacting to any changes in that plan; at Murfreesboro Bragg proved himself equally incapable. He had expected to wake and find a defeated Union army gone back to Nashville - Wheeler's cavalry in any case had not severed Rosecrans' retreat route and now Bragg was stymied. His own army had pulled back in the night to the positions shown in the map above and begun to throw up hasty breastworks, as had their opponents. Here both armies ushered in the New Year glaring at each other with only desultory artillery and skirmisher fire to disturb the peace. Bragg still hoped against hope that Rosecrans would retreat that night and once again he was to be disappointed.

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Bragg felt he still retained one ace-in-the-hole in Breckinridge's as yet largely uncommitted division. High ground across Stones River seemed to offer a suitable position from which to bombard the constricted Federal army, so he once again ordered Breckinridge across to the north side to seize it. In the meantime, Van Cleve's division had also recrossed and occupied the ground in question. Breckinridge protested this attack to Bragg but formed his division to make the assault, purposefully waiting until late in the afternoon of Jan. 2. He sought out one of his brigadiers, telling him, "General Preston, this attack is made against my judgement, and by the special orders of General Bragg. Of course we all must try to do our duty, and fight the best we can. If it should result in disaster, and I be among the slain, I want you to do justice to my memory, and tell the people that I believed this attack to be very unwise, and tried to prevent it."

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Breckinridge's attack at first was remarkably and unexpectedly successful, seizing the high ground and driving the Federals into and then across Stones River, but unfortunately for the Confederates their luck then ran out. Crittenden's Chief of Artillery Capt. Mendenhall had organized a defense against this very thing, collecting more than fifty guns from a dozen different batteries on a ridge just south of the river where the present Artillery Monument seen above now stands. Once the Federal infantry retreated into the valley of shallow Stones River they enjoyed a clear field of fire against the massed Confederates who nevertheless charged into and some even over the stream before turning back in full flight. The crestfallen Breckinridge rode among the members of his old Kentucky Brigade saying over and over, "My poor orphans" thereby giving them the name by which they have been immortalized. Following the rout of Breckinridge, Negley's division, joined by Hazen's doughty brigade and other units charged over the river to seize and hold the hills.

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The battle was a harsh one among subordinate officers on both sides, especially leaders of regiments and brigades. Confederate losses included above from left to right Brig. Gen. James Chalmers who was severely wounded during the attack on the Round Forest, leaving his leaderless brigade to fall back; Brig. Gen. Roger Hanson commanding the Kentucky ("Orphan") Brigade was killed early in Breckinridge's attack; and Brig. Gen. James Rains was among the very first to die at the head of his Tennesseans in McCown's initial assault Dec. 31. Bragg's army of some 39,000 men suffered almost 10,000 losses, 1,800 of them in the foolish last-ditch assault by Breckinridge. On the Federal side, Rosecrans lost around 13,000 - 3,000 of them prisoners - of some 45,000 total, a percentage loss even greater than that of Shiloh or Antietam. Still, to Old Rosey went the laurels; after another futile day of waiting Braxton Bragg set his army in motion, retreating to the Tullahoma, Tenn. line where he would await Rosecrans' next move through the spring and summer of 1863 while rebuilding and restoring his own shattered force. Below, the Monument to U. S. dead in Stones River National Cemetery

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Great job on Stones River, James, enjoyed it!
 
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