Dec 30, 1862 – January 2, 1863
Stones River
Most of the battle of Stones River was fought off the park grounds. The battle began at the intersection of Franklin Road and Gresham Lane on the other side of I-24 with an attack on McCook by Hardee while McCook’s troops were making coffee. The Union forces were rolled back over the shopping centers and business parks into the National Park in a wheeling motion with the pivot anchored at the intersection of Old Nashville Highway and Thompson Lane at a place called Round Forest. It was in the park that the Union made its stand for the next two days.
The battle was concluded across the railroad tracks up on a bluff over the river where the Union artillery blew the Confederate troops of Breckinridge’s brigades to Kingdom Come.
Stones River
The Union Order of Battle
The Confederate Order of Battle
Visitor’s Center
The Visitor’s Center is a good place to lookout over the park and see what kind of terrain the Battle of Stones River was fought over. It wasn’t all shopping centers and business parks when the battle was fought, it was small farms, fields and cedar thickets and the park has preserved the scene beautifully.
The day I was at Stones River Battlefield Union re-enactors were going through firing qualifications for their muzzle loaders, and the sight and smell of the black power smoke drifting over the battlefield added a special note of poignancy to the scene. The evening before I had met a woman in a Laundromat and told her about touring Civil War battlefields and how they were great places to go for a walk, she flagged me down outside of the Visitor’s Center and thanked me for the tip.
Tour Stop 1 – The Eve of the Battle
It was a dark and stormy night, rain rattled down on the miserable troops huddling in the mud against the cold, for our battle takes place in central Tennessee, fires were forbidden to hide their positions from enemy eyes so no solace could be found even in the warmth of a few burning sticks. Bulwer-Lytton be damned.
When I visited there were Union solders still camped in this area.
Tour Stop 2 – The Slaughter Pen
Here Sheridan mounted a stiff resistance that delayed the Confederate advance long enough for other Union troops to form a new defensive line along the Nashville Pike. The new line would hold for the remainder of the battle, but as the name given the site suggests both sides suffered heavy casualties fighting over the Slaughter Pen.
Tour Stop 3 – The Cotton Field
After driving Sheridan out of the Slaughter Pen the advancing Confederates broke out of the cedars and spilled into a cotton field only to find themselves facing three lines of infantry supported by canon.
Tour Stop 4 – Defense of the Nashville Pike
While Sheridan held up a part of the Confederate advance, he did not stop it all. As retreating Union solders stumbled out of the woods and into the cotton field in many places they were closely followed the Confederates. Union artillery, sponsored by the Chicago Board of Trade, positioned near the Visitors Center, opened fire and drove off the advancing Confederates with canister.
Tour Stop 5 – Fight for the Round Forest
This was the pivot point for the Union position. Despite repeated and determined attacks the Confederates were not able to dislodge the Union at this point. Union solders falling back formed up next to the Round Forest defenders and stretched their line out north along the Nashville Pike.
Members of Hazen’s Brigade built a monument here in 1863. It is the oldest surviving Civil War monument.
Tour Stop 6 – McFadden’s Ford
Not much happened on the second day of the battle, but on the third Crittenden marched across the river and took a position on a hill on the east side. From this positioned Crittenden threatened the Confederate flank, something Bragg could not ignore. Accordingly, he ordered Breckinridge to drive Crittenden back across the river. Breckenridge attacked with five brigades. Watching the Confederates form up Crittenden ordered his artillery to occupy his old position on the west bank hill overlooking the river. His chief of artillery, Capt. John Mendenhall assembled 58 canon altogether and waited for his target to appear.
Breckenridge drove Crittenden off the hill and back across the river, but when the Confederates followed them into the river Mendenhall opened fire and killed or injured 1,800 Confederates in half an hours work. This broke the back of the assault and ended the Battle of Stones River.
In Conclusion
The battle is sometimes called an inconclusive Union victory. I don’t understand that viewpoint; Bragg retreated out of Murfreesboro and took up positions above the Duck River. Rosecrans moved into Murfreesboro and setup Fortress Rosecrans and massive re-supply area that remained there until the end of the war.
With Fortress Rosecrans/Murfreesboro in Union hands the Army of the Cumberland lived well. I believe they were the only solders during the Civil War who could drive home for the weekend.
From here Rosecrans launched the Tullahoma Campaign that drove the Confederates out of Tennessee and back into Georgia. The Confederates returned to Chattanooga for a while after Chickamauga but they were basically done in Tennessee for all practical purposes after Stone River.