Battle of Stones River: Union General Rosecrans Versus Confederate General Bragg

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Crittenden anchored the Union left against Stones River and stretched his line southward across the Nashville Turnpike. Rosecrans directed Thomas to place the division of Maj. Gen. James S. Negley in line between Crittenden and the Wilkinson Pike farther south. A second of Thomas’ divisions, commanded by Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, was held in reserve. McCook swung into line on the right of Negley and extended the Union front still farther south to the Franklin Road.

Strangely enough, Rosecrans and Bragg had formed identical plans of attack. Each intended to strike a blow at his opponent’s right flank while standing fast with his own right. In order to mask his intentions, Rosecrans had ordered McCook’s troops to maintain a spirited skirmish line and probe the Confederate positions throughout the day on the 30th. He also ordered McCook’s men to build campfires extending for some distance beyond the extreme right of the Federal line to give Bragg the impression that large numbers of Yankees were massing for an attack on the Rebel left.

Bragg was quick to take the bait, but Rosecrans underestimated the aggressive extent of his counterpart’s reaction. The Confederate commander quickly transferred McCown’s division to the left in support of Withers and ordered Cleburne from east of the river to the extreme left. Hardee assumed immediate command in the area, leaving only Breckinridge’s detached division on the Murfreesboro side of Stones River.

Rosecrans had ordered Crittenden to attack the Confederate right at 7 a.m., December 31. But Bragg, convinced that the main Union thrust was coming against his left, determined to beat his adversary to the punch and ordered McCown to assault McCook on the Federal right at daybreak. Thus, Bragg’s response to Rosecrans own feint had given the Confederate general the sledgehammer with which he would strike a staggering blow and very nearly gain a swift and stunning victory.

Rosecrans had assured McCook that any offensive move against him by the Confederates could not be sustained due to the speed and strength of Crittenden’s attack on the Rebel right. However, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, commander of McCook’s Third Division, and Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill, one of Sheridan’s brigade commanders, were uneasy about the movements of enemy troops along their front. When the pair rode to McCook’s headquarters before dawn to advise him of their concern, the corps commander gave little credence to the possibility of a successful enemy assault on his position. He remained confident that Rosecran’s prediction of sweeping success against the Confederate right would be borne out.

McCook’s cavalier response satisfied neither Sheridan nor Sill, and long before daylight Sheridan had his division formed and ready. Brigadier Generals Richard W. Johnson and Jefferson C. Davis, McCook’s two other division commanders, on the other hand, had made no preparations to receive an attack. To their troops, the lightning stroke of Hardee’s corps, when it came, was irresistible. As the 10,000 Butternuts in McCown’s and Cleburne’s divisions descended upon them, the Union soldiers were blown away like dry leaves in a gale-force wind. ‘Sold again!’ some shouted. ‘We are sold again!’

The Confederates emerged from the cover of the cedars at first light and formed in lines of battle six-deep, advancing slowly at first and then picking up the tempo. Not until they were on top of the unsuspecting Yankees did the first Rebel yell break the early morning stillness. The Rebels of Brig. Gens. M.D. Ector, James E. Rains and Evander McNair lashed out at the Union brigades of Brig. Gens. Edward Kirk and August Willich of Johnson’s division. Kirk’s sentries had seen the Southerners coming and given their comrades some warning, but most of Willich’s troops were caught with their weapons stacked, preparing breakfast, just as some had been at Shiloh, Tenn., the previous spring. Willich himself was captured on his return from division headquarters.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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