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

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The Confederate attempts to carry the Round Forest failed at terrible cost to both sides. The determined Southerners had thrown the strength of 10 brigades against the Federal position, but still could not dislodge the defenders. As the cold and darkness of night closed in, the sheen of a bright moon revealed the sad carnage of the day, and the horrors of war became vividly evident.

In the winter chill, Hazen searched near the railroad tracks for the body of his friend Garesche. Rigor mortis had set in, and the dead man’s hand was outstretched as if to greet Hazen’s burial detail. Hazen removed Garesche’s West Point class ring and the latter’s well-worn copy of Thomas A. Kempis’ book, The Imitation of Christ. The body was removed and temporarily interred on a small knoll as Hazen looked on, shivering in a borrowed, blood-stained blanket.

Bragg, flush with victory, cabled Richmond with news of the day’s events as the last hours of 1862 passed into history. ‘God has granted us a happy new year,’ he informed the Confederate high command, fully expecting to find the Union army in complete retreat at sunrise.

As Rosecrans’ exhausted soldiers bivouacked for the night, the Union generals discussed the possibility of retreating. He concluded, however, that his men still had plenty of fight left–he would remain on the field. But he would have to reform his line to meet the possibility of a renewed Confederate attack. Through sheer force of character and organizational skill, Rosecrans consolidated his battered forces during the night, reassuring his subordinates and encouraging the soldiers in the lines to be prepared for a renewal of the bitter contest at daylight.

While his adversary worked through the night, Bragg went to bed without changing troop dispositions at all. He expected to catch the Army of the Cumberland in the open on the road back to Nashville on the first day of 1863. He thus was surprised and chagrined to find the Union soldiers still in position to give battle on New Year’s Day and lapsed into deep depression. For a while the Rebel general entertained the faint hope that the Union army might still retreat, but that was not to be, and Bragg’s men spent the day occupying the abandoned Round Forest and caring for the many wounded.

The next day it came to Bragg’s attention that the Federals had reoccupied some high ground on his right, east of Stones River. These troops threatened the Rebel flank, and Bragg determined to dislodge them. Once again he called upon Breckinridge. A 4 p.m. attack, Bragg theorized, would take the position and allow his troops to dig in at dusk, with nightfall preventing a Union counterattack. Again Breckinridge was hesitant. The Union line looked virtually impregnable. His Kentucky and Tennessee veterans were anything but lacking in courage, but they would have to cross several hundred yards of open ground, exposed to Federal artillery from the ridges on both sides of Stones River.

Bragg was insistent, and once again tempers flared. Breckinridge, however, acceded to his commander’s order. He placed Brig. Gen. Roger W. Hanson’s famed Orphan Brigade in the front line, along with the Tennesseans of Brig. Gen. Gideon Pillow. In the second line, some 200 yards back, were the units of Preston and Colonel Randall Gibson.

All the while, Brig. Gen. Samuel Beatty’s Union division watched from the heights. Rosecrans also took notice of the Confederates massing for attack and assembled reinforcements. Major John Mendenhall, Crittenden’s chief of artillery, rolled up 58 cannons, almost carriage to carriage, on a hill just west of the river.

Breckinridge rose at 4 p.m. and shouted in a booming voice, ‘Up my men, and charge!’ The Union guns thundered and tore great holes in the lines of advancing Rebels, who closed ranks and pressed forward. The men of the 2nd and 6th Kentucky and 18th Tennessee swept up the crest of the ridge, driving the Federals before them.

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

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