Breckinridge’s troops had surprised even themselves with their dazzling success, but now it was time to stop and consolidate their position. Instead, they kept up their pursuit of the fleeing Union soldiers and came into full view of Mendenhall’s artillery. The carnage was incredible. Within minutes the Confederates were in headlong retreat as Union gunners rained a terrible fire on their enemy.

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Hanson was mortally wounded in the fighting, and a Union counterattack retook the ridge. Breckinridge’s ravaged troops struggled back to their original positions. The general was wracked with grief as he surveyed his shattered command. He was raging like a wounded lion as he passed the different commands from right to left, but tears streamed from his eyes when he beheld the remnant of his own old brigade. ‘My poor Orphans! My poor Orphans! My poor Orphan Brigade! They have cut it to pieces,’ he wailed.

During the night, Bragg, on the advice of Polk and Hardee, decided to retreat to Tullahoma, 36 miles south. Rosecrans allowed the Confederates to move unmolested and entered Murfreesboro on January 4. Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, having lost 9,239 casualties, or 27 percent of its fighting men, went into winter quarters at Tullahoma. The Army of the Cumberland suffered 9,532 killed and wounded, a loss of 23 percent.

The Confederate withdrawal left Rosecrans in possession of the field and constituted a costly, if somewhat qualified, victory for the North. After teetering on the brink of disaster, the Federals had stood firm and forced their enemy back on the defensive. Kentucky would remain free of organized Confederate units with the exception of infrequent cavalry raids, and Nashville would remain a key base of supply, especially useful in the campaign to capture Chattanooga that Rosecrans, even now, was planning for the coming spring.

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This article was written by Michael Haskew and originally appeared in the January 1997 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.

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