No Better Place to Die- The Battle of Stones River

by Peter Cozzens

  14. Special Order Number 29, Headquarters Department Number 2, 4 November 1862, Leonidas Polk Papers, US; William Polk, Leonidas Polk, Bishop and General, 2 vols. (New York: Longmans, Green, 1893), 2:158, 168; Horn, Army of Tennessee, 190; Joseph H. Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C. S. A. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954), 136, 242–45; Kirby Smith to his wife, 8 November 1862, Kirby Smith Papers, UNC.

  CHAPTER TWO / THE ROSECRANS TOUCH

  1. Fry, Army under Buell, 83–87, 93–96; Henry M. Cist, The Army of the Cumberland (New York: Scribner's, 1882), 75–76; Henry J. Aten, History of the Eighty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Hiawatha, Kans.: Comp. and Pub. under the Auspices of the Regimental Association, 1901), 43.

  2. Edward Ferguson, “The Army of the Cumberland under Buell,” War Papers Read before the Commandery of the State of Wisconsin, MOLLUS, 3 vols. (Milwaukee: Burdick, Armitage and Allen, 1891), 1: 432–33; Ephraim A. Otis, “The Murfreesboro Campaign,” Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 7, Campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee Including the Battle of Chickamauga, 1862–1864 (Boston: By the Society, 1908), 253; OR, 20, pt. 2, 91; J. Warren Keifer, Slavery and Four Years of War, a Political History of Slavery in the United States, Together with a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War in Which the Author Took Part, 1861–1865, 2 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1900), 1:295–96.

  3. Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Comp. and Arranged from Official Records of the Federal and Confederate Armies, Reports of the Adjutant Generals of the Several States, the Army Registers, and Other Reliable Documents and Sources, 3 vols. (1911; reprint, New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959), 1:425, 438–39; William Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign with the Fourteenth Army Corps, or the Army of the Cumberland: a Narrative of Personal Observations…with Official Reports of the Battle of Stone River (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys, 1863), 18; OR, 20, pt. 2, 311.

  4. William Ross Hartpence, History of the Fifty-first Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry. A Narrative of Its Organization, Marches, Battles and Other Experiences in Camp and Prison; from 1861 to 1866. With Revised Roster (Harrison, O.: By the Author, 1894), 93; Hans Christian Heg, The Civil War Letters of Colonel Hans Christian Heg, ed. Theodore C. Blegen (Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1936), 152; John Beatty, The Citizen Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer (Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin, 1879), 235.

  5. Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach and Baldwin, 1868), 1:311–27; Michael Fitch, Echoes of the Civil War As I Hear Them (New York: R. F. Fenno, 1905), 12–15, 39.

  6. William Shanks, Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals (New York: Harper, 1866), 260–61; Thomas L. Crittenden, “The Union Left at Stone's River,” in Battles and Leaders, 3:633; Keifer, Slavery and Four Years of War, 1:308; James Henry Haynie, The Nineteenth Illinois; a Memoir of a Volunteer Infantry Famous in the Civil War of Fifty Years Ago for Its Drill, Bravery, and Distinguished Services (Chicago: M. A. Donohue, 1912), 179; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 28–29, 143.

  7. Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 255–57.

  8. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 28–29, 53–54.

  9. Ibid., 12–13, 47; OR, 20, pt. 2, 91.

  10. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 36–38; OR, 20, pt. 2, 20–22; Haynie, Nineteenth Illinois, 179.

  11. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 47; OR, 20, pt. 2, 55–60, 108; Aten, Eighty-fifth Illinois, 54; David Lathrop, The History of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, or a Three Years’ Campaign through Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, with a Description of the Country, Towns, Skirmishes and Battles…Embellished with Twenty-four Lithographed Portraits of the Officers of the Regiment (Indianapolis: Hall and Hutchinson, 1865), 178–79; Levi Wagner manuscript reminiscences, CWTI Coll., USAMHI; Dyer, Compendium, 3:1073.

  12. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 29–30.

  13. Ibid., 24; OR, 20, pt. 2, 9, 27, 31, 58.

  14. Dyer, Compendium 1:438; OR, 20, pt. 1, 175–82; pt. 2, 283–85.

  15. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 31–32.

  16. Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 61–77.

  17. Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 236.

  18. Reid, Ohio in the War, 1:806; William Sumner Dodge, History of the Old Second Division, Army of the Cumberland (Chicago: Church and Goodman, 1864), 239–40; Alexander Stevenson, The Battle of Stone's River near Murfreesboro’, Tenn. December 30, 1862, to January 3, 1863 (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1884), 31; Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 249; Lathrop, Fifty-Ninth Illinois, 192; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 235–36; Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860–1865, 2 vols. (Hartford: O. D. Case, 1879), 2:245.

  19. Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 235–36; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 40–41; Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 249.

  20. Ezra Warner, Generals in Blue; Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), 470–71; Joseph G. Vale, Minty and the Cavalry: A History of Cavalry Campaigns in the Western Armies (Harrisburg, Pa.: E. K. Meyers, 1886), 107–8; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 76–81; Henry V. Freeman, “Some Battle Recollections of Stone's River,” in Military Essays and Recollections; Papers Read before the Commandery of the State of Illinois, MOLLUS, 4 vols. (Chicago: The Dial Press, 1891–99), 3:228.

  21. OR, 20, pt. 2, 60, 64, 102, 117, 123–24; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 74–75, 88–90, 120; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 188; Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones, How the North Won; A Military History of the Civil War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), 300–314.

  CHAPTER THREE / A HASTY ADVANCE

  1. Brent journal, 2 November 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Thomas L. Connelly, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971), 16–17; OR, 20, pt. 2, 386–87; Edmund Kirby Smith to Braxton Bragg, 23 October 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Lindsley, Military Annals of Tennessee, 814–15, 818.

  2. E. W. Cole to John C. Breckinridge, 30 October 1862; B. F. Cheatham to Breckinridge, 4 November 1862; Bragg to Breckinridge, 5 November 1862, all in John C. Breckinridge Papers, CHS; Gervis Grainger, Four Years with the Boys in Gray (Dayton: Press of Morningside Bookshop, 1972), 13; Urquhart, “Bragg's Advance and Retreat,” 3:603.

  3. Folding map of Tennessee, in Stevenson, Stone's River; OR, 20, pt. 2, 398–99; C. C. Henderson, The Story of Murfreesboro (Murfreesboro, 1929), 1–2; Fitch, Echoes of the Civil War, 109.

  4. OR, 20, pt. 2, 388, 402, 417–19; Brent journal, 20 November 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Warner, Generals in Gray, 342–43; William C. Davis, Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974), 321–28; Edwin Porter Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade (Louisville, Ky.: L. N. Thompson, 1898), 358–61; Grady McWhiney and Perry D. Jamieson, Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage (University: University of Alabama Press, 1982), 49–52; Freemantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 138–39, 152–53; William J. Hardee, “Biographical Sketch of Major General Patrick H. Cleburne,” SHSP 31 (1903): 152–54, 161–62; Seitz, Braxton Bragg, 79; “Autobiography of General Patton Anderson,” SHSP 24 (1896): 67–68; Connelly, Autumn of Glory, 26–28.

  5. Seitz, Braxton Bragg, 211–15; Special Orders Number 275, 14 November 1862, Joseph E. Johnston Papers, CWM; Joseph Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations, Directed during the Late War between the States (New York: D. Appleton, 1874), 150–51; OR, 20, pt. 2, 436–37, 441, 444.

  6. Urquhart, “Bragg's Advance and Retreat,” 3:604; Polk, Leonidas Polk, 2:169; Brent journal, 12–14, 16 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; J. J. Womack, The Civil War Diary of Captain J. J. Womack, Company E, 16th Tennessee Volunteers (McMinnville, Tenn.: Womack, 1961), 75; James R. Maxwell, Autobiography of James Robert Maxwell of Tuscaloosa, Alabam
a (New York: Greenberg, 1926), 157; Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, His Letters, Papers, and Speeches, ed. Dunbar Rowland, 10 vols. (Jackson: Printed for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1923) 5:433–34; OR, 20, pt. 2, 150.

  7. Connelly, Autumn of Glory, 32; OR, 20, pt. 2, 447–48.

  CHAPTER FOUR / WE LIVED LIKE LORDS

  1. Brent journal, 22 November, 20–21 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 415, 437; Thompson, Orphan Brigade, 152–53, 159.

  2. Louise Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61; the War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator's Daughter (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1905), 105; J. E. Robuck, My Own Personal Experience and Observation as a Soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, 1861–1865; Also during the Period of Reconstruction (Birmingham: By the Author, 1911), 42–43; Womack, Diary, 76; Thompson, Orphan Brigade, 168; Grainger, Four Years, 13; Lot D. Young, Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade (Louisville: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1918), 40; Henderson, Murfreesboro, 1–7, 59.

  3. Urquhart, “Bragg's Advance and Retreat,” 3:604; Horn, Army of Tennessee, 195; Polk, Leonidas Polk, 2:169.

  4. Womack, Diary, 76; Brent journal, 17–21 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Charles Roberts, “At Murfreesboro Just Before the Battle,” CV 6, no. 12 (December 1908): 632; John Magee diary, 25 December 1862, DU; Maxwell, Autobiography, 158–59; Johnny Williams Green, Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade: The Journal of a Confederate Soldier, ed. A. D. Kirwan (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1956), 58–59; Leonidas Polk to his wife, 25 December 1862, Polk Papers; Allan Nevins, The War for the Union (New York: Scribner's, 1959–71), 2:407.

  5. Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 197; Heg, Civil War Letters, 158; Charles F. Manderson, The Twin Seven-Shooters (New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1902), 9–10.

  6. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 125, 138–39; OR, 20, pt. 1, 189–90, 617; pt. 2, 183, 192; Richard W. Johnson, A Soldier's Reminiscences in Peace and War (Philadelphia: J. R. Lippincott, 1886), 204; Bickham, “The Preliminaries of the Battle,” New York Times, Friday, 9 January 1863.

  7. Ebenezer Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment: A History of the Campaigns, and Associations in the Field, of the Sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Cincinnati: By the Author, 1868), 809; OR, 20, pt. 2, 224, 228–29.

  8. Brent journal, 25 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 663; Braxton Bragg's official report (draft) of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  CHAPTER FIVE / TO MURFREESBORO

  1. Ebenezer Hannaford, “In the Ranks at Stone River,” Harper's Magazine 27 (1863): 810; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 147–49; OR, 20, pt. 1, 253; Henry Eby, Observations of an Illinois Boy in Battle, Camp and Prisons—1861–1865 (Mendota, Ill: By the Author, 1910), 68–70.

  2. Company K, Fifteenth Illinois is referred to in the official report of Brigadier General Jefferson Davis as Company B Cavalry, Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry. On 25 December 1862, the company was assigned to the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry as Company K, although it still served as Davis's escort during the Stones River campaign. Dyer, Compendium, 3:1034.

  3. Edwin Bearss, “Cavalry Operations in the Battle of Stones River. Part 1: Cavalry Operations during the Union Approach,” THQ 19 (1960): 27–30; P. Sidney Post diary, Post Papers, Knox College.

  4. Eby, Illinois Boy, 66; Will Carson to his parents, 7 January 1863, CWTI Coll.; Bearss, “Cavalry Operations, Part 1,” 30–31.

  5. Bearss, “Cavalry Operations, Part 1,” 31.

  6. OR, 20, pt. 1, 446, 705; Bearss, “Cavalry Operations, Part 1,” 31.

  7. Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 810; Horace Newton Fisher, The Personal Experiences of Colonel Horace Newton Fisher in the Civil War; a Staff Officer's Story (Boston, N.P.: 1960), 51; William H. Newlin, A History of the Seventy-Third Regiment of Illinois Infantry Volunteers, Its Services and Experiences in Camp, on the March, on the Picket and Skirmish Lines, and in Many Battles of the War (Springfield, Ill.: The Regimental Reunion Association, 1890), 119.

  8. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 160–63; OR, 20, pt. 1, 253.

  9. Wheeler to Bragg, 2:00 P. M., 26 December 1862; Stewart's Creek Telegraph Operator to Bragg, 26 December 1862; Wheeler to Brent, 9:30 P. M., 26 December 1862; Bragg's report of Murfreesboro; Brent journal, 26 December 1862; Hardee to Brent, 4:00 A. M., 27 December 1862, all in Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  10. Wheeler, “Battle of Murfreesboro,” undated manuscript in Joseph Wheeler Papers, CHS; W. D. Pickett, “Reminiscences of Murfreesboro,” CV 16, no. 9 (September 1908): 450; William J. Hardee's official report (draft) of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Hardee Papers, ADAH.

  11. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 164; OR, 20, pt. 1, 253, 295, 318, 372, 636, 896; “Triune in the Civil War,” undated manuscript in John Leland Jordan Papers, TSLA; Bearss, “Cavalry Operations, Part 1,” 36–37; Fisher, Staff Officer's Story, 51; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 199.

  12. OR, 20, pt. 1, 372, and pt. 2, 247; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 198; Will Carson to his parents, 7 January 1863, CWTI Coll.; Mead Holmes, A Soldier of the Cumberland: Memoir of Mead Holmes, jr., Sergeant of Company K, 21st Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers (Boston: American Tract Society, 1864), 128.

  13. OR, 20, pt. 1, 447, 458–59, 575, 705; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 810; Smyrna Telegraph Operator to Bragg, 27 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; John Du Bose, General Joseph Wheeler and the Army of Tennessee (New York: Neale, 1912), 139.

  14. OR, 20, pt. 1, 534; Wheeler to Brent, 4:40 P. M., 27 December 1862, and Brent journal, 27 December 1862, both in Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  15. OR, 20, pt. 1, 672–73, and pt. 2, 463–64.

  16. Hardee's report of Murfreesboro, Hardee Papers, ADAH.

  17. Brent journal, 27 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 753.

  18. Lathrop, Fifty-Ninth Illinois, 191; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 810; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 173–74.

  19. Thomas Wright, History of the Eighth Regiment Kentucky Vol. Inf., during Its Three Years Campaigns, Embracing Organization, Marches, Skirmishes, and Battles of the Command, with Much of the History of the Old Reliable Third Brigade, Commanded by Hon. Stanley Matthews, and Containing Many Interesting and Amusing Incidents of Army Life (St. Joseph, Mo.: St. Joseph Steam Printing Co., 1880), 123; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 164–65, 173–74; Heg, Civil War Letters, 161; Fisher, Staff Officer's Story, 51–52; OR, 20, pt. 1, 635; pt. 2, 255–58.

  CHAPTER SIX / THE LINES WERE FORMING

  1. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 175–77; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 811; Wheeler to Brent, 1:30 P. M., 29 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  2. Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 811; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 177; Warner, Generals in Blue, 358, 569; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 235–36; Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 295; OR, 20, pt. 1, 448, 459.

  3. Hartpence, Fifty-First Indiana, 104–6; OR, 20, pt. 1, 448, 501, 507, 836–37; Warner, Generals in Blue, 207; John A. Buckner to Breckinridge, 20 May 1863, John C. Breckinridge Papers, NYHS; Otis, “Murfreesboro Campaign,” 302.

  4. Buckner to Breckinridge, 20 May 1863, Breckinridge Papers, NYHS.

  5. OR, 20, pt. 1, 254, 295, 635; pt. 2, 265–69.

  6. John W. Lavender, The War Memoirs of Captain John W. Lavender, C. S. A. They Never Came Back; the Story of Co. F. Fourth Arks. Infantry, C. S. A., Originally Known as the Montgomery Hunters, as Told by Their Commanding Officer, ed. Ted. R. Worley (Pine Bluff, Ark.: W. M. Hackett and D. R. Perdue, 1956), 37–38.

  7. Bragg's report of Murfreesboro, and Brent journal, 28–29 December 1862, both in Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 705; Wheeler, “Battle of Murfreesboro,” Wheeler Papers.

  8. OR, 20, pt. 1, 254.

  9. Lewis W. Day, Story of the One Hundred and First Ohio Infantry. A Memorial Volume (Cleveland: W. M. Bayne, 1894), 80–81; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Ca
mpaign, 181–86; James C. Howlett diary, 30 December 1862, ISHL.

  10. OR, 20, pt. 1, 372, 407.

  11. Ibid., 576.

  12. James A. Barnes, The Eighty-Sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. A Narrative of Its Service in the Civil War of 1861–1865 (Crawfordsville, Ind.: The Journal Company, 1895), 98; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 811–12.

  13. Urquhart, “Bragg's Advance and Retreat,” 3:606; Brent journal, 30 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  14. Wheeler, “Battle of Murfreesboro,” Wheeler Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 787.

  15. Washington Lafayett Gammage, The Camp, the Bivouac, and the Battlefield; being a History of the Fourth Arkansas Regiment, from Its First Organization down to the Present Date: Its Campaigns and Its Battles, with an Occasional Reference to the Current Events of the Times, including Biographical Sketches of Its Field Officers and Others of the “Old Brigade.” The Whole Interspersed Here and There with Descriptions of Scenery, Incidents of Camp Life, Etc. (Little Rock: Arkansas Southern Press, 1958), 63; OR, 20, pt. 1, 773, 919–23, 931.

  16. OR, 20, pt. 1, 773, 844.

  17. Ibid., 773, 754, 966; Bragg's report of Murfreesboro, Brent journal, 30 December 1862, both in Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers.

  18. Gates P. Thruston, Personal Recollections of the Battle in the Rear at Stone's River (Nashville, n. d.), 5–6; OR, 20 pt. 1, 192, 255, 277, 381; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 198–200; Charles Briant, History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Of Both the Three Months’ and Three Years’ Services (Indianapolis: W. B. Burford, 1891), 176.

  19. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 202; Alexis Cope, The Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers and Its Campaigns, War of 1861–5 (Columbus: The Author, 1916), 234.

  20. Barnes, Eighty-Sixth Indiana, 99; William Sumner Dodge, A Waif of the War; or, the History of the Seventy-Fifth Illinois Infantry (Chicago: Church and Goodman, 1866), 63; Joseph Gibson, History of the Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Pittsburg: Pittsburg Print. Co., 1905), 51; Wagner reminiscences, CWTI Coll.