No Better Place to Die- The Battle of Stones River

by Peter Cozzens

  21. OR, 20, pt. 1, 373, 460; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 196.

  22. OR, 20 pt. 1, 255, 278; Johnson, Soldier's Reminiscences, 210; Day, One Hundred and First Ohio, 82; Solon Marks, “Experiences at the Battle of Stone River,” Wisconsin MOLLUS 2:390.

  23. Stevenson, Stone's River, 29–30; OR, 20, pt. 1, 348; Philip Henry Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, 2 vols. (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1888), 1:220–22; James H. Woodward, “General A. McD. McCook at Stone River,” A Paper Read before the California Commandery of MOLLUS at Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 22, 1892 (Los Angeles: Times-Mirror, 1892), 11–12.

  24. OR, 20, pt. 1, 313–14; Edwin W. Payne, History of the Thirty-Fourth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, September 7, 1861–July 12, 1865 (Clinton, Ia.: Allen, 1902), 43; Sheridan, Memoirs 1:222.

  CHAPTER SEVEN / BOYS, THIS IS FUN

  1. OR, 20, pt. 1, 304, 309, 319; History of Battery A, First Regiment Ohio Vol. Light Artillery (Milwaukee: Daily Wisconsin Printing House, 1865), 61.

  2. Woodward, “McCook at Stone River,” 13; Marks, “Experiences at Stone River,” 390; OR, 20, pt. 1, 300; Reid, Ohio in the War 1:868–69.

  3. Johnson, Soldier's Reminiscences, 213; A. H. Heiner, “The Battle of Murfreesboro Again,” CV 12, no. 3 (March 1904): 118; OR, 20, pt. 1, 300, 320–22, 325–29, 331–36, 774, 912, 926, 931, 944, 949, 956; Lavender, They Never Came Back, 38–40; Gammage, Camp, Bivouac, and Battlefield, 63; Freemantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 75; Warner, Generals in Gray, 81–82; Payne, Thirty-Fourth Illinois, 44–45, 57; Thomas M. Eddy, The Patriotism of Illinois. A Record of the Civil and Military History of the State in the War for the Union, 2 vols. (Chicago: Clarke, 1865–66), 2:354; Warner, Generals in Blue, 271.

  4. Robert Stewart, “The Battle of Stone River, As Seen By One Who Was There,” B and G 5 (1895): 12; Cope, Fifteenth Ohio, 234, 246; OR, 20, pt. 1, 304, 312–14, 941–42; Battery A, First Ohio, 61–63; James M. Cole to “Friend James,” 19 January 1863, ISHL.

  5. Cope, Fifteenth Ohio, 235–37; OR, 20, pt. 1, 316, 325–26.

  6. OR, 20, pt. 1, 193, 774, 853, 927, 938; Warner, Generals in Gray, 243–44; Watkins, “Co. Aytch,” Maury Grays, 154–55.

  7. Dyer, Compendium, 3:1078; OR, 20, pt. 1, 264, 270–73, 877; Lathrop, Fifty-Ninth Illinois, 188; George W. Herr, Episodes of the Civil War, Nine Campaigns in Nine States; Fremont in Missouri—Curtis in Missouri and Arkansas—Halleck's Seige of Corinth—Buell in Kentucky—Rosecrans in Kentucky and Tennessee—Grant at the Battle of Chattanooga—Sherman from Chattanooga to Atlanta—Thomas in Tennessee and North Carolina—Stanley in Texas (San Francisco: Bancroft, 1890), 125–26.

  8. Dodge, Seventy-Fifth Illinois, 64–66; Society of the Seventy-Fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Reunion Proceedings and History of the Regiment (Rockford, Ill.: W. P. Lamb, 1903), 12–14.

  9. OR, 20, pt. 1, 320, 343, 944; Wagner reminiscences, CWTI Coll.; Johnson, Soldier's Reminiscences, 213; Samuel P. Timmons to his father, 17 February 1863, John Wesley Timmons Papers, DU.

  10. John M. Berry, “Reminiscences from Missouri,” CV 8, no. 2 (February 1900): 73; Freemantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 155; Wagner reminiscences, CWTI Coll.; St. John R. Liddell to his wife, 12 January 1863, Liddell Papers, LSU; OR, 20, pt. 1, 321, 856–68, 945; Robert Dacus, Reminiscences of Company “H” First Arkansas Mounted Rifles (Dayton: Press of Morningside, 1972), 22.

  11. W. E. Bevens, Reminiscences of a Private. Company “C” First Arkansas Regiment Infantry. May, 1861 to April, 1865 (N. P., 1912?), 36; OR, 20, pt. 1, 280–85, 853, 898; Day, One Hundred and First Ohio, 84–87; Heg, Civil War Letters, 165–66; Jay Butler, Letters Home (Binghamton, N. Y.: Privately printed, 1930), 52.

  CHAPTER EIGHT / MATTERS LOOKED PRETTY BLUE NOW

  1. Marks, “Experiences at Stone River,” 390–93.

  2. Charles Doolittle to Mollie Post, 6 February 1863, Post Papers, Knox College; OR, 20, pt. 1, 270, 281–85, 330, 337, 341–43, 346, 854, 893, 901; Samuel P. Timmons to his father, 18 February 1863, Timmons Papers; Day, One Hundred First Ohio, 87; G. A. Williams, “Blow Your Horn, Jake,” CV 5, no. 5 (May 1897): 226; Berry, “Reminiscences from Missouri,” 73; St. John Liddell, Liddell's Record, ed. Nathaniel C. Hughes (Dayton, Ohio: Morningside, 1985), 109.

  3. OR, 20, pt. 1, 306, 913, 945, 952; Bearss, “Cavalry Operations in the Battle of Stones River (Concluded),” THQ 19 (1960): 119–20.

  4. OR, 20, pt. 1, 203, 306, 622, 636–37, 967–68; Thruston, Battle in the Rear, 8–16; Dyer, Compendium, 3:1637; William L. Curry, Four Years in the Saddle. History of the First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 (Columbus: Champlin, 1898), 83–84; Thomas Crofts, History of the Service of the Third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Cavalry in the War for the Preservation of the Union from 1861–1865 (Toledo: Columbus, Stoneman Press, 1910), 60; James H. Wiswell to his father, 8 January 1863, Wiswell Papers, DU.

  CHAPTER NINE / THE REBELS WERE FALLING LIKE LEAVES OF AUTUMN

  1. OR, 20, pt. 1, 664; Warner, Generals in Gray, 77; Freemantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 146.

  2. John Mitchell, In Memoriam: Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry (Milwaukee, 1906), 27; OR, 20, pt. 1, 290, 293, 348, 364–66; Newlin, Seventy-third Illinois, 126–27; Francis T. Sherman to Richard Yates, 13 January 1863, ISHL; Captain Taylor Beatty's unpublished report of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Stevenson, Stone's River, 50; A. H. Brown, “Reminiscences of a Private Soldier,” CV 18, no. 10 (October 1910): 449.

  3. Warner, Generals in Gray, 316; Brown, “Reminiscences of a Private Soldier,” 449; OR, 20, pt. 1, 288–89, 293, 687, 748–50; Thomas B. Van Horne, History of the Army of the Cumberland: Its Organization, Campaigns, and Battles, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1875), 1:233.

  4. Sherman to Yates, 13 January 1863; Day Elmore to his family, 8 January 1863, CHS; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 363; OR, 20, pt. 1, 359, 361–62, 706.

  5. OR, 20, pt. 1, 348, 354–55, 366, 370, 706, 734–38; Stevenson, Stone's River, 55–57; Warner, Generals in Gray, 210–11.

  6. OR, 20, pt. 1, 706, 734–35, 738, 740.

  7. Newlin, Seventy-third Illinois, 127; OR, 20, pt. 1, 354–56, 362, 364, 370; Stevenson, Stone's River, 59–60.

  8. Magee diary, 31 December 1862; OR, 20, pt. 1, 735–40; Watkins, “Co. Aytch,” Maury Grays, 93–94; Clement Evans, ed., Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History (Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899), vol. 3, Tennessee, 69; Stevenson, Stone's River, 62.

  9. Lyman Bennett and William Haigh, History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, during the War of the Rebellion (Aurora, Ill.: Knickerbocker and Hodder, 1876), 344; OR, 20, pt. 1, 228, 288–89, 366; Sheridan, Memoirs 1:228; Newlin, Seventy-third Illinois, 129–30, 171–72.

  10. OR, 20, pt. 1, 368, 845, 899, 901; Stevenson, Stone's River, 60.

  11. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History, 3:149; OR, 20, pt. 1, 846, 854, 879, 891.

  12. OR, 20, pt. 1, 689, 764; C. Irvine Walker, “Visit to the Battlefield of Murfreesboro,” CV 15, no. 6 (June 1907): 263; Stevenson, Stone's River, 63; Lieutenant Colonel J. J. Scales's unpublished report of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Robuck, Personal Experience and Observation, 44–45.

  CHAPTER TEN / ROSECRANS RALLIES THE RIGHT

  1. John Lee Yaryan, “Stone River,” War Papers, Read before the Indiana Commandery, MOLLUS (Indianapolis: By the Commandery, 1898), 1:168; OR, 20, pt. 1, 467, 574, 607; Manderson, Twin Seven-Shooters, 12–13.

  2. Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 365–66; Yaryan, “Stone River,” 1:169; OR, 20, pt. 1, 193; Seventy-fourth Illinois, 15–16; Crittenden, “Union Left,” 3:633.

  3. OR, 20, pt. 1, 193, 449, 467, 574, 607, 652–53; Barnes, Eighty-sixth Indiana, 107; Asbury L. Kerwood, Annals of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteers. Marches, Battles, and Incidents of Army Life, by a Member of the Regiment (Dayton, O.: W. J. Shuey, 1868), 155–56; Gilbert Stormont, History of the
Fifty-Eighth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Its Organization, Campaigns and Battles, from 1861 to 1865 (Princeton, Ind.: Press of Clarion, 1895), 115; History of the Seventy-Ninth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War of Eighteen Sixty-One in the United States (Indianapolis: Hollenbeck, 1899), 60; Charles Bennett, Historical Sketches of the Ninth Michigan Infantry (General Thomas’ Headquarters Guards) with an Account of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Sunday, July 13, 1862 (Coldwater, Mich.: Daily Courier, 1913), 28; Stevenson, Stone's River, 75.

  4. OR, 20, pt. 1, 377–78, 383, 394; Spillard F. Horrall, History of the Forty-Second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Its Organization, Campaigns and Battles (Indianapolis: W. B. Burford, 1893), 165–68.

  5. Robuck, Personal Experience and Observation, 44–45; OR, 20, pt. 1, 349, 370, 707, 735, 756, 764, 846; Stevenson, Stone's River, 67–70; Watkins, “Co. Aytch,” Maury Grays, 93–94; Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 150–51; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 239.

  6. OR, 20, pt. 1, 378, 394, 399–400, 913, 938–39, 942; Shanks, Distinguished Generals, 198–200, 234; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 43; Dodge, Seventy-fifth Illinois, 290–91; Will Carson to his parents, 7 January 1863, CWTI Coll.; Alfred Pirtle, “Stone River Sketches,” Sketches of War History 1861–1865, Papers Read Before Ohio Commandery, MOLLUS, 6 vols. (Cincinnati: By the Commandery, 1888–1908), 6:98–100; Frederick Phisterer, The Regular Brigade of the Fourteenth Army Corps, the Army of the Cumberland, in the Battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro, Tennessee (N.p., n.d.), 5–6; Record of the Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion (Cincinnati: Valley Press, 189-), 28.

  7. OR, 20, pt. 1, 378, 383, 707, 745, 776, 854, 899; Benjamin Scribner, How Soldiers were Made; or, the War As I Saw It under Buell, Rosecrans, Thomas, Grant and Sherman (Chicago: Donohue and Henneberry, 1887), 78–79; Pirtle, “Stone River Sketches,” 99–100; Beatty, Citizen Soldier, 201–3; Horrall, Forty-Second Indiana, 165–68; Stevenson, Stone's River, 78–80; Louis Philippe Albert d'Orleans, History of the Civil War in America, 4 vols. (Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1875–88), 2:518–26.

  8. Hannaford, Sixth Ohio, 394–95; OR, 20, pt. 1, 394, 560, 567, 571–72, 938–39; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 813–14.

  9. Louis A. Simmons, The History of the 84th Reg't Ill. Vols. (Macomb, Ill.: Hampton Brothers, 1866), 28–30; Pirtle, “Stone River Sketches,” 100; OR, 20, pt. 1, 378, 388, 405, 565, 569–72, 735, 777, 899, 938–42.

  10. OR, 20, pt. 1, 847–48, 858, 884, 927.

  11. Warner, Generals in Gray, 293; Haynie, Nineteenth Illinois, 186–87; OR, 20, pt. 1, 407, 421, 425–26, 725, 756; Ira Gillaspie, From Michigan to Murfreesboro: The Diary of Ira Gillaspie of the Eleventh Michigan Infantry (Mount Pleasant: Central Michigan University Press, 1965), 43.

  12. Gibson, Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania, 53; OR, 20, pt. 1, 407–10, 421, 426, 432, 437, 729, 764–65; Warner, Generals in Blue, 108; George Puntenney, History of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment of Indiana Infantry Volunteers, Its Organization, Campaigns, and Battles, Sept. ’61–Oct. ’64 (Rushville, Ind.: Jacksonian Book and Job Dept., 1896), 34; Joseph S. Johnston to his mother, 14 January 1863, CHS; Jacob Adams, Diary of Jacob Adams, Private in Company F, 21st O. V. I. (Columbus, Ohio: F. J. Heer, 1930), 19; Silas S. Canfield, History of the 21st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the War of the Rebellion (Toledo: Vrooman, Anderson and Bateman, 1893).

  CHAPTER ELEVEN / OUR BOYS WERE FORCED BACK IN CONFUSION

  1. OR, 20, pt. 1, 243–48, 574, 580, 584, 589, 592, 594, 927–28, 932, 935; Daniel W. Howe, Civil War Times, 1861–1865 (Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1902), 114–15; James Dobson, A Historical Sketch of Company K of the 79th Regiment Indiana Volunteers (Plainfield, Ind.: Progress Print, 1894), 6–8; Manderson, Twin Seven-Shooters, 16; Freeman, “Recollections of Stone's River,” 235–36; Seventy-Fourth Illinois, 15–16; Robert L. Kimberly, The Forty-First Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion (Cleveland: W. R. Smellie, 1897), 40–41.

  2. Captain C. A. Sheafe, “Personal Recollection of Battle of Stones River,” Rutherford Courier, n. d., in Ruth White Cook Confederate Scrapbook, TSLA; John Rerick, The Forty-Fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, History of Its Service in the War of the Rebellion and a Personal Record of Its Members (Lagrange, Ind.: The Author, 1880), 79–80; Barnes, Eighty-Sixth Indiana, 102; OR, 20, pt. 1, 502, 597–98, 601–6, 848, 858, 861, 879, 893–94.

  3. William Erb, The Valley of Death, the Battles of Stones River: Extract from the Battles of the Nineteenth Ohio (Washington, D. C.: Judd and Detweiler, 1893), 22–23; OR, 20, pt. 1, 502, 507, 510–11, 517, 554, 584, 594, 879, 884; Manderson, Twin Seven-Shooters, 16–17; Hartpence, Fifty-First Indiana, 106.

  4. OR, 20, pt. 1, 503, 508, 511, 589, 594, 598, 605, 777, 848, 861–69, 879, 881, 884–85, 891–94; Liddell, Liddell's Record, 109, 112–13; Hartpence, Fifty-First Indiana, 108; George Blakemore to Lu, 15 January 1863, Blakemore Letters, Ray D. Smith Civil War Collection, Knox College.

  CHAPTER TWELVE / WHIRLWIND IN THE ROUND FOREST

  1. Warner, Generals in Blue, 225–26; William B. Hazen, A Narrative of Military Service (Boston: Ticknor, 1885), 71; OR, 20, pt. 1, 516–17, 529, 543–44, 558; Kerwood, Fifty-Seventh Indiana, 155–56; Kimberly, Forty-First Ohio, 40; Eddy, Patriotism of Illinois, 2:361.

  2. Major Jo Thompson's unpublished report of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; J. N. Thompson, “The Gallant Old Forty-Fourth Mississippi,” CV 28, no. 10 (November 1920): 407; OR, 20, pt. 1, 529, 533, 537–38, 689–90; C. A. Sheafe, “Personal Recollections of the Battle of Stones River,” undated article in The Rutherford Courier, Ruth White Cook Confederate Scrapbook, TSLA; John Smith, A History of the Thirty-First Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion (Cincinnati: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1900), 48–49; John B. Guthrie to his aunt, 10 January 1863, Guthrie Papers, DU.

  3. OR, 20, pt. 1, 537–38, 545, 558, 711–12, 715, 720, 725; Warner, Generals in Gray, 74; Evans, Confederate Military History; Tennessee, 3:68; John M. Palmer, Personal Recollections of John M. Palmer: The Story of An Earnest Life (Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1901), 145; Guthrie to his aunt, 10 January 1863; Stevenson, Stone's River, 108.

  4. OR, 20, pt. 1, 395, 401, 405, 421, 429, 560–61, 565, 570–72, 689–90, 707, 715, 717–18, 735, 756, 765; Hannaford, Sixth Ohio, 396–98; Simmons, 84th Ill., 29–31; Phisterer, Regular Brigade, 9–10; Will Carson to his parents, 7 January 1863; Gillapsie, Michigan to Murfreesboro, 43–44; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 267–68.

  5. OR, 20, pt. 1, 467–68, 476, 481, 488–89, 565, 561, 569, 572, 707, 709, 712, 715; Stormont, Fifty-Eighth Indiana, 116–17; Warner, Generals in Blue, 214; Hannaford, Sixth Ohio, 598; Stevenson, Stone's River, 107.

  6. Womack, Diary, 78; OR, 20, pt. 1, 552–56, 712, 717, 720.

  7. OR, 20, pt. 1, 350, 366, 717.

  8. Stormont, Fifty-Eighth Indiana, 116–17; OR, 20, pt. 1, 350, 366–67, 468–69, 481–83, 488–89, 545, 551, 553, 556; Catherine Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana in the War for the Union, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Merrill, 1866–69), 1:160; Stevenson, Stone's River, 110–11; Bickham, Rosecrans’ Campaign, 270–72.

  9. Bragg's report of Murfreesboro, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; OR, 20, pt. 1, 701, 783–84; Breckinridge to Bragg, 10:10 A. M., 31 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Buckner to Breckinridge, 20 May 1863, Breckinridge Papers, NYHS; Horn, Army of Tennessee, 202; Hardee's report of Murfreesboro, Hardee Papers; Grainger, Four Years, 13; Green, Johnny Green, 59.

  10. OR, 20, pt. 1, 350, 366–67, 469, 493, 496, 545, 553–54, 556, 690, 793–95, 802, 838–39; Stormont, Fifty-Eighth Indiana, 116–18; Eby, Illinois Boy, 75; Kerwood, Fifty-Seventh Indiana, 163, 171; Kimberly, Forty-First Ohio, 41; Merrill, Soldier of Indiana, 1:160–62.

  11. Breckinridge to Bragg, 5:00 P. M. (?), 31 December 1862, Palmer Collection of Bragg Papers; Buckner to Breckinridge, 20 May 1863, Breckinridge Papers, NYHS; William Preston to William Preston Johnston, 26 Januar
y 1863, Mrs. Mason Barret Collection of William Preston Johnston Papers, TU; OR, 20, pt. 1, 461, 477–78, 495, 545, 783–84, 805, 812–15, 819, 822, 836–37; Lindsley, Military Annals of Tennessee, 363, 391; Sheridan, Memoirs 1:234–35; John Lee Yaryan, “Stone River,” War Papers, Read before the Indiana Commandery, MOLLUS (Indianapolis: By the Commandery, 1898), 169; Kerwood, Fifty-Seventh Indiana, 172; Wheeler, “Battle of Murfreesboro,” Wheeler Papers.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN / WE LAID TO REST POOR BOYS GONE

  1. Eby, Illinois Boy, 76; Henry Perry, History of the Thirty-Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, One of the Three Hundred Fighting Regiments of the Union Army in the War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 (Palo Alto, Calif.: F. A. Stuart, 1906), 61–62; Will J. Carson to his parents, 7 January 1863, CWTI Coll.; Payne, Thirty-Fourth Illinois, 57; Womack, Diary, 78; Hannaford, “In the Ranks,” 814–15; Cope, Fifteenth Ohio, 247.

  2. Magee diary, 31 December 1862; OR, 20, pt. 1, 554; Erb, Valley of Death, 24–26; Perry, Thirty-Eighth Indiana, 62; Phisterer, Regular Brigade, 13.

  3. Newlin, Seventy-Third Illinois, 143–44; Maxwell, Autobiography, 170–71; Marks, “Experiences at Stone River,” 395–96; Bromfield Ridley, “Echoes from the Battles at Murfreesboro,” CV 11, no. 2 (February 1903): 67; Hannaford, “In Hospital after Stone River,” Harper's Magazine 28 (1863–64): 260; Charles Doolittle to Mollie Post, 6 February 1863, Post Papers; Ira S. Owen, Greene County in the War, Being a History of the Seventy-Fourth Regiment, with Sketches of the Twelfth, Ninety-Fourth, One Hundred and Tenth, Forty-Fourth, and One Hundred and Fifty-Fourth Regiments, and the Tenth Ohio Battery, Embracing Anecdotes, Incidents and Narratives of the Camp, March and Battlefield, and the Author's Experience while in the Army (Xenia, Ohio: Torchlight Job Rooms, 1872), 34–35; William Preston to William Preston Johnston, 26 January 1863, Barret Collection of Johnston Papers; Dodge, Seventy-Fifth Illinois, 69.

  4. Owen, Greene County in the War, 35; Isaac Longenecker to his father, 13 January 1863, CWTI Coll.; Wilbur F. Hinman, The Story of the Sherman Brigade. The Camp, the March, the Bivouac, the Battle; and How the Boys Lived and Died during Four Years of Active Field Service (Alliance, Ohio: By the Author, 1897), 357; Howe, Civil War Times, 117; James H. Wiswell to his father, 8 January 1863, Wiswell Papers, CWTI Coll.; James Nourse diary, 31 December 1862.