Corporal Johnny Green is nearly to the shaky Confederate line forming on the lower slope of Wayne’s Hill when he hears a strangled voice behind him: “Johnny. Give me a hand, son.” Green turns, sees Private Mike McClarey struggling along under the weight of Private Pat Reilly. “Take my gun, Johnny,” McClarey gasps. Green does, and they struggle the last few rods to the line.
Green helps McClarey ease Reilly down and they collapse beside him. After a minute of panting, McClarey reaches out a hand to nudge Reilly. “So how are you, boyo?” Reilly’s head rolls to the side, revealing a bullet hole through the temple. McClarey groans. “Oh, for pity’s sake, Pat! I thought it was your leg you said you was shot through.”
Corporal McKay of the 18th Tennessee regains consciousness in the darkness below the ruin of Wright’s battery. A column of Yankee infantry climbs the hill. “Look out,” one of the officers calls. “There’s a wounded man here.”
Most of the Yankees step carefully over McKay, but a few kick him, call him “a damned Rebel.”
Finally, much later, two Wisconsin boys looking for a missing friend stumble on him. “Boys, help a fellow Christian, won’t you?” McKay begs.
The boys kneel beside him, examine his wounds. “Damn,” one of them says. “Looks like you was run over by a damned herd of buffalo.”
“How would you know?” the other says. “You never seen a buffalo.”
“Well, I can imagine. I heard enough about ’em. You wait with him, Carl. I’ll go find a litter.”
Company C, 19th Ohio Volunteers, straggles back into its camp in the late evening. Plodding disconsolately to the fire where they’d cooked the hen, Corporal Billy Erb stops dead, then advances foot by careful foot, as if approaching a wary prize. He lifts the lid off the pot. “Well, I’ll be a son of bitch,” he breathes. “Must’ve been a thousand men fought through this camp going one way or the other, and not one of ’em stopped to eat our chicken.”
The four messmates kneel around the pot, worshipful. Erb stirs the stew of chicken and eggs, lifts out a leg, the meat falling from bone. He takes a morsel in his mouth, lets the meat dissolve on his tongue. “Perfect,” he murmurs. “Just goddamn perfect.”
Bragg sends Patton Anderson’s brigade to cover the withdrawal of Breckinridge’s division. Breckinridge rides among the survivors, raging like a wounded lion. When he sees the remnants of Kentucky Brigade, he breaks down in tears. “Oh, my poor orphans! My poor orphans!” he sobs.
They cannot comfort him.
EPILOGUE
ON THE EVENING of January 2, Breckinridge reports that the failed assault on the Yankee left has cost his division 1,700 men. Bragg is unmoved. After announcing that the Army of Tennessee will hold position at all hazards, he goes to bed. In the night, he reconsiders. The next morning, he seeks the opinions of Hardee and Polk. The Professor and the Bishop report that nearly every division and brigade commander believes that the army must retreat.
Brigadier General St. John Liddell arrives late in the morning to argue vehemently against any retreat. Bragg responds, “I know that you would fight it out, Liddell, but others will not.”
“Give the order, General, and every man will obey you!”
But Bragg shakes his head. “No, it has now become a matter of imperative necessity to withdraw.”
All Saturday, January 3, the armies wait in the rain for the other to attack. The Rebel retreat begins at 10:00 that night. Kentucky Brigade, rechristened the Orphan Brigade, leads the march down the Nashville Pike through ankle-deep mud. Bragg and his staff leave Murfreesboro shortly before midnight. Behind the last infantry regiment, Joe Wheeler deploys his cavalry to fight off pursuit.
Rosecrans does not pursue, but waits cautiously in position through January 4 as his Pioneers rebuild the bridges over Stones River. Late that afternoon, Colonel Zahm leads a regiment of cavalry south, sweeps up a few stragglers, tangles briefly with Wheeler, and withdraws to Murfreesboro.
Riding past burial parties dragging Union and Confederate dead into mass graves, Colonel John Beatty comes upon Rousseau, McCook, and Crittenden imbibing from a jug of corn whiskey. When the last swallow has been drained, Crittenden—apparently the host—hurls the jug as high as he can, unmindful of the half dozen enlisted men who must dive out of the way of the falling pottery. Crittenden rides off toward his headquarters singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. Rousseau and McCook follow, laughing so hard they can barely keep their saddles. That night, Beatty writes of Crittenden in his journal: Evidently the lion had left the chieftain’s heart, and the lamb had entered and taken possession.
A party of Nashville citizens arrives to petition Rosecrans for the release of Brigadier General James E. Rains’s body. Rosecrans growls, “You may have it, sirs, but you’ll make no damned Secesh demonstration over it. Not in the face of my bleeding army. My own officers are here, dead and unburied, and the bodies of my brave soldiers are yet on the field, among the rocks and cedars. You may have the corpse, sirs, but I warn you, there best be no infernal pow-wow over it in Nashville!”
On the road to Tullahoma, Bragg and his staff overtake a straggler marching grim-faced through the mud. Bragg inquires as to his regiment.
“Ain’t got none,” the man snaps.
“You are a member of the Army of Tennessee, are you not? You must be assigned to a regiment.”
The man snorts. “Bragg’s army? Hell, he ain’t got none. He shot half of it in Kentucky, the other half got killed up at Murfreesboro.”
The Army of the Cumberland crosses Stones River to occupy Murfreesboro on January 5, 1863. That afternoon, Father Treacy holds an open-air mass of thanksgiving for the army’s victory. Rosecrans stands at the front, head bowed, red face sagging with fatigue. Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce stands off to the side with Hazen, whose name has this day been forwarded to the War Department for promotion to brigadier general. Hazen watches the service without expression, turning Julius Garesché’s class ring over and over in his palm. Bierce would ask to hold it for a moment, to wonder at its weight.
Father Treacy turns from the altar, stares out over the congregants, gray eyes thoughtful. “Let us take for our text today, in humble thanksgiving for the Word of God, chapter two, verse eighteen, from the Gospel according to St. Matthew: ‘In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning—Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not.’”
Official casualty figures for the Battle of Stones River (called the Battle of Murfreesboro in the South) placed the losses for the Army of the Cumberland at 1,730 killed, 7,802 wounded, and 3,717 missing or captured; for the Army of Tennessee at 1,294 killed, 7,945 wounded, 1,027 missing or captured. A third to a half of the wounded die. Both sides called it a victory.
Two Federal officers received the Medal of Honor: Captain Milton T. Russel, Company A, 51st Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for leading Harker’s attack across Stones River on the evening of December 29; and the Reverend John M. Whitehead, chaplain of the 15th Indiana Infantry, for succoring the wounded and the dying on December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE CHARACTERS IN the list that follows are historical, the biographical facts as accurate and complete as I have been able to make them. I have included state of birth and (if different) the state in which the individual resided at the time the war began. I have also included principal pre-war professions.
For West Point graduates, I have included year of graduation and class standing. The latter is particularly interesting for what it reveals or more often does not reveal about ability to command. Class standing was determined by a combination of academic performance and military deportment. Hence, a poor student like Alexander McDowell McCook might, through careful attention to military bearing, finish near the middle of his class, while a first-rate student like Bushrod Johnson might finish far from the top because of a careless attitude concerning dress and drill. Some superb commanders, including William B. Hazen an
d the Army of Northern Virginia’s James Longstreet finished near or at the bottom of their classes.
Any reader in the literature of the Civil War is constantly bedeviled by the similarity in name of several armies, North and South, and the seeming discrepancy in the ranks of Confederate and Federal generals.
Federal armies were named in most cases after rivers flowing through their operating areas. Confederate armies were named after regions. Hence, Grant’s Federal army in December 1862 was the Army of the Tennessee, while Bragg’s army was the Army of Tennessee. There are exceptions, however. In the spring and summer of 1862, the main Confederate army in the West was the Army of the Mississippi, which became the Army of Tennessee in November of that year. Simultaneously, the relatively minor Federal Army of the Mississippi existed from February 1862 until it was incorporated into the Federal Army of the Tennessee that October. Since no amount of explanation can ease the confusion completely, I have occasionally referred to an army by its subsequent and more famous name prior to the actual change in title.
The problem of rank is similarly complicated. In the history of the United States Army prior to the Civil War, only George Washington held the full three-star rank of lieutenant general. Winfield Scott, general-in-chief in 1861, held it by brevet. Congress finally revived the rank of lieutenant general in 1864, awarding it to Ulysses S. Grant when he became general-in-chief.
Throughout the war, Federal major generals (two stars) commanded everything from divisions to corps, regional armies, military departments, and the army itself. Date of appointment determined seniority and was often the source of heated argument and competition.
Brigadier generals wore one star and commanded brigades and occasionally divisions and even corps and armies. (In the summer of 1862, before becoming commander of the Army of the Cumberland as a major general, William S. Rosecrans commanded the five-division Army of the Mississippi as a brigadier general.)
Numerous brevet promotions at all ranks in the Federal army further complicated matters. Brevet promotions were given for outstanding performance in the field (at least in theory), and granted the holder the insignia, privileges, and responsibilities of the higher rank. Eventually, the system became so widely abused that Congress passed a law forbidding those holding a brevet from exercising the authority of the higher rank until confirmed in the full rank by the Senate. In the field, however, many generals continued to function according to their brevet ranks.
By the end of the war, 583 Union officers were confirmed by the Senate in the ranks of brigadier or major general. In addition, a staggering 1,367 officers held brevets to brigadier or major general.
The Confederate system was simpler. Army commanders were usually full generals, entitled to wear four stars within an oak wreath. Among these were Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, P. G. T. Beauregard, and Braxton Bragg. Corps commanders were commissioned lieutenant generals; division commanders major generals; and brigade commanders brigadier generals (although often colonels commanded brigades). In all, 425 officers held one of the four ranks of general in the Confederate army. The Confederate army did not indulge in brevets to the rank of general, although a small number of officers held “acting rank,” unconfirmed by the Confederate Senate.
OFFICERS ATTACHED TO THE
ARMIES AT STONES RIVER
Brigadier General Daniel W. Adams, C.S.A., commanding First Brigade, Breckinridge’s First Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 41. Kentucky/Louisiana. Lawyer, politician.
Brigadier General J. Patton Anderson, C.S.A., commanding Third Brigade, Withers’s Second Division, Polk’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 40. Tennessee/Florida. Physician, politician. Mexican War service.
Colonel Philemon P. Baldwin, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Third Brigade, Johnson’s Second Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland.
Colonel John Beatty, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Second Brigade, Rousseau’s First Division, Thomas’s Center, Army of the Cumberland. Age 34. Ohio. Banker, poet.
Brigadier General Samuel Beatty, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding First Brigade, Van Cleve’s Third Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. (Commands the division on January 2, 1863.) Age 42. Pennsylvania/Ohio. Farmer, sheriff. Mexican War service.
First Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce, U.S.A. (volunteers), topographical engineer, Hazen’s Brigade, Army of the Cumberland. Age 20. Ohio. Writer.
Colonel Luther P. Bradley, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding 51st Illinois Infantry, Roberts’s Third Brigade, Sheridan’s Third Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. (Commands the brigade after midmorning December 31, 1862.) Age 40. Connecticut/Illinois. Bookkeeper, militia officer.
General Braxton Bragg, C.S.A., commanding the Army of Tennessee. Age 45. West Point 1837, 5/50. North Carolina/Louisiana. Soldier, planter. Mexican War service.
Major General John C. Breckinridge, C.S.A., commanding First Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 41. Kentucky. Former senator and vice president of the United States. Mexican War service.
Lt. Colonel George Brent, C.S.A., acting chief of staff, Army of Tennessee.
Lt. Colonel John A. Buckner, C.S.A., chief of staff, Breckinridge’s First Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee.
Colonel William P. Carlin, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Second Brigade, Davis’s First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 32. West Point 1850, 20/44. Illinois. Soldier.
Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, C.S.A., commanding Second Brigade, Withers’s Second Division, Polk’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 31. Virginia/Mississippi. Lawyer, politician.
Major General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, C.S.A., commanding First Division, Polk’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 42. Tennessee. Farmer, militia general. Mexican War service.
Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, C.S.A., commanding Second Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 34. Ireland/Arkansas. Druggist, lawyer.
Major General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 43. Kentucky. Lawyer, diplomat. Mexican War service.
Brigadier General Charles Cruft, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding First Brigade, Palmer’s Second Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 36. Indiana. Lawyer, railroad executive.
Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 34. Indiana. Soldier. Mexican War service.
Brigadier General Daniel Smith Donelson, C.S.A., commanding First Brigade, Cheatham’s First Division, Polk’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 61. West Point 1825, 5/37. Tennessee. Planter, militia general, speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Brigadier General Matthew D. Ector, C.S.A., commanding First Brigade, McCown’s Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 40. Georgia/Texas. Lawyer, politician.
Colonel James P. Fyffe, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Second Brigade, Van Cleve’s Third Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland.
Lt. Colonel Julius P. Garesché, U.S.A., chief of staff, Army of the Cumberland. Age 41. West Point 1842, 9/56. Cuba/Missouri. Soldier.
Colonel William H. Gibson, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding 49th Ohio, Willich’s First Brigade, Johnson’s Second Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Ohio. Lawyer, state treasurer.
Major C. Goddard, U.S.A. (volunteers), assistant chief of staff, Army of the Cumberland.
Colonel William Grose, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Third Brigade, Palmer’s Second Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 50. Ohio/Indiana. Lawyer, politician.
Colonel Nicholas Greusel, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding 36th Illinois Infantry, Sill’s First Brigade, Sheridan’s First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. (Commands the brigade after midmorning December 31, 1862.)
Colonel Benjamin Grider, U.S.A. (volunteers),
commanding 9th Kentucky Infantry (Union), Samuel Beatty’s First Brigade, Van Cleve’s Third Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland.
Brigadier General Roger W. Hanson, C.S.A., commanding Fourth Brigade, Breckinridge’s First Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 35. Kentucky. Lawyer, politician, militia colonel. Mexican War service.
Lt. General William J. Hardee, C.S.A., commanding Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Age 47. West Point 1838, 26/45. Georgia. Soldier. Mexican War service.
Colonel Charles G. Harker, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Third Brigade, Wood’s First Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 27. West Point 1856, 16/27. New Jersey. Soldier.
Colonel R. W. Harper, C.S.A., commanding 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles (dismounted), McNair’s Third Brigade, McCown’s Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. (Commands the brigade after midmorning December 31, 1862.)
Brigadier General Milo S. Hascall, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding First Brigade, Wood’s First Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. (Commands the division on January 2, 1863.) Age 33. West Point 1852, 14/43. New York/Indiana. Engineer, lawyer, politician.
Colonel William B. Hazen, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Second Brigade, Palmer’s Second Division, Crittenden’s Left Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 32. West Point 1855, 28/34. Vermont/Ohio. Soldier.
Colonel Hans C. Heg, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding 15th Wisconsin, Carlin’s Second Brigade, Davis’s First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. Age 33. Norway/Wisconsin. Farmer, politician.
Captain Henry Hescock, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding division artillery and Battery G, 1st Missouri Artillery, Sheridan’s First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland.
Captain Charles Houghtaling, U.S.A. (volunteers), commanding Battery C, 1st Illinois Artillery, Sheridan’s First Division, McCook’s Right Wing, Army of the Cumberland. New York.
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