enemy. The failure of the right wing changed
the whole order of battle. It was not in the
power of the Federals to assume the offensive,
for all available forces were needed to sustain the
new line hastily chosen and posted by General
Rosecrans in person, Rousseau's reserve being the
nucleus upon which such troops as were at hand
were formed.
Palmer's division, the right of
Crittenden's line, was the only one still remain-
ing in the original position.

forces on its right were overpowered and driven back. When this occurred, it was exposed to fire in flank and rear, and the attempts of the enemy to charge in front. Its commander had but one regiment to protect his flank, but was furnished with two battalions from the division reserve, It was terrible fighting to beat back the enemy's double lines in front and flank; it cost a third of the brave brigade, but every moment the enemy was held back was worth a thousand men to the main line. General Rosecrans improved the time so well in hurrying troops to the new position, that when the enemy assailed that line, the fresh divisions of Van Cleve, Wood and Rousseau, and the artillery, massed on a commanding point, not only repulsed them, but they were charged while retiring by one of Crittenden's brigades. The enemy had also miscalculated the temper of Hazen's brigade, and Bragg was obliged to report, as he did in his first despatch, that he had driven the whole Federal line, except his left, which stubbornly resisted." When they withdrew, the right of the brigade was swung to the rear, bringing it behind an embankment of the railroad, which formed a good breastwork, and enabled it to successfully withstand subsequent flank attacks. In the temporary cessation of fighting which ensued, Gen. Rosecrans strength. ened this point with infantry and artillery.

The enemy, evidently unwilling to see his advantage on the right melt away in a single attack, came forward again. McCook's troops and Negley's division had been re-formed in the new posi tion. The enemy, though inflicting severe losses, was unable to force the line again, and was driven back with great slaughter. The right of his line, when it came up to assault for the fourth and last time Hazen's position on the left, was shattered and broken by a single volley. Such a change had repeated repulses made in the morale of the troops that fought with such determination in the morning.

The other divisions of Crittenden were hurried to the new line to resist the enemy's attack. The position of Gen. Rosecrans was now in the form of a crotchet, the shorter line being Palmer's division, still in the original line. The left of this division, now the left of the army, was to the left, and at right angles with the Nashville pike, in a scanty grove of oaks covering an inconsiderable crest between the pike and the railroad, which intersected at an acute angle about four hundred yards in front; Stone River, crossing the pike some distance further to the front, ran nearly parallel, and very near to it until within three hundred and fifty yards of Palmer's position, where it turned squarely to the left, and continuing this course for several hundred yards, again turned and swept around toward the rear. The portion of the stream in front of Palmer's left was deep, with but one narrow ford, thus forming an excellent flank defence. Between Palmer's two brigades in the first line was an open field of three hundred yards, (the left brigade had occupied this field, but its commander, seeing the impossibility of sustaining an attack in low, open ground, within musket-range of the enemy's cover, had moved to occupy the favorable crest mentioned,) the right brigade lying in the skirt of a cedar wood. Palmer's division had sustained an attack successfully, and while Gen. Rosecrans was forming his new line, was assailed with extreme ferocity in front and upon the right flank, then exposed by the falling back of Negley. The right brigade was forced back in turn, exposing the left brigade to a flank attack and rendering the whole position critical. The force that followed to engage Rosecrans's rear line, when Negley fell back, was undoubtedly designed to operate in conjunction with one now endeavoring to crush the shorter arm (Palmer's division) of the crotchet line, and the two would then take the main Federal line in front, flank, and rear, before its formation was complete. The plan was The battle was substantially ended on Wedneswell devised; with the division protecting the day night. Gen. Rosecrans was not idle, howflank of his army removed, Gen. Rosecrans would ever, and at daylight on Thursday, had his army have had nothing to hope for. The persistence in a position the enemy might have hurled his and desperate energy with which the enemy press- masses upon in vain. During the day, both pared this point indicate that they were fully aware ties refrained from offensive movements; probof the advantage success here would give them. ably the enemy, convinced of the unprofitableness Certainly it was an ill turn of rebel fortune that of further attack on the Federal right, shortened allowed a single brigade of one thousand two his lines and moved to his own right. A demonhundred men to fail the efforts of their thousands stration he made with artillery indicated a desire at this vital point. Less skilfully manoeuvred, to develop the position of the Federal left, and these one thousand two hundred men would have showed his attention to be mainly directed to that been an obstacle almost insignificant. This bri- point. Stone River ran across the front half a gade (Hazen's) maintained its position with un-mile in advance, around the left, within two hunHinching courage and good success, until the dred yards of the line, and close in the rear of

The enemy's great superiority in cavalry availed him little or nothing. Its operations in rear of the Federal army amounted only to the cap. ture of an inconsiderable quantity of stores, which Gen. Rosecrans had not the power to efficiently protect. Their loss occasioned no serious inconvenience, and the enemy did not carry them away. No panic or confusion in the movements of troops rewarded their efforts.

most valuable time, and finally brought off his division in good order for further service. These services were extraordinary under the circumstances, and no general would trust to their be ing rendered by any division; neither would the General have confided the defence of his left flank to so small a force as Hazen's brigade, had he foreseen what constant presence of mind, obstinacy, and rapid and difficult changes of position were required to enable its commander to hold his ground against four or five times his number, during the entire day.

The battle was like most engagements of the war there was nothing decisive in the result, and the enemy carrying what he would, withdrew unmolested; but there is certainly much cause for congratulation in the fact that fortune has not allowed similar circumstances (the change of commanders) in the Eastern and Western armies to produce similar results, and that at the West we have a "Stone River," not a "Fredericksburgh."

this wing, and the artillery occupied strong, commanding positions. On Friday, Van Cleve's division was thrown across the river to the left, and formed there on the prolongation of the general line, with its left considerably retired. One additional brigade was also sent as a support. At three o'clock, Friday afternoon, a furious attack was made by the enemy upon this division. Their assault had all the vigor and rapidity that characterized the grand operation of Wednesday upon McCook. Van Cleve's division (without artillery) was driven from its position, its fire scarcely lessening the speed of the enemy's advance. This success was insignificant in comparison with the extent of the enemy's preparations; without further action, it was valueless. But when it was gained, his movements appeared without further plan. His impetuous charge was not sustained by troops to occupy the ground taken, or to press on across the river to the flank and rear of the left wing. A considerable force which advanced on the left of the assaulting lines failed to coöpeLOUISVILLE "JOURNAL" ACCOUNT. rate efficiently, and no advantage was taken of the diversion to attempt another part of the line. BATTLE-FIELD OF STONE RIVER, January 5, 1863. General Rosecrans, having his entire army well in I propose to give the readers of the Journal an hand for rapid movement in any direction, quick-account of the events which have rendered this ly reënforced his left, and reoccupied the ground blood-stained field forever memorable; and, as in from which Van Cleve had been driven. The ap- the case of the battle of Shiloh, I shall describe proach of night prevented further operations. only what passed under my own eyes, leaving During the interval between Wednesday's bat- others to narrate what they themselves witnessed. tle, and the retreat of the rebels, on Sunday, both On the morning of December twenty-sixth, Gen. parties were engaged in strengthening their posi- Rousseau's division of Thomas's corps marched tions by lines of rifle-pits, earthwork epaulements from its camp on the Franklin road, four miles for batteries, etc. Both parties had failed in their from Nashville, it being the same spot whence tactical plans, but if the point was of strategic we marched last spring to leave our share of blood importance, that, and the moral advantage, would and dead on the field of Shiloh. This time the obviously rest with the one that longest main-hand of fate has brought the sacrifice to a differtained his position, whether there should be furth-ent altar, but it has been offered to the god of er fighting or not. This advantage was finally surrendered to Gen. Rosecrans by the withdrawal of the enemy.

The error that was fatal to Gen. Rosecrans's order of battle was in the right wing, the weakness of that portion of the line resulting in its rout, and the diversion of the other forces from the projected attack, by putting and holding them upon the defensive. The successful formation of a new line in presence of an enemy, and under his attacks, is a manoeuvre requiring high qualities of generalship. General Rosecrans did this, and the extraordinary exertions required to accomplish it, show him to be possessed of great power in handling troops, and of an undaunted spirit that will compel the enemy to wrest from him, inch by mch, each successive advantage, the last as firmly held as the first. For the grand result, he is not free from indebtedness to sub. ordinates. The rapidity with which the right wing was driven back, and followed, and the evident fact that the first intelligence from it, or the absence of any, left Gen. Rosecrans ignorant of the disaster there, made every moment of infinite importance when he learned the truth and began the formation of his new line. Sheridan, by his desperate fighting and repeated changes of posiFounder rebel attacks, gained for the General

battles with not less awful rites than rocked the hills of Shiloh to their base, and lighted its forests with lurid flames. On the night of the twenty-sixth we bivouacked on the Wilson pike, a branch from the Franklin, thirteen miles from Nashville. On the twenty-seventh we moved across by a country road to the Nolinsville pike. When the head of the column arrived at Nolinsville, we found that Gen. McCook's corps, which was just passing, was meeting with stubborn resistance from the enemy. As there was room to apprehend that the enemy intended to attempt a repetition of Chaplin Hills by falling on one of our wings in overwhelming force while on the march, Gen. Rousseau moved all of his division that had got up rapidly to the front, in a most terrible rainstorm, to support Gen. McCook in case of need; but the enemy retired, and the danger passed. At four o'clock on the afternoon of the twentyeighth, Gen. Rousseau received notice from Gen. Rosecrans that it was of the utmost importance that his division should be at Stewart's Creek, on the Murfreesboro road, that night. Moving by a cross-road, the division reached the point designated by midnight. In all of these marches we had been preceded by the divisions of Davis and Negley, and perhaps by others belonging to Thom as's or the centre corps. The result was to trans

upon his horse, the image of determination and immovable courage, he represented the impossi bility of getting his division into position in the cedar thicket, and asked permission to fall back to the open ground heretofore described. The permission was at once granted, the batteries were wheeled about and sent off at a fast trot; the left brigade, being still in column, was moved rapidly to the rear, and the other brigades, being in line, were ordered to fall back in good order. It was just as the movement began that the Fif teenth Kentucky, which formed the extreme right of the division, was furiously assailed in front and flank, and its young hero-colonel slain. He fell at the extreme right of his regiment, whither he had gone to take measures to defend that flank. Had the retrograde movement been delayed a few seconds longer, the regiment must have been destroyed.

Flying back to the open ground which was now to be the scene of so terrific a conflict, Rousseau galloped rapidly across it, and read with a single eagle glance all of its advantages. Guenther's and Loomis's batteries were ordered to take position on the hill on the left of the railroad, and Stokes's Chicago battery, which had got with our division, was placed there also. The brigade of regulars, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Shepherd, and consisting of two battalions of the Eighteenth infantry, one battalion of the Fifteenth, one of the Sixteenth, and one of the Nineteenth, was ordered to support the batteries. The Ninth brigade, commanded by Col. Scribner, formed the left of the line, and was posted principally along the natural rifle-pit of the turnpike and railroad. The Seventeenth brigade, commanded by Colonel Beatty, formed the right of the line, and was posted along the crest of the concave hill on the right of the road. These dispositions were mado with the rapidity of lightning, and scarcely were they completed when the storm burst upon us.

but it was apparent that the left could not be formed there before the tide of battle would strike us. The batteries still stood in the narrow roads utterly unable to move one step through the thicket. It was an awful and perilous moment. No language can convey the faintest idea of that scene. To see it was to feel it become a part of yourself. You bore away not a copy, not a picture, but a living and constituent perception never subsiding into a recollection. The broken and dispirited battalions of our right wing, retreating by the flank, were pouring out of the corn-fields and through the skirts of the woods, while from the far end of the field rose the indescribable crackle and slowly curling smoke of the enemy's fire. The line of fire now grew rapidly nearer and nearer, seeming to close in slowly but with fatal certainty around our front and flank, and presently the long gray lines of the enemy, three or four deep, could be seen through the cornstalks vomiting flame on the retreating host. The right of Rousseau's division opened its lines and let our brave but unfortunate columns pass through. The gallant and invincible legion came through in this way with fearfully decimated ranks, drawing away by hand two pieces of our artillery. When all the horses belonging to the battery and all the other guns had been disabled, the brave boys refused to leave these two behind, and drew them two miles through fields and thickets to a place of safety. It was a most touching sight to see these brave men, in that perilous hour, flocking around Rousseau like children, with acclamations of delight and every token of love, as soon as they recognized him, embracing his horse, his legs, his clothes. As soon as it was known to the retreating column that Rousseau was there, such a shout of joy and relief went up from column after column as has rarely welcomed the hero to the work of saving an army. You could see new-born joy dancing in eyes where a moment before despair had low- History furnishes but few spectacles to be comered, and inexpressible relief dawning over the pared with that which now ensued. The rebels darkness of every face. But there was no time pressed up to the edge of the cedar forest and to indulge in these redeeming flashes of good feel- swarmed out into the open field. I saw the first ings which gleamed out for an instant through few gray suits that dotted the dark green line of the dark and fearful passions of the battle-field. the cedars with their contrasted color thicken The enemy were already upon us, pouring a with-into a line of battle, and the bright glitter of their ering fire into our front and right flank. The steel flashed like an endless chain of lightning left of the division was still unformed, the bat- amid the thick and heavy green of the thicket. teries were still standing idle, and worse than This I saw before our fire, opening on them around idle, an obstruction to ourselves and an easy prey to the enemy in the narrow roads. It was the turning-point of the day, one of those critical moments which are constantly occurring in battle when the rapid decision of an instant makes disaster a victory. If we should be overwhelmed there in the woods, the centre too would be lost, the left taken in flank and rear and completely cut off from our line of retreat, and the whole army destroyed or captured. Then, could we hold our ground there, and roll back the fearful tide of blood and fire that was rolling slowly on to overwhem the army? No, it was evident that we could not. Rousseau was equal to the emergency. Galloping to where General Thomas sat

the whole extent of our line, engirdled them with a belt of flame and smoke. After that I saw them no more, nor will any human eye ever see them more. Guenther, Loomis, and Stokes, with peal after peal, too rapid to be counted, mowed them down with double-shotted canister, the left of our line of infantry poured a continuous sheet of flame into their front, while the right of our line, posted in its remarkab'e position by the genius of Rous seau, enveloped their left flank and swept their entire line with in enfilading fire. Thick smoke settled down upon the scene; the rim of the hill on which our batteries stood seemed to be sur rounded by a wall of living fire; the turnpike road and the crest of the hill on the right were

A long dark line with banners flying and artillery in the intervals advanced over the crest of a hill a mile to our front in the open fields of the plantation heretofore spoken of, and moved in common time down the long slope toward our position.

ed, and that they were going to storm us in the centre. Every man was in his place, and every hand in readiness to work death. But after advancing in this magnificent array for several hundred yards down the slope, the rebel line suddenly faced to the left, and doubled-quicked off behind the screen of the cedar forest. As they passed over the open space our batteries opened on them with shells and carried havoc into their ranks. Their feint cost them dear. Thus matters stood when the night of December thirty-first closed over us.

wrapped in an unending blaze; flames seemed to leap out of the earth and dance through the air. No troops on earth could withstand such a fire as that. One regiment of rebels, the boldest of their line, advanced to within seventy-five yards of our line, but there it was blown out of exist-It seemed, then, the question was at last decidence. It was utterly destroyed, and the rest of the rebel line, broken and decimated, fled like sheep into the depths of the woods. Our centre still stood immovable as a rock, and the army was saved. The terrific firing ceased, the smoke quickly rolled away, and the sun shone out bright and clear on the scene that was lately so shrouded in smoke and moral gloom. How still every thing was! Every body seemed to be holding his breath. As soon as the firing ceased General Rousseau and his staff galloped forward to the ground the rebels had advanced over. Their dead lay there in frightful heaps, some with the lifeblood not yet all flowed from their mortal wounds, some propped upon their elbows and gasping their last. The flag of the Arkansas regiment lay there on the ground beside its dead bearer. Every depression in the field was full of wounded, who had crawled thither to screen themselves from the fire, and a large number of prisoners came out of a little copse in the middle of the field and surrendered themselves to Gen. Rousseau in person. Among them was one captain. They were all that were left alive of the bold Arkansas regiment that had undertaken to charge our line. As the rebel line rolled back through the woods, Gen. Rousseau ordered his right wing to charge their left flank through the cedars. The regulars advanced gallantly into the cedars again and inflicted heavy loss on the retreating foe, but they also suffered greatly. Here Major Carpenter of the Nineteenth infantry, Captains Bell and Wise of the Fifteenth, and Captain Kneass of the Eighteenth, were killed, and Major King of the Fifteenth and Major Slemmer of the Sixteenth wounded. The rebels continued their flight until they were beyond our fire on the right; our troops were recalled into the field and placed along the crest of the hill on the right and around the retroversion of the hill which fortified the right flank, in readiness to meet another assault should the enemy feel inclined to make it. But for a long time the enemy showed no disposition to renew the attack. No pen can describe a pause in battle. There is no other stillness like it. It is at once life and death, the stillest repose and the most active preparation. For more than two hours this lull, to which the epithet awful might be applied, continued. Every sense was on the strain, every nerve tightened with extreme tension. What where the enemy doing, and where would they fall next? Were they massing against our right again? Would they again at tempt the centre? Had they retired within their works, satisfied with having overwhelmed our right? A dropping fire of skirmishers still continued all around the line, but the enemy nowhere showed himself in force. Finally, about three o'clock, this suspense was ended by one of the grandest spectacles to which war ever gave origin.

During the night of the thirty-first Gen. Rosecrans made those admirable defensive dispositions which deserve a place in the record of undying deeds. A strong line was posted along the entire front, the right was drawn back to the turnpike road, so that the enemy to reach it would have to cross large open fields; the cavalry was placed on the extreme right to beat off the enemy's horse from our line of communications, and full half the infantry and artillery were held in reserve behind the knolls and woods, in columns doubled on the centre, ready to be moved at a moment's notice to any point that might be assailed. The line was so formed that the reserves for any part were within a few hundred yards of every other part. Early in the morning of January first the enemy advanced through the cedars on the right with loud cheers, and immediately heavy skirmishing, almost equal to a regular engagement, began along the entire line. This continued throughout the day, the enemy doubling their skirmishers first at this point and then at that, pressing us first here and then there. So they continued to feel all around our line throughout the entire day, their object evidently being to find a weak place, or create a panic somewhere, and then launch their whole force on that point. But, thanks to our General, they found no weak spot, and, thanks to his soldiers, they created no panic. So closed the second day of this bloody drama.

On the morning of the second, the rebels opened a terrific fire with cannon on the centre. A large number were killed and wounded in Rousseau's division by this fire. Rousseau ordered Guenther and Loomis to reply to the rebel batteries, which they did with such effect as to soon silence them. Stone's battery and Col. Starkweather's brigade, which had, meanwhile, come up, were posted around the mouth of the opening in rear of the cedar forest. But it was soon known that the enemy was massing against Van Cleve's division, which had been thrown across Stone River on the extreme left. Skirmishing still continued along the right and centre, but heavy masses of infantry and artillery could be seen moving across the open fields beyond Stone River, and concentrating on the left flank of our extreme left. The enemy evidently afraid that, if repulsed,