CHAPTER XXIV.

MURFREESBORO OR STONE

RIVER.

Rosecrans in Command of the Army of the Cumberland.-The Christmas Night War-Council.-The Muddy March Southward.— The Midnight Cavalcade.-" Push Them Hard."-Fog and Hard Marching. In front of Murfreesboro.-The Rail Tent.-The Calm that Precedes the Battle-Storm.-Star Spangled Banner.-McCook Surprised. Sheridan Stands Firm.-The Battle nearly Lost.-General Rosecrans Turns the Tide. -Desperate Valor.-Negley's Men Cut their Way Through the Confederate Ranks.-The Enemy Driven.-The Last Grand Charge.-Magnificent Victory.-Rosecrans' Star in the Ascendant.

G

ENERAL ROSECRANS, having succeeded GenBELLA eral Buell in the command of the Army of the Cumberland, established his headquarters at Nashville, and for two months previous to January, 1863, had been occupied in re-organizing and recruiting his army, securing his communications and accumulating supplies.

On Christmas night, 1862, a council of war was held at General Rosecrans' headquarters, which did not break up until midnight. McCook was there, and Crittenden and Thomas. It was decided to commence the march to Murfreesboro in the morning. There Bragg's army was concentrated and there Rosecrans proposed to give him battle.

When at the middle of night, the corps commanders left their general's door, he grasped each one by the hand saying as he did so, "Spread out your skirmishers far and wide! Expose their nests! Keep fighting!"

At daylight on the morning of the twenty-sixth the advance was commenced. The army of Rosecrans, nearly fifty thousand strong, took up their line of march along the muddy roads and drenched fields, while the rain poured down in torrents and the valleys were thick with mist. But after two months of comparative inactivity, the army was full of excitement at the prospect of renewing the contest, and with brave hearts they marched on, seemingly unmindful of the rain.

McCook commanded the right, Crittenden the left, and Thomas held the center-the three grand divisions filling every road leading south or southwest from Nashville. It was not until some hours afterwards that Rosecrans and staff rode out from the city to join his command. The fog was so dense on the right that McCook was obliged to halt. The country as they advanced increased in roughness and was heavily wooded with thickets of oak and cedar.

Two miles beyond the picket lines our advance encountered large bodies of Confederate cavalry, supported by infantry and artillery. Sharp skirmishing ensued and the progress of the Union troops was rendered difficult and bloody. After the day's toilsome march through the mud and rain and over the broken country, the army, at night, bivouacked in the wet fields. "Through the darkness and storm, Rosecrans

with his escort went dashing over the country, in search of McCook's headquarters. Their horses' hoofs struck fire among the rocks, and they swung along at such a slashing pace that one of his escort finally exclaimed: "General, this way of going like

- over the rocks will knock up the horses." "That's true," he replied, "walk." Moving on more slowly through the impenetrable blackness, he called an orderly and said, "Go back and tell that young man he must not be profane." Reaching McCook's headquarters in the woods the two entered a wagon and sitting down on the bottom, with a candle between them stuck in the socket of a bayonet, the point of which was driven into the floor, they consulted together of the movements for the morrow. “Push them hard," were his last words as he arose to his feet. Emerging from the wagon between ten and eleven o'clock, he exclaimed, "We mount, now, gentlemen." The blast of a bugle suddenly rung through the forest, rousing up the staff, some of whom, tired with being ten hours in the saddle, were dozing in their blankets upon the rocks around. To the "Good night," of McCook, Rosecrans added, "God bless you!" and striking the spurs into his horse, dashed down the road, splashing the mud over himself and those who pressed hard after him. Losing his way on his return, he "charged impatiently" through the woods, in the vain effort to find the right road. Amid bugle calls and shouts, the escort got separated and confused, and lost their leader, who, with a part of his staff, wandered off alone, and at length, at one o'clock in the morning, reached his camp-having

been in the saddle eighteen hours. The others did. not arrive there till two hours later." On the next morning the landscape continued to be enveloped in mist and the marching columns pressed slowly on; but in the early afternoon the fog lifted and their progress was more sure. As they advanced, they drove the Confederate skirmishers before them. The next day being Sunday, the army rested, but before sunrise on Monday morning, the Union columns were again in motion, sweeping southward. Crittenden, with Palmer's division in the van, went forward on the main Murfreesboro road to Stone River. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, General Palmer signaled Rosecrans that Murfreesboro was in sight and that the enemy were retreating. Rosecrans at once ordered a division into the town. The brigade of Harker was sent across the river and drove a regiment of the enemy back upon their main supports, but some captured prisoners, reporting that the entire corps of Breckenridge occupied Murfreesboro, Crittenden withdrew Harker across the river without serious disaster. The Confederates were driven in so sharply on the Jefferson and Murfreesboro pikes that they had no time to destroy the bridges behind them, on which they crossed Stone River. The next dayDecember thirtieth-Rosecrans was up at three o'clock in the morning, and the Union columns were pushed through the cedar thickets towards the point where the enemy were drawn up in line of battle. At about seven o'clock Crittenden's advance received a sharp fire from the enemy.

It becoming apparent that some of the Confederate

cannoneers were making a target of Rosecrans' headquarters, the general changed his position to the crest of a slope a short distance away, and halting under some road-side trees, remained there, directing the disposition of his troops, for the rest of the day. A shed was constructed by placing a pole in a couple of crotched sticks and covering one side with rails and rubber blankets. Sheltered from the rain under this improvised roof, the staff here wrote their orders before a blazing camp fire. The boom of cannon from the front, the Union columns wheeling into position, the roll of musketry, and the galloping cavalry and flying orderlies all indicated with unerring certainty, a great battle at hand. Just at this time, in the gloom and rain, the band of the Fourth Cavalry struck up the "Star Spangled Banner" and the patriot strains awoke an answering chord in every heart that beat under the army blue.

By night the army was nearly all in position, stretching along an irregular north and south line for the distance of three miles and facing the enemy. Our left rested on Stone River, the extreme right under Willich, brigade commander, being placed at right angles to the main line in order to meet, if necessary, any flank movement of the enemy. The right wing, which had suffered to some degree from the determined efforts of the Confederates to repel their advance, was placed along an elevation of ground, covered with woods and fronting an open field. A valley of cedar and oak thickets occupied the space between the front of this ridge and the lines of the enemy.

The center was slightly in advance of the main