The Hazen Brigade Monument at Stones River National Battlefield, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is the oldest American Civil War monument remaining in its original battlefield location. [1]
The Hazen Brigade Monument at Stones River National Battlefield, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is the oldest American Civil War monument remaining in its original battlefield location. [1]
On December 31, 1862, the first day of the Battle of Stones River, Confederate General Braxton Bragg made a surprise advance on his left and drove the right of the Union army of Major General William S. Rosecrans back three miles. At that point the Union line was nearly at right angles to its original position. [2] The brigade of Col. William Babcock Hazen defended a 4-acre (16,000 m2) clump of cedars—known locally as the Round Forest—at a salient in the line just east of the Nashville Pike and on both sides of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. [3] Hazen's men, supported by other Union troops, and especially by artillery that Rosecrans had massed on the high ground in their rear, successfully repulsed four Confederate assaults. So great was the slaughter that soldiers called the place "Hell's Half-Acre." Hazen's regiments sustained 409 casualties (29% of the brigade), including 45 men killed. [4] The determined resistance of Hazen's brigade arguably prevented the Confederate Army of Tennessee from breaking the Union line.
During the summer of 1863, while the Union Army of the Cumberland outmaneuvered Bragg's Confederates in the Tullahoma campaign, members of Hazen's Brigade were detailed back to Stones River to build a monument both to commemorate the heroism of the brigade and to memorialize their lost comrades. [5] A construction detail under Lt. Edward Crebbin placed the monument on private property in the middle of the brigade cemetery in Round Forest. [6] A Union army captain described the monument as a "quadrangular pyramidal shaft, ten feet square at the base and eleven feet in height....A dry-stacked stone wall, four feet high and two feet thick, enclosed both monument and cemetery. Three low steps breached the wall's south side to allow access." [7] In 1864 two experienced stone cutters from the regiment carved the inscriptions, including names of the regimental officers killed at Stones River and the earlier Battle of Shiloh. On the south face the stone cutters inscribed the words, HAZEN'S BRIGADE/ TO THE MEMORY OF ITS SOLDIERS WHO FELL AT STONES RIVER, DEC. 31ST 1862/ THEIR FACES TOWARDS HEAVEN, THEIR FEET TO THE FOE. [8]
The 0.84-acre site was acquired by the War Department in 1875 and before 1930 was administered under the authority of the superintendent of the Stones River National Cemetery. During this period the monument suffered "periods of neglect and deterioration." In 1930, administration of the Hazen Memorial and the National Cemetery were officially consolidated into the Stones River National Military Park; and in 1933, administration of the Military Park was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service (NPS). [9]
In 1907, short-story writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce visited the Hazen Brigade Monument for a second time. Bierce had been a staff officer in the 9th Indiana Volunteers, had known Hazen well, and had survived fighting at Stones River unscathed. As a topographic engineer, Bierce had had ample opportunity to view the monument when it was first completed in 1863. [10] In 1908, Bierce published an eerie psychological tale, "A Resumed Identity," in which the man in the story shares Bierce's age, rank, and brigade affiliation and in which the Hazen Monument plays a critical role in the story's "twist ending". Bierce's protagonist describes the monument as it probably appeared in 1907: "brown with age, weather-worn at the angles, spotted with moss and lichen. Between the massive blocks were strips of grass." [11]
In 1985, while repairing the Monument, workers discovered a number of objects in its fill of limestone and soil: two bullets, eight buck and ball shot, a lead disk, a freshwater mussel shell, two bone fragments, six horse teeth, and two small wood fragments. Archaeologists concluded that these items had been in the soil used for fill. Nevertheless, about five feet above ground, archaeologists found nine other artifacts: two 12-pound and one 6-pound cannonballs, three rifled artillery shells, two rifled musket barrels, and a cedar staff. Because these items were all placed at a single level, the National Park Service believed their inclusion had been purposeful, although there was no agreement about the meaning of this presumptive time capsule. [12]
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, between the United States Army and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a U.S. Army offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign, in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia and the most significant US defeat in the Western Theater, and it involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. The battle ended in Union victory after the Confederate army's withdrawal on January 3, largely due to a series of tactical miscalculations by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, but the victory was costly for the Union army. Nevertheless, it was an important victory for the Union because it provided a much-needed boost in morale after the Union's recent defeat at Fredericksburg and also reinforced President Abraham Lincoln's foundation for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which ultimately discouraged European powers from intervening on the Confederacy's behalf.
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting west of the coastal states in the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15–16, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lieutenant General John Bell Hood and the Union Army of the Cumberland (AoC) under Major General George H. Thomas. In one of the largest victories achieved by the Union Army during the war, Thomas attacked and routed Hood's army, largely destroying it as an effective fighting force.
William Babcock Hazen was a career United States Army officer who served in the Indian Wars, as a Union general in the American Civil War, and as Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army. His most famous service was defending "Hell's Half Acre" at the Battle of Stones River in 1862, and seizing Fort McAllister, Georgia, in December 1864, which allowed William Sherman to capture Savannah at the end of his March to the Sea.
The Battle of Hoover's Gap was the principal battle in the Tullahoma Campaign of the American Civil War, in which Union General William S. Rosecrans drove General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates out of Central Tennessee. Rosecrans’ feigned move on the western end of the Confederate line had left the eastern mountain passes lightly defended, and Colonel John T. Wilder's mounted infantry achieved total surprise when they attacked Hoover's Gap. Success was attributed both to Rosecrans’ brilliant deception tactics and the high morale of Wilder’s "Lightning Brigade", equipped with the new Spencer repeating rifle.
The Second Battle of Chattanooga took place during the American Civil War, beginning on August 21, 1863, as the opening battle in the Chickamauga Campaign. The larger and more famous battles were the Battles for Chattanooga in November 1863.
The Battle of Hartsville was fought on December 7, 1862, in northern Tennessee at the opening of the Stones River Campaign the American Civil War. Hartsville Battlefield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Chickamauga campaign of the American Civil War was a series of battles fought in northwestern Georgia from August 21 to September 20, 1863, between the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee. The campaign started successfully for Union commander William S. Rosecrans, with the Union army occupying the vital city of Chattanooga and forcing the Confederates to retreat into northern Georgia. But a Confederate attack at the Battle of Chickamauga forced Rosecrans to retreat back into Chattanooga and allowed the Confederates to lay siege to the Union forces.
Stones River National Battlefield, a 570-acre (2.3 km2) park along the Stones River in Rutherford County, Tennessee, three miles (5 km) northwest of Murfreesboro and twenty-eight miles southeast of Nashville, memorializes the Battle of Stones River. This key battle of the American Civil War occurred on December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, and resulted in a strategic Union victory.
The Battle of Pickett's Mill was fought in Paulding County, Georgia, between Union forces under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Confederate forces led by General Joseph E. Johnston during the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. Sherman sent Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood's division, supported by other formations, to turn Johnston's right flank, but the Federals were repulsed with heavy casualties when they ran into tenacious Confederate opposition. Author Ambrose Bierce, an eyewitness, later wrote an account of the battle titled The Crime at Pickett's Mill.
James Edwards Rains was a lawyer and colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was appointed and nominated as a brigadier general on November 4, 1862, but his appointment was unconfirmed at the date of his death. He was killed while leading his brigade at the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) on December 31, 1862, before the Confederate States Senate acted on his nomination.
The Battle of Rowlett's Station was a land battle in the American Civil War, fought at the railroad whistle-stop of Rowlett's in Hart County, Kentucky, on December 17, 1861. The outcome was inconclusive, although the Union Army continued to hold its objective, a railroad bridge across the Green River.
The 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized on April 22, 1861, for three-months' service in Indianapolis. After being reorganized for three years' service in late August and early September 1861, the 9th took part in many major battles, including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain and the Siege of Atlanta.
The 92nd Regiment Illinois Infantry, also known as 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 124th Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 124th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
James St. Clair Morton was an American military officer who served as chief engineer of the Army of the Ohio, the Army of the Cumberland and the XI Corps in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He led construction of key embattlements protecting Nashville, Tennessee including Fort Negley and Fortress Rosencrans. He served as major in the regular army and was promoted to brigadier general of the Pioneer Brigade in the volunteer army. Morton requested a reduction in rank from brigadier general of volunteers after being reprimanded by General William Rosecrans in front of colleagues due to drunkenness in the ranks and errors in troop placement. He was killed in action during the Second Battle of Petersburg and brevetted brigadier general posthumously.
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