ADVANCE OF COLONEL M. B. WALKER’S UNION BRIGADE, AT STONE’S RIVER, ON THE EVENING OF JANUARY 2, 1863.
Walkers position is in the cedars near the right ot Rousseau’s line. In the right of the picture is seen the 4t,h Michigan Battery. Tiie front line was composed of the 31st and 17th Ohio, and the second line of the 82d Indiana and 38th Ohio.
and the Union line with loud cheers dashed forward, firing volley after volley upon the fugitives, who rallied behind Robertson’s battery and Anderson’s brigade in the narrow skirt of timber from which they had emerged to the assault. The Union line advanced and took possession of the ground from which Beatty had been driven an hour before, and both armies bivouacked upon the battlefield. . . .
THE UNION LEFT AT STONE’S RIVER.
BY THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN, MAJOR-GEN., U. S. V.
Commanding the left wing at Stone’s River.
.
ary, 1863, was one of the most fiercely contested and bloody conflicts of the war. The two armies that met in this conflict were made up of soldiers who, for the most part, had been disciplined by capable instructors and hardened by service in the field, both having made many long marches, and neither having been strangers to the perils of the battle-field. Moreover, these armies were ably commanded by graduates of the Military Academy atWest Point — amilitary school, I think, not surpassed, if equaled, anywhere else. The duration of the battle, and the long list of the killed and wounded, show the stuff of which the two armies were composed. I do not think that two better armies, as numerous and so nearly matched in strength, ever met in battle.
I had the good fortune to command the left wing of our army, and, thanks to the skill and bravery of the officers and men of my command, the enemy were not able to drive them from our first line of battle. On the 31st of December my extreme left was strongly posted, but my right was in an open field back from the stream. Still it was a fairly strong position by reason of the railroad and the
successive strokes from right to left of Beatty’s line. Overborne by numerical strength, the Union brigades of Price and Fyffe were forced back upon Grider, in reserve, the right of whose brigade was rapidly being turned by Hanson, threatening to cut the division off from the river. Beatty ordered retreat, and assailants and assailed moved in a mass toward the river. The space between the river bank and the ridge occupied by Grose now presented a scene of the wildest confusion. The pursuit led the Confederate column to the right of Grose, and Lieutenant Livingston opened upon it with his artillery, but he was quickly ordered across the river. Crittenden, turning to his chief-of-artil-lery, said, “Mendenhall, you must cover my men with your guns.” Never was there a more effective response to such a request; the batteries of Swallow, Parsons, Estep, Stokes, Stevens, Standart, Bradley, and Livingston dashed forward, wheeled into position, and opened fire. In all, fifty-eight pieces of artillery played upon the enemy. Not less than one hundred shots per minute were fired. As the mass of men swarmed down the slope they were mowed down by the score. Confederates were pinioned to the earth by falling branches. For a few minutes the brave fellows held their ground, hoping to advance, but the west bank bristled with bayonets.
Hanson was mortally wounded, and his brigade lost over 400 men; the loss in the division was 1410. There was no thought now of attacking Grose, but one general impulse to get out of the jaws of death. The Union infantry was soon ordered to charge. Colonel John F. Miller with his brigade and two regiments of Stanley’s was the first to cross the river, on the extreme left. He was quickly followed on the right by Davis and Morton, and by Hazen in the center. Beatty quickly re-formed his division and recrossed the river and joined in the pursuit. The artillery ceased firing,
SCENE OF THE FIGHTING OF PALMER’S AND ROUSSEAU’S DIVISIONS.
In the distance between the railroad on the left and the ley’s division and the regulars of Rousseau’s division were pike in the center was the first position of Hazen’s brigade of roughly handled. In the foreground are seen the batteries Palmer’s division on Deo. 31. In the cedars on the right Neg- of Loomis and Guenther.
ford f” “I will try, sir.” “ Will you hold this ford 1 ״ “ I will die right here.” “Will youhold this ford ? ” for the third time thundered the general. “Yes, sir,” said the colonel. “ That will do ״ ; and away galloped Rosecrans to Palmer, who was contending against long odds for the possession of Round Forest. . . .
[The Confederate attack of December 31 was finally repulsed at the last position taken by the Union forces south and west of the cemetery. The decisive combat took place January 2 on the east bank of the river.]
General Bragg confidently expected to find the Union troops gone from his front on the morning of the 2d. His cavalry had reported the turnpike full of troops and wagons moving toward Nashville, but the force east of Stone’s River soon attracted his attention. Reconnoissanee by staff-officers revealed Beatty’s line, enfilading Polk in his new position. It was evident that Polk must be withdrawn or Beatty dislodged. Bragg chose the latter alternative, and Breckinridge, against his earnest protest, was directed to concentrate his division and assault Beatty. Ten Napoleon guns were added to his command, and the cavalry was ordered to cover his right. The line was formed by placing Hanson’s brigade of Kentuckians, who had thus far borne no part in the engagement, on the extreme left, supported by Adams’s brigade, now commanded by Colonel Gibson. The Confederate Palmer’s brigade, commanded by General Pillow, took the right of the line, with Preston in reserve. The artillery was ordei'ed to follow the attack and go into position on the summit of the slope when Beatty should be driven from it. The total strength of the assaulting column was estimated by Bragg at six thousand men. His cavalry took no part in the action.
In the assault: that followed a brief cannonade Hanson’s left was thrown forward close to the river bank, with orders to fire once, then charge with the bayonet. On the right of Beatty was Colonel S. W. Price’s brigade, and the charge made by Hanson’s 6th Kentucky was met by Price’s 8th Kentucky regiment, followed by Hanson and Pillow in
toundingintelligence was confirmed amoment later by a staff-officer from McCook, calling for reinforcements. “ Tell General McCook,” said Rosecrans, “to contest every inch of ground. If he holds them we will swing into Murfreesboro’ and cut them off.” Then Rousseau, with his reserves, was sent into the fight, and Van Cleve, who, in the execution of the initial movement on the left, had crossed Stone’s River at 6 a. m. at the lower ford, and was marching in close column up the hill beyond the river (preparatory to forming a line of battle for a movement to the right, where Wood was to join him in an assault upon Breckinridge), was arrested by an order to return and take position on the turnpike facing toward the woods on the right. A few moments later this gallant division eame dashing across the fields, with water dripping from their clothing, to take a hand in the fray. Harker’s brigade was withdrawn from the left and sent in on Rousseau’s right, and Morton’s Pioneers, relieved at the ford by Price’s brigade, were posted on Harker’s right. The remaining brigades of Van Cleve’s division (Beatty’s and Fyffe’s) formed on the extreme right, and thus an improvised line half a mile in extent presented a a new and unexpected front to the approaching enemy. It was a trying position to these men to stand in line while the panic-stricken soldiers of McCook’s beaten regiments, flying in terror through the woods, rushed past them. The Union lines could not fire, for their comrades were between them and the enemy. Rosecrans seemed ubiquitous. All these dispositions had been made under his personal supervision. While riding rapidly to the front, Colonel GarescM, his chief-of-staff, was killed at his side by a eannon-ball. Finding Sheridan coming out■ of the cedars into which Rousseau had just entered, Rosecrans directed Sheridan to the ammunition train, with orders to fill his cartridge-boxes and march to the support of Hazen’s brigade,now hotly engaged on the edge of the Round Forest. The left was now exposed to attack by Breckinridge, and riding rapidly to the ford, Rosecrans inquired who commanded the brigade. “I do, sir,” said Colonel Price. “Will you hold this
163