On December 31, 1862, some 10,000 Confederate soldiers streamed out of the dim light of early morning to stun the Federals who were still breakfasting in their camp. Nine months earlier the Confederates had charged the Yankees in a similarly devastating attack at dawn, starting the Battle of Shiloh. By the time this new battle ended, it would resemble Shiloh in other ways - it would rival that struggle's shocking casualty toll of 24,000 and it would become a major defeat for the South. By any Civil War standard, Stones River was a monumental, bloody, and dramatic story. Yet, until now, it has had no modern, documented history. Arguing that the battle was one of the significant engagements in the war, noted Civil War historian James Lee McDonough here devotes to Stones River the attention it ahs long deserved. Stones River, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was the first big battle in the union campaign to seize the Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor. Driving eastward and southward to sea, the campaign eventually climaxed in Sherman's capture of Savannah in December 1864. At Stones River the two armies were struggling desperately for control of Middle Tennessee's railroads and rich farms. Although they fought to a tactical draw, the Confederates retreated. The battle's outcome held significant implications. For the Union, the victory helped offset the disasters suffered at Fredericksburg and Chickasaw Bayou. Furthermore, it may have discouraged Britain and France from intervening on behalf of the Confederacy. For the South, the battle had other crucial effects. Since in convinced many that General Braxton Bragg could not successfully command an army, Stones River left the Southern Army torn by dissension in the high command and demoralized in the ranks. One of the most perplexing Civil War battles, Stones River has remained shrouded in unresolved questions. After driving the Union right wing for almost three miles, why could the Rebels not complete the triumph? Could the Union's Major General William S. Rosecrans have launched a counterattack on the first day of the battle? Was personal tension between Bragg and Breckenridge a significant factor in the events of the engagement's last day? McDonough uses a variety of sources to illuminate these and other questions. Quotations from diaries, letters, and memoirs of the soldiers involved furnish the reader with a rare, soldier's-eye view of this tremendously violent campaign. Tactics, strategies, and commanding officers are examined to reveal how personal strengths and weaknesses of the opposing generals, Bragg and Rosecrans, shaped the course of the battle. Vividly recreating the events of the calamitous battle, Stones River - Bloody Winter in Tennessee firmly establishes the importance of this previously neglected landmark in Civil War history. James Lee McDonough is professor of history at Auburn University, and author of Shiloh - In Hell before Night, Chattanooga - A Death Grip on the Confederacy, and co-author of Five Tragic Hours: The Battle of Franklin.
Explores the strategic importance of Kentucky for both sides in the Civil War and recounts the Confederacy's bold attempt to capture the Bluegrass State.
A detailed investigation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War looks at events and participants to illuminate the controversy surrounding the engagement and to explore the factors creating the disorganization that characterized ...
Lieutenant Frank Crosthwait of the 20th Tennessee turned to his friend Ralph J. Neal and confided his premonition of death. “Frank, I would not go into this charge feeling as you do. You will not be criticized, for we all know your ...
Decisions at Stones River is the first in a series of books that will explore the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War.
Most intriguing in this book are the accounts and vignettes of the soldiers themselves. Their courage, their suffering, their remembrances, and their loneliness make for very moving reading.-Back cover.
The trust of events in McDougall's highly charged narrative brings alive the key figures on this stage.
At the same time that Rains's Brigade was engaged with Shepard's, Polk's Brigade moved forward and made contact with Beatty's brigade while Maney's Brigade crossed the Wilkinson Turnpike and moved on Beatty's left flank.
"This book offers an engrossing account of King's early life and wartime service as a part of the 401st Bombardment Group, U.S. Eighth Air Force .
Monday February 27, the general stole away for a few moments to meet with his brother Thomas Bragg. ... Texas Senator William C. Oldham had never even met the general and held no animus, but he had opposed the invasion of Kentucky.
God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers: A True Civil War Christmas Story tells the tale of this yuletide interlude, which came at a time when the early optimism of the Civil War had given way to the bitter realities of seemingly endless bloodshed.