Boys, you must get out of here! You are surrounded!

In a hard two-hour fight, the jumbled rocks here sheltered the four Union regiments of Miller's brigade as rebel bullets whined and ricocheted, wounding many, and men from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania grimly held on inside this limestone labyrinth. Then General Sheridan's troops on the right ran out of bullets, broke ranks, and ran, and General Negley called for a retreat as waves of gray-clad soldiers threatened to overwhelm his men on three sides. This stone stronghold became an ankle-twisting deathtrap, and many of the soldiers, familiar with the huge slaughter pens of Chicago's meatpackers, called it the Slaughter Pen when they saw so many dead and wounded men stacked there.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee · United States