Anchoring the Union Line

Veterans called this blood-soaked open ground "Hell's Half-Acre," where a brigade of 1,600 Union infantry faced repeated attempts to overrun them and held fast through four Confederate brigade assaults. At dawn, 43,000 Union soldiers stretched from McFadden's Ford one mile to the north to the Smith farm three miles to the south, but by noon half of that army had folded back on itself like a pocketknife closing, with 13,000 men dead, wounded, or captured. Four regiments fighting here under Colonel William Hazen formed the hinge of that folding line, and from 9 a.m. to dusk Hazen's men were the only Federal troops to hold their ground on the first day of battle at Stones River.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee · United States