Federal Troops on the Square

Federal troops guarding the Provost Marshal's Office downtown sheltered in wood and canvas shebangs on the square, makeshift structures built from salvaged materials with rough plank floors, interior walls covered with illustrated weekly paper pages, and crude chimneys made from bricks taken from the courthouse wall, while shade from trees or cut woven branches was highly desirable. At the top left of the photograph stands the old City Hotel, then owned by D.H.C. Spence, and officers usually found quarters in boarding establishments or private houses. During Forrest's raid in the summer of 1862, upper story windows there provided protected firing platforms for Union riflemen, but after several hours of fierce fighting gray-clad cavalrymen captured Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden, briefly commander of the Murfreesboro post, at the Spence Hotel. When the battle ended, prisoners were taken to McMinnville and soon paroled, citizens of Murfreesboro cared for the wounded of both sides, Federal casualties went to previously established field hospitals, Confederates were taken into private houses, and the dead of both sides were buried honorably in soldiers graves.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee · United States