Bragg's Headquarters

In December 1862, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans led the Army of the Cumberland from Nashville toward Murfreesboro while Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg and the Army of the Tennessee occupied the town to protect the approaches to Chattanooga. The armies clashed on December 31, and a flank attack almost swept the Federals from the field, but Rosecrans fended off attacks on January 2 and prepared to take the offensive. With 81,000 soldiers engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, Bragg expected the Union army to retreat and on the evening before January 1, 1863, telegraphed Richmond, "God has granted us a happy New Year." Instead, as he established new headquarters, he saw Federal troops digging trenches and preparing to renew the fight. That night, thousands of Union soldiers, a division under Col. Samuel Beatty, crossed Stones River north of here and took position on a high hill. The next day Bragg ordered Gen. John C. Breckinridge to drive them off despite Breckinridge's objections that his men would be exposed to the fire of more than fifty Union cannons on a ridge across the river behind Beatty's position. Breckinridge attacked and pushed Beatty back, but the Union guns badly cut up the Confederates, leaving more than 1,900 Confederate soldiers dead or wounded along the river banks. After Bragg's subordinates finally persuaded him that the battle was over, he withdrew from Murfreesboro toward Shelbyville on January 3, 1863.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee · United States