Stones River - Bloody Winter In Tennessee

by James Lee McDonough

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.

Genres: Civil War, American Civil War, History, Military History, Civil War Western Theater, Nonfiction

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

James Lee McDonough is professor of history at Auburn University.

Reviews

[Blake Baehner · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Confederate skirmishers were out in front, preceding a long gray double line of infantry that stretched as far to both right and left as the eye could see in the foggy half-light of the early morning. There was something eerie about the way they came–quietly emerging from the clumps of black cedars, forming into battle lines and, still making no sound, charging toward the Federals on the run. Only when they actually smashed into the Union line did they break out yelling and screaming.”

When the great blood-lettings of the Civil War are discussed, the Battle of Stones River is rarely mentioned along with Fredericksburg, Shiloh, Antietam, or Chancellorsville. This is despite it being bloodier than the first three of these (Shiloh is disputed) and having a smashing flank attack rivaling Stonewall Jackson’s in the fourth. More than 24,000 men were lost, mostly on the first day (almost rivaling even Antietam in terms of America’s costliest 24-hour period), more than all but five or six other battles in the whole war. It was a see-saw contest, inconclusive immediately with seemingly few military consequences. Both sides fought hard but the Union just narrowly pulled ahead and held their ground. Yet amidst the multitude of Union failures in late 1862, the “victory” at Stones River provided a much needed morale boost and gave credence to the Emancipation Proclamation which went into effect while the battle was still being contested.

James McDonough, thus, tells this story which only a few other historians have. So far as I can tell, this was the first in-depth, serious study of the battle. Because of that it is dated in some aspects – I’m assuming that the scholarship has advanced quite a bit in the past 46 years. Regardless, this is a great, well-written battle narrative.

McDonough mostly discusses the battle from the brigade-level on up. Individual regiments are discussed sometimes but not always. The maps included are good but, frustratingly, the gap between the pages makes them difficult to read. I will need to reread Peter Cozzen’s history of the battle and perhaps Larry J. Daniel’s to know for sure, but I bet there is some detail he missed as a result.

​Nonetheless, he does a great job at elucidating the facts of the battle. The initial flank attack, panicked Union retreat, firm stands by Sheridan and Hazen, and the final Confederate repulses at the Round Forest and east of the river are clearly and colorfully described. He is also especially good at contextualizing the battle within the larger war. I find a lot of historians miss the Forrest (haha) for the trees so to speak but not so here. Anyone reading this book will come away with a better understanding of the battle and the war than they did before.

As for the quality of the writing, I would say it is surprisingly good. McDonough has written a lot of battle histories and thankfully he is just as good at spinning an entertaining story as he is at digging through archives. There are plenty of great first-hand accounts and often footsoldiers are given as much space here as generals. There are occasionally anecdotes that had me questioning just how true they were, but they really help add to the sense of place and do a great job at emphasizing the carnage of the fight. The battle is described in vivid detail and I found myself being reminded of Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote on more than one occasion (a high compliment coming from me).

This is a fantastic book, dare I say, a hidden gem of Civil War literature. It's a quick read and doesn’t overstay its welcome either. Though Stones River is largely forgotten today, this critical battle is deserving of a dramatic retelling and McDonough absolutely delivers on that.

[JeffParrotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are more up to date works out there. The author seems to skim over discussion of the battle to quote, at length, post war recollections of dubious merit.

Not particularly informative or enjoyable.

[Kendrick Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

very well done book about this little known battle

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a stunning account of a little known battle of the American Civil War. It was of the same level as the Battle of Shiloh and far more devastating than the conflicts at Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, and Nashville. The casualty ratio was higher than those of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In the predawn hours of December 31, 1862 two great armies, the Armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, clashed in the woods and fields near Stone's River with implications that spanned halfway around the world.

The extremely readable book is a combination of tactical and personal narratives that draws the reader in. The author examines strategy at the same time he shares the heart wrenching stories of the men at arms, both Union and Confederate.

As a whole this book sheds a new light on the significance of an otherwise forgotten battle where 81,000 troops would fight and over 23,500 of them would be wounded or die. They deserve to be remembered.

[Andy Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good account of the Stones River battle (Dec 1862 to Jan 1863). It isn't one of the battles that usually grab people when studying the Civil War. However, you could argue that after the Confederate defeat at Stones River, the South couldn't win the war. Mr. McDonough does a good job of setting up the larger western theater and how this fit into that theater. I highly recommend it to anyone studying the Civil War.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much good information on the circumstances surrounding the battle and critical starting time. As noted in reviews this has only recently become a notable battle do to its broad impacts on the war, leadership and openning of the western confederacy to the Union. Had my wife's grandfather (way back) not been wounded there, I would have never picked up the book; glad I did.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to rate this one. This was the first major book written on the subject in the contemporary era. It has McDonough's human touch and affinity of soldier anecdotes, but the research is a light and most of his opinions and conclusions have recently come under fire in Daniel's work on Stones River.

[David Brown]

signed by the author