The Murfreesboro Carnage

In the aftermath of the Battle of Stones River, the Army of the Cumberland under Major General William S. Rosecrans obtained possession of the battleground over which the two armies had fought, bled, and died over a period of nearly a week. The carnage presented a major challenge to the occupying army: the fields and woods were littered with unexploded artillery ordnance, discarded equipment of every type, shattered wagons and caissons, dead and wounded men injured in countless and often indescribable ways, and thousands of dead or dying horses and mules.  The sight was appalling. The cleanup would take months.

 

The broken ground amidst the cedars at Stones River. Some of the hardest fighting of the battle occurred here, and for months afterwards, fallen men were found hidden within the crevices of these rocks. It was certainly a lonely place to die. 

          The Confederate attacks of December 31, 1862 drove the Federals for miles, leaving a trail of dead men and animals wherever the armies clashed. One wounded Federal, Charles Dennis of the 101^st Ohio, was assigned the grim task of identifying the dead at the Gresham House hospital. “The surgeon put me writing tags that were pinned to every dead man; the tag was his record so far as it could be obtained. Passing around the grounds the next day [January 1, 1863] I found the body of a man and raised the blanket to see his face. It was our own Lieutenant Colonel Moses Wooster. He had died the night before and had been laid out there in his uniform, a card pinned to him but the name on it was as far from Wooster as Wooster was from life. I got another card, wrote his name on it together with his rank and home address of Norwalk, Ohio,” Dennis wrote.

 

          The Confederates focused their initial efforts at burial on their own dead during the night of December 31st and during the day of January 1, 1863; the Federal dead, often stripped of boots, clothing, food, or other valuables, were left where they fell or gathered into rows for subsequent burial. Sam Watkins of the 1^st Tennessee recalled his experience with stripping a dead Federal officer of his boots. “In passing over the battlefield, I came across a dead Yankee colonel. He had on the finest clothes I ever saw, a red sash, and fine sword. I particularly noticed his boots. I needed them and had made up my mind to wear them out for him. But I could not bear the thought of wearing dead men’s shoes. I took hold of the foot and raised it up and made one trial at the boot to get it off. I happened to look up and the colonel had his eyes wide open and seemed to be looking at me. He was stone dead, but I dropped that foot quick. It was my first and last attempt to rob a dead Yankee,” Watkins wrote. [1]

 

One of the dead Federal colonels of Stones River
Colonel Minor Millikin
1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

Upon the retreat of Bragg’s army, one of the first tasks performed by Rosecrans’ men was to march back upon the field in squads to identify and inter their dead. It was a gut-wrenching and painful process; Lieutenant Wilbur Hinman of the 65^th Ohio wrote of the experience of burying dead comrades. “Soon after breakfast we marched to a spot near the scene of our engagement on Wednesday and large details with picks and shovels were sent from every regiment to bury its dead. It was done in this way in order that the bodies, which had lain for four days, might be identified. It was the mournful duty to gather up the mangled remains of loved comrades and messmates with whom we had enjoyed around so many camp fires. Those were not unmanly tears that moistened the eyes of the men engaged in this sad task. For the dead of each regiment a long trench seven feet wide was dug and the bodies, each tenderly wrapped in a blanket, were laid in side by side and covered from sight,” he stated.

Corporal George W. Morris of Co. H of the 81st Indiana noted the differences in how Rebel and Federal dead were buried on the field. "Our men gathered up some 300 or 350 dead Rebels on the field," he wrote. "I had a fair chance of seeing how the dead and wounded are treated in war. The weather was very rainy and the fatigue party came around with picks and spades. They gathered up the Union dead in one row and the Secesh dead in another. When they had got a good pile together, they would dig the trenches and put in the Union soldiers with a board at the head and name on it (if known). If the dead were not thick, they would bury them singly always putting up a name if known. The dead Rebels they lay in rows on the flat of their backs with no covering over them and left them till their friends took the notion to come over and look after them, thinking than an application of rain water to their faces would improve their general appearance. Many of them, however, were fine-looking, athletic fellows, well fed, for the way we pitched into their haversacks, taking out their corn dodgers, soft bread, biscuits, baked pork, etc. was a caution. For the first time in my life, I made a hearty supper out of the contents of the haversack of a dead man, but I was very tired and hungry, provisions were scarce, and I thought it could do him no good, so in I went."

"I saw one boy, not more than 14 years old and neatly dressed, lying as natural as if he had fallen asleep; his features were as calm and tranquil as if slumbering on his mother's knee, no contortion, his left arm thrown under his head. Had I met him in the wood in time of peace, I should have thought that some tired boy had laid down to sleep, but the little purple stream oozing from his breast explained it all. Others lay with features contorted, hands grasped in their hair, others after receiving the fatal shot had attempted to rise and both hands clutched in the weeds and grass. Here lay one with with no head, yonder one with both legs off at the knee by a cannon ball, and a musket ball through the breast, there one struck by a solid ball in the bowels, the two extremities hanging together by the merest shreds; another had died apparently without a struggle nd had composed his limbs decently, crossing his arms upon his breast," concluded Morris.

  

Parson William Brownlow visited Murfreesboro two months after the battle and noted the work that remained to be done. “No man at a distance and only receiving the newspaper accounts, can form any idea of the number of dead horses and mules upon the ground,” he wrote. “Their names are legion. They are often piled up, one upon the other, shot through the body, some through the neck, others with heads and legs shot off. But all are in a wonderful state of preservation though lying in the field for more than two months. The graves of the dead are to be seen everywhere in untold numbers. The headboards of the single graves indicate who many of them are, giving names, regiments, and residences. Among the Rebel graves I found the name of a relative of my wife, a captain of artillery from Alabama who had been killed on the 30^th of December. In many instances, ditches were dug and from 75-100 men packed into a ditch. The dirt upon many of these is only a few inches deep and in some instances hands and feet are sticking out. The greatest sight to be seen is that in front of where General Rosecrans massed his artillery [along the Nashville Pike]. Dead horses and mules and an innumerable quantity of graves tell the effect of these guns. I could but feel sad as I passed over this terrible battleground,” he wrote.[2]

        In the immediate aftermath of the battle, thousands of wounded Federals were transported to Nashville for treatment at one of the 20 hospitals in operation in that city. By February 1863, an extensive system of field hospitals had also been established around Murfreesboro housing more than 1,600 patients in 13 establishments:

Field Hospital of Second Division, Right Wing, near Murfreesboro, Dr. W.H. park, surgeon in charge

General Field Hospital, rear of battlefield 5 miles from Murfreesboro, Dr. J.T. Wood, surgeon in charge

General Hospital No. 1, Murfreesboro

General Hospital No. 2, Murfreesboro

General Hospital No. 3, Murfreesboro

General Hospital No. 4, Murfreesboro

General Hospital No. 5, Murfreesboro, Dr. J.M. Ewart, surgeon in charge

General Hospital No. 6, Murfreesboro, Dr. B.F. Tailor, surgeon in charge

Tent Hospital on battlefield, Dr. A.W. Heise, surgeon in charge

Widow Burris’ House Field Hospital, near Murfreesboro

General Smith’s Field Hospital, near Murfreesboro, Dr. Albert Wilson, surgeon in charge

Murcroft’s Hospital, seven miles from Murfreesboro, Dr. Charles Murcroft, surgeon in charge

Weed’s Frame House Hospital, Murfreesboro Pike

    In October 1865, the task of interring the Federal dead of Murfreesboro into a national cemetery was performed by the men of the 111th U.S. Colored Troops. The initial work of picking out the grounds was done by Captain John Means and men from the 115th Ohio, but the 111th U.S.C.T. actually built the stone walls of the cemetery and buried the dead. The grisly task took nearly a year to accomplish, with eventually 6,100 Federal soldiers being buried, more than 2,500 of whom are buried as unknowns. Disinterred Federals from throughout middle and southern Tennessee were also moved to Murfreesboro. 

 

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[1] Watkins, Sam R. Co Aytch: A Side Show of the Big Show. New York: Touchstone, 1997, pg. 79

[2] “The Battlefield of Murfreesboro- A Picture by Parson Brownlow,” Cleveland Morning Leader (Ohio), March 26, 1863, pg. 4