Rosey’s Sacrifice: The 18th U.S. in the Cedars of Stones River

Near high noon on December 31, 1862, General William S. Rosecrans saw that a sacrifice needed to be made to buy time to reform the collapsing Federal army at the Battle of Stones River. He turned to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. Shepherd commanding the Regular Brigade.

          An officer of the 18th U.S. Infantry was within earshot of Rosey’s conversation with Colonel Shepherd. “The enemy had succeeded in massing his forces at our weak point and that a change of front of our own forces was necessary for the salvation of the entire army,” he wrote. “My first knowledge of this fact was derived from hearing the fact stated in an undertone by General Rosecrans to [Lt. Col. Oliver L.] Shepherd who happened to be within eight or ten feet from me at the time. [Rosecrans] stated that he had ordered two brigades of Rousseau’s division forward to hold the enemy in check as long as possible. But that unless we could hold them for 30 minutes without calculating on the others, that the whole army was lost. Colonel Shepherd protested, saying that it would sacrifice his whole command. General Rosecrans replied that he knew it but he had to sacrifice somebody- and had no others that he could depend upon to do the work. Accordingly, we went in.”

          Subsequently, the Regulars would lose half of their numbers but would buy Rosecrans the critical half hour he needed to reform the army along the railroad and the Nashville Pike. This letter, written by an unknown officer of the 18th U.S. Infantry, first saw publication in the February 20, 1863, edition of the Mercersburg Journal published in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

 

The monument to the Regular Brigade of the Army of the Cumberland sits in the center of Stones River National Cemetery, denoting the location where the brigade held its position along the Nashville Pike after making its sacrifice in the cedars. 

Camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee

January 17, 1863

          Now that the smoke has cleared away and I can look back calmly over the events crowded into the short four days in which my brigade was engaged, although the time seems wonderfully short, it appears to me a little less than miraculous that I am sitting here tonight to pen these few lines, even more so that any of that little handful are left to tell the story of their devotion, heroism, and patience through all those terrible days.

          Our brigade consisted at the time of the fight of two battalions of our regiment [18th U.S.], one of the 15th, one of 16th, and six companies of the 19th Regular Infantry, and Battery H, 5th Regular Artillery (formerly Terrill’s) commanded by Lieutenant Guenther of six guns and known through this portion of Rebeldom as the “wild cat battery.”

          I have said nothing of the battle in any of my previous letters but as the newspaper accounts which have met my eye are in many points very inaccurate, I will give you a short sketch of the part played by us in the bloody drama.

          On Wednesday morning December 31st at 6:30 a.m. we moved out of camp and took up our position in line of battle as the reserve brigade of the reserve division (Rousseau) half a mile from where the thundering of artillery and clash of musketry told us the main conflict had opened. At this point, we rested on our arms until nearly 9 o’clock. An aide of General Rosecrans galloped up and ordered us to the support of McCook on the right.

          We started in through a dense forest of cedars and had not got into the open space beyond when we met McCook and staff and the remnant of what had been his army corps flying before the flushed hosts of Rebeldom in the wildest confusion and disorder. We at once about-faced and double quicked off at right angles, placing our battery on the main ridge of the field and commanding the position from which McCook had just been driven and where two-thirds of Bragg’s army had been massed.

          In about five minutes, a division came out of the woods marching in splendid order six columns deep to charge our battery. It was to me a moment of awful suspense. On they came in a seemingly endless mass when in an instant Guenther opened on them with canister, his guns double-shotted, and we and the 9th Brigade on our left opened with musketry. Language is powerless to describe the scene that ensued- the terrible carnage in their ranges- their breaking then rallying again with heroism worthy of a better cause- only to be finally repulsed and driven back into the heavy timbers from whence they had come.

Lt. Col. Oliver L. Shepherd
Regular Brigade

          During the next hour, the same thing was repeated with but slight variations and with like result. Thus things stood with us up to 11 o’clock when suddenly it was found that the enemy had succeeded in massing his forces at our weak point and that a change of front of our own forces was necessary for the salvation of the entire army. My first knowledge of this fact was derived from hearing the fact stated in an undertone by General Rosecrans to [Lt. Col. Oliver L.] Shepherd who happened to be within eight or ten feet from me at the time. [Rosecrans] stated that he had ordered two brigades of Rousseau’s division forward to hold the enemy in check as long as possible. But that unless we could hold them for 30 minutes without calculating on the others, that the whole army was lost. Colonel Shepherd protested, saying that it would sacrifice his whole command. General Rosecrans replied that he knew it but he had to sacrifice somebody- and had no others that he could depend upon to do the work. Accordingly, we went in.

          I trust never again to witness such as sight as it was my lot to witness in that belt of cedars. Regiment after regiment of our advance was driven back, some them behaving badly in the extreme, until we alone were left to breast the fearful storm of lead and iron under which we stood from 16 minutes past 12 until 3 minutes of 1 when we received orders to fall back a quarter of a mile to our battery and the protection of the railroad. 1,600 men in our brigade alone fought and held in check for 41 minutes a whole division (commanded by Withers) of the choicest troops in the Rebel army.

          You can form no conception of the infernal din with six pieces of artillery playing on us with shell, shrapnel, and solid shot, somewhere between 15,000-20,000 rifles and 4,500 muskets playing during that whole time upon our devoted column. The whiz of shot was actually so incessant that I could not distinguish any intermission between them. We left along the strip of ground that marked our line of battle half of the men that went in with us.

          The other three days’ fighting were light in comparison though we were under heavy fire all the time. They seem, in looking back, as mere child’s play compared with Wednesday. I forgot to mention that I had my hat knocked off on Wednesday by a 10-pdr shell without any further injury than producing a little temporary nervousness.

 

Sergeant Winfield Scott Harrison served in Co. E, 2nd Battalion, 18th U.S. at Stones River. He would lose his life two years later during the Atlanta campaign. 

To learn more about the Regular Brigade in the Battle of Stones River, check out these additional posts:

 With the Regulars at Stones River (15th U.S.) 

The Cost of Gallantry: A Voice from the 18th U.S. Infantry 

A Necessary Sacrifice to Save the Army: A Regular Recalls Stones River (18th U.S.) 

Retrieving Major Carpenter: Joseph R. Prentice and His Medal of Honor at Stones River (19th U.S.) 

With the Regular Artillery at Stones River (Battery H, 5th U.S.) 

Pork & Beans Writes of Stones River and the Regular Brigade (Battery H, 5th U.S.)


For a comprehensive study of the Stones River campaign, please check out my award-winning book “Hell by the Acre: a Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign,” available from Savas Beatie.

Source:

Letter from unknown officer of 18th U.S. Infantry, Mercersburg Journal (Pennsylvania), February 20, 1863, pg. 2

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