| Stones River National Battlefield | |
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| Location | Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States |
| Coordinates | 35°52′34″N86°25′51″W / 35.87611°N 86.43083°W /35.87611; -86.43083 |
| Area | 709.49 acres (287.12 ha)[1] |
| Established | March 3, 1927[2] |
| Visitors | 339,364 (in 2023[3]) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Stones River National Battlefield |
Stones River National Battlefield, a 570-acre (2.3 km2) park along theStones River inRutherford County, Tennessee, three miles (5 km) northwest ofMurfreesboro and twenty-eight miles southeast ofNashville, memorializes theBattle of Stones River. This key battle of theAmerican Civil War occurred on December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, and resulted in a strategicUnion victory.[4]
The national battlefield was established through the efforts of both private individuals, the Stones River Battlefield and Park Association, theNashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (which became part ofCSX Transportation through several mergers), and a 1927 act of Congress authorizing a national military park under the jurisdiction of the War Department.[5]
During the early years of the twentieth century, the railroad emphasized the battlefield as a destination to increase passenger traffic. It promoted veteran reunions and acquired parts of the battlefield as points of historical interest. In 1906, the company erected a 31-foot (9.4 m) obelisk to commemorate the January 2, 1863, position of massed Union artillery used to repel a Confederate assault on Union troops across the river.[6]
The Stones River Battlefield and Park Association was chartered on April 28, 1896, after the establishment ofChickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park increased interest in preserving significant Civil War battlefields. The association secured options on property connected with the battle, reportedly 3,400 acres (14 km2) by June 1897. Association members erected wooden signs to mark and interpret battlefield locations.[7] In 1912, the Association lobbied to have Congress "establish an accurate system of markers," but the measure failed, in part because of the testimony of former congressman and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park CommissionerCharles H. Grosvenor, who believed the landmarks had been "entirely obliterated."[8]
Land acquisition began in 1928 and was completed in 1934. In 1992, the park accepted a donation from the City of Murfreesboro of an intact segment ofFortress Rosecrans, the largest enclosed earthwork built during the Civil War. The park preserves less than a fifth of the more than 3,000 acres (12 km2) over which the battle was fought.[5]
On March 3, 1927, the site was established as Stones River National Military Park. It was transferred from theWar Department to theU.S. Department of the Interior'sNational Park Service on August 10, 1933, and redesignated as anational battlefield on April 22, 1960. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the battlefield was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places (October 15, 1966).
On April 10, 2009,the Good Friday tornado damaged the battlefield park.[9]
Since 1997, theAmerican Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 74 acres (0.30 km2) of the battlefield in five acquisitions. Some of the land was sold to theNational Park Service and incorporated into the national battlefield.[10]
Within park boundaries is Stones River National Cemetery,[11] 20.09 acres (81,300 m2) with 6,850 interments (2562 unidentified). Just outside the cemetery proper is theHazen Brigade Monument (1863), the oldest surviving American Civil War monument standing in its original location. The32nd Indiana Monument atCave Hill National Cemetery inLouisville, Kentucky is a year older. An earlier monument was erected after theFirst Battle of Manassas in Virginia but is no longer extant.[12] Also, veterans fromArmy of the Cumberland erected the U.S. Regular Brigade Civil War Monument.[13]
The cemetery was established on March 29, 1864, by the order of Major GeneralGeorge H. Thomas. Under the supervision of Chaplain William Earnshaw, the 111th RegimentUnited States Colored Troops disinterred bodies from the battlefields of Stones River,Murfreesboro,Franklin,Shelbyville,Tullahoma andCowan.[14] Reburials began in 1865 and were completed by 1867.
At the time, most of the Confederate dead were taken to their hometowns or to the nearest southern community. Some, however, were buried in a mass grave south of town. They were later reinterred in another mass grave, Confederate Circle inEvergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro. In November 1867, the bodies of 1,360 Union soldiers were removed to Stones River from Rose Hill Cemetery inColumbia, Tennessee, where a national cemetery had earlier been planned.[15]
The cemetery was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933.
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