Battles & Leaders of the Civil War
THE UNION LEFT AT STONE"S RIVER.
ADVANCE OF COLONEL M. B. WALKER'S UNION BRIGADE AT STONE'S RIVER.
" Common prudence and the safety of my army, upon which even the safety of our cause depended, left no doubt on my mind as to the necessity of my withdrawal from so unequal a contest,"
Bragg acknowledged a loss of over 10,000 men, over 9000 of whom were killed or wounded,-nearly 25 per cent. of the total force engaged. The loss in the Union army was, in killed, 1533 ; wounded, 7245 = 8778 ; and in prisoners, McCook, 2092 ; Thomas, 576 ; Crittenden, 821,-total, 3489. Apprehending the possible success of a flank movement against his left, General Bragg had caused all the tents and baggage to be loaded on wagons and sent to the r ear. On the night of the 3d he began his retreat and continued it south of Elk River whence he was ordered back to Tullahoma by General , Johnston.
THE UNION LEFT AT STONE'S RIVER.BY THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.THE battle of Stone's River, Tennessee, on the 31st of December, 1862, and the 2d of January, 1863, was one of the most fiercely contested and bloody conflicts of the war. The two armies that met in this conflict were made up of soldiers who, for the most part, had been disciplined by capable instructors and hardened by service in the field, both having made many long marches, and neither having been strangers to the perils of the battle-field. Moreover, these armies were ably commanded by graduates of the Military Academy at West Point - a military school, I think, not surpassed, if equaled, anywhere else. The duration of the battle, and the long list of the killed and wounded, show the stuff of which the two armies were composed. I do not think that two better armies, as numerous and so nearly matched in strength, ever met in battle.
I had the. good fortune to command the left wing of our army, and, thanks to the skill and bravery of the officers and men of my command, the enemy were not able to drive them from our first line of battle. On the 31st of December my extreme left was strongly posted, but my right was in an open field back from the stream. Still it was a fairly strong position by reason of the railroad and the railroad cut and the woods. Thomas's position in the center was not so strong as mine ; of McCook's, on our right, I knew nothing ; that it was less strong than ours, I presume from the fact that in spite of the most stubborn resistance McCook w as driven back two miles. or more, the whole right of the