STONE RIVER, BATTLE OF, a battle of the American Civil War, called the battle of Murfreesboro by the Confederates, fought on Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 2, 1863. After his appointment in October to command the Army of the Cumberland, Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, with Chattanooga as his objective, moved from Nash ville upon Gen. Braxton Bragg, who left the winter quarters he had established at Murfreesboro and met the Union army on Stone river immediately north of Murfreesboro, on the last day of December. The plan of attack on each side was to crush the enemy's right. Bragg's left. commanded by Lieut.-gen. W. J.
Hardee, overlapped and bore back the Union right under Maj. gen. A. McD. McCook, and Maj.-gen. T. L. Crittenden, command ing the Union left, was hurriedly called back from his attack on the Confederate right to support McCook. The Union right was crumpled up on the centre, where Maj.-gen. G. H. Thomas's corps checked the Confederate attack. There was practically no fight
ing on Jan. I, but on the 2nd the Confederates renewed the attack, Maj.-gen. J. C. Breckinridge with Bragg's right attempting in vain to displace one of Crittenden's divisions which had estab lished itself during the 1st on high ground across the river. On the night of the 3rd Bragg withdrew and the Union army occupied Murfreesboro. Tactically a drawn battle, Stone River was strategically a Union victory. The losses on both sides were heavy : of 37,712 Confederates present for duty, 1,294 were killed, 7,945 were wounded, and about 2,500 were missing; and of 44,80o Union soldiers present for duty, 1,677 were killed, 7,543 were wounded, and 3,686 were missing.
See A. F. Stevenson, The Battle of Stone's River (Boston, 1884) ; and W. J. Vance, Stone's River, the Turning-Point of the Civil War (1914)•