Video
Saving the Day at the Slaughter Pen
Transcript
My name is Emily Brandon, and I'm an SCA intern at Stones River National Battlefield. And today, we're at tour stop two. And we're going to go over the events that happened here-- during the battle of Stones River.
On the morning of December 31, 1862, General William J. Hardee sent 10,000 men from McCown's and Cleburne's divisions, storming through and around the unprepared Union right flank. The men of Richard Johnson's division were so terrified they immediately retreated. As more men began to retreat, it created even more fear and chaos throughout the Union right wing.
The Confederate line began to wrap around the Union line, breaking up Johnson's division and then rolling around the positions of General Jefferson C. Davis's division. When the fight came to General Philip Sheridan and his men, they stopped the advance because they were ready to fight by 4:00 AM. Sheridan bent back his lines grudgingly as the Rebels began to push them all the way back to this spot, north of the Wilkinson Pike. Sheridan's lines and those of General James Negley formed a v-shaped salient here.
General William S. Rosecrans, realizing his initial attack plan was failing, began to change his focus from defending the vital Nashville Pike. And he began to reform the line. But he needed time to be able to do so. So he sent word to Generals Sheridan and Negley to hold their positions here to give him that time. These woods and limestone outcroppings provided shelter and protection to those worn out soldiers of Sheridan's and Negley's brigades.
For two hours, General Sheridan and General Negley held their position, fighting off attacks from three different sides. Eventually, Sheridan's men, exhausted from fighting for several hours and low on ammunition, retreat leaving Negley and his men nearly surrounded. While this area was a great source of cover, it quickly turned into a death trap as the men tried to retreat through the rocks and trees.
There was so much blood that when the soldiers of Chicago saw the area after the fighting, they nicknamed it the "Slaughter Pen", as it reminded them of the slaughter houses back home. While the terrible losses they suffered by Sheridan and Negley's men here surely had them thinking that all hope was lost, the seeds of ultimate Union victory were sown by their sacrifices. Five Union brigades had stalled nearly half of the Confederate Army for two hours. This gave Rosecrans the time he needed to set his troops for a final decisive stand along the Nashville Pike.
Description
Student Conservation Association intern Emily Brandon tells the story of the bloody delaying action that turned the tide of battle.
Duration
2 minutes, 36 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
08/14/2020
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