The graves of more than 6,000 Union soldiers lie in the Stones River National Cemetery.  Beginning on New Year’s Eve of 1862 and ending on January 2, 1863, Union and Confederate forces brutally clashed near the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee located on the Stones River.  The Federal Government established a national cemetery in 1865 close to the location of some of the heaviest fighting took place. Today, the Stones River Battlefield and National Cemetery form the Stones River National Battlefield, a unit of the National Park Service dedicated to preserving the battlefield and interpreting the battle and its effects on the Civil War. A visitors center and museum on the grounds offer tours, cycling and hiking paths. The Stones River National Cemetery is today one of 14 national cemeteries managed by the National Park Service.

Located at the geographic center of Tennessee, the town of Murfreesboro straddles both sides of the Stones River.  Union and Confederate forces fought over the town for three days, spanning December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863.  The Confederate Army of Tennessee, under the command of General Paxton Bragg, held a defensive position in the town beginning in November 1862.  Union forces under the command of General William Rosecrans marched toward Murfreesboro from the west and took positions for an offensive on December 30.  Confederate troops struck first in the early morning of December 31, initially pushing back the Union lines.  Over three days, brutal fighting resulted in 23,000 casualties, with roughly 3,000 killed.  In the end, Union soldiers forced Confederate troops to retreat. 

After the battle, General Rosecrans and his troops worked to reinforce the town’s defenses and established a supply depot at Murfreesboro.  In 1865, work began on the creation of a national cemetery near the Stones River Battlefield. For two years, remains of 6,100 Union soldiers were disinterred from locations around Stones River and middle Tennessee and transferred to the national cemetery. 

Stones River National Cemetery Courtesy of the National Park Service.

U.S. Army Assistant Quartermaster Captain John Means selected the site and designed the cemetery layout.  The cemetery is roughly rectangular in shape, bordered on the east by the lines of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad (now CSX) and to the west by the Nashville Pike (now the Old Nashville Highway).  A stone wall dating from the late 1860s lines the perimeter.  Tree-lined paths radiate both diagonally and perpendicularly from the central flagpole; additional paths create sections of squares, rectangles, trapezoids, and triangles.

Two monuments stand in the cemetery.  The U.S. Regulars Monument, erected in 1882, is a sandstone cylindrical shaft crowned with a bronze eagle.  The monument honors the men of the Union’s Western Regular Brigade killed during the Battle of Stones River. A second memorial is dedicated to the soldiers of the 43rd Wisconsin and the 108th Ohio who protected the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad line during the Union occupation of Murfreesboro.

The Hazen Brigade Monument is located one-third of a mile south of the cemetery along Old Nashville Highway. The monument, erected in 1863, is thought to be one of the oldest existing Civil War memorials.  The faces of the 10-foot cube, constructed of limestone blocks, carry inscriptions honoring and listing the men who fought under the command of Union Colonel W. B. Hazen.  The brigade is notable as being the only Union unit in the Battle of Stones River to hold its ground and not retreat.  The graves of 55 members of the brigade surround the monument.