Stones River National Battlefield

Cultural Landscape Report

Prepared by:

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

330 Pfingsten Road

Northbrook, Illinois 60062

(847) 272-7400

and

John Milner Associates, Inc.

103 West Main Street

Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

(434) 979-1617

Prepared for:

National Park Service

Southeast Regional Office

100 Alabama Street SW

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

(404) 562-3117

June 2007
.
Stones River National Battlefield

Cultural Landscape Report

This manuscript has been authored by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., and John Milner Associates, Inc.,

under Contract Number C5000030189 with the National Park Service. The United States Government retains

and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government

retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of

this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.
iv Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service v

Contents

Figures vii

Figure Credits xi

Foreword xiii

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction

Management Summary 1

Historical Summary 1

Project Methodology 2

Scope of Work 3

Description of Study Boundaries 4

Summary of Findings 5

Recommendations for Further Research 7

Site History

Development of the Site prior to the Battle 9

The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863 11

Union Occupation and Reconstruction 17

Continued Agricultural Use of the Site and Early Commemoration 23

Federal Stewardship 29

Evaluation of Significance 50

Period of Significance 52

Existing Conditions and Analysis

Introduction 53

Project Area Overview 55

Existing Conditions and Analysis 65

Nashville Pike Unit 65

McFadden Farm Unit 89

General Rosecrans’s Headquarters Site 103

Hazen Brigade Monument 109

General Bragg’s Headquarters Site 117

Fortress Rosecrans Curtain Wall No. 2 and Lunettes 125

Fortress Rosecrans Redoubt Brannan 133

Treatment Plan

Introduction 143

Management Issues, Goals, and Objectives 143

Recommended Landscape Treatement Approach 149

Treatment Concept 151

Treatment Considerations by Landscape Characteristic 155

General Treatment Guidelines 159

Treatment Recommendations by Character Area 165

Implementation Guidelines 195

Bibliography 235

Appendices
vi Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service vii

Figures

Site History

1 Troops in General Samuel Beatty’s Union brigade repel attacking Confederates

2 Union cavalry in pursuit during the battle

3 Period Plan, 1863

4 Workmen repair the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad near Murfreesboro after the battle

5 The Hazen Brigade Monument, shortly after its construction

6 Fortress Rosecrans Period Plan, 1863

7 Nashville Pike near the Stones River National Cemetery, circa 1890s

8 Farmers on the battlefield in the 1890s

9 Hazen Brigade Monument, circa 1890s

10 Interpretive sign on the battlefield, circa 1890s

11 Detail of “Map of Rutherford County, Tennessee” 1878

12 Period Plan, 1926

13 Farmhouses on the battlefield, 1928

14 Farmhouse and the Artillery Monument, 1929

15 Van Cleve Lane south of the Nashville Pike was almost impassable in January 1931

16 Van Cleve Lane in February 1931, after regrading and surfacing by the War Department

17 The main entrance to the park under construction in 1931

18 The completed main entrance to the park, 1932

19 Artillery Monument in 1931, after repainting by the War Department

20 General Bragg’s Headquarters Site marker immediately after its completion in 1931

21 Fortress Rosecrans Period Plan, 1938

22 View of the Artillery Monument, September 1935

23 The main entrance to the park, 1937

24 Van Cleve Lane, view south from the Nashville Pike, 1937

25 View northwest toward the filling station just beyond the park boundaries, 1934

26 Informational sign at the General Bragg’s Headquarters site, 1930s

27 Park entrance, 1930s

28 Roadside markers and directional signage along Old Nashville Highway, 1930s

29 Park entrance, 1930s

30 View of the Hazen’s Brigade Monument, April 20, 1960

31 Period Plan, 1955

32 Aerial view of the newly-constructed visitor center, 1963

33 View of the newly completed visitor center, June 1, 1966

34 Thompson Lane overpass at the Old Nashville Highway under construction, early 1990s

35 Period Plan, 2005

36 Fortress Rosecrans Period Plan, 2005

Existing Conditions and Analysis

37 Context and Location Map

38 Character Area Map

39 Comparative Analysis Map

40 Limestone outcroppings near the Slaughter Pen

41 Toll house site near Van Cleve Lane

42 Park tour road as it curves near Tour Road Stop Two

43 Small parking lot along the tour road

44 Van Cleve Lane as it runs through the Nashville Pike Unit character area

45 Gravel road through the Pioneer Brigade earthworks

46 The Boundary Trail

47 Social trail located within the tour road loop
viii Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

48 Dense cedar plantings found on northbound portion of tour road

49 Cotton growing in a field used to interpret historic field and forest patterns

50 View of the visitor center from the southeast

51 Section of the Pioneer Brigade earthworks

52 Limestone entrance piers and wooden gates designating the park’s public entrance

53 Large corrugated pipe culverts with a stone headwall

54 Small corrugated pipe culvert with a stone headwall

55 Open drainage structure found along the southbound portion of the tour road

56 Corrugated pipe culvert with a battered stone headwall

57 Pipe culvert and L-shaped concrete headwall near Tour Road Stop Two

58 View across open fields within the Nashville Pike Unit character area

59 View across open fields from the northbound portion of the tour road

60 View into the Slaughter Pen field after the trail exits the woods

61 View across field toward development. Note large church complex in background

62 Wood bench found at the visitor center

63 Stone seat walls in front of the visitor center

64 Wood-slat trash can found at the visitor center

65 Green metal trash can at the visitor center

66 Contemporary park sign found near the front of the visitor center

67 Hexagonal metal interpretive signs found throughout the park

68 Rustic picket fence found on old Nashville Highway east of Van Cleve Lane

69 Two-post and rail wood fence found between Van Cleve Lane and the visitor center

70 Worm rail fencing found throughout the park, typically along park boundaries

71 Worm rail fence blockades used to prohibit access to certain areas of the park

72 Civil War-era cannon used throughout the park to interpret the battle

73 Large drain inlet found at the intersection of Van Cleve Lane and Manson Pike

74 One concept for the proposed mixed-use “Murfreesboro Gateway” development

75 Park identity sign, 1960s view

76 Park identity sign, 2005 view

77 Park entrance, 1934 view

78 Park entrance, 2005 view

79 Nashville Pike, 19th century view

80 Old Nashville Highway, 2005 view

81 Nashville Pike Unit Existing Conditions Map

82 Stones River and high limestone bluffs, looking north

83 Limestone boulders placed in the 1970s to prevent flooding

84 Eroded, deeply-channeled swale near the Stones River Greenway Trail

85 Field and forest pattern near the Artillery Monument and parking lot

86 Former house site southwest of the parking lot

87 Artillery Monument and parking lot node

88 Recently-purchased landfill site to be rehabilitated and blended with the character area

89 McFadden cemetery space west of the parking lot

90 Van Cleve Lane north of Old Nashville Highway, along the western edge of the area

91 Two-track road trace leading to the former house site

92 Gated road trace found west of the parking lot

93 Trace of a former road or lane, now used as a trail

94 Social trail from the parking lot to the river

95 Social trail following the river’s edge

96 Old agricultural field adjacent to Van Cleve Lane

97 Carolina willow plant communities growing in a sandbar within Stones River

98 Artillery Monument, built in 1906

99 Stacked stone alcove containing a spring

100 Curving steps that lead into the alcove

101 Views to development from Van Cleve Lane
National Park Service ix

102 Concrete War Department marker

103 Partially buried drain inlet found along the trail south of the Artillery Monument

104 McFadden cemetery headstones

105 Virginia worm rail fence running along both sides of trail south of Artillery Monument

106 Contemporary NPS interpretive wayside exhibit

107 Artillery Monument and context, 1920 view

108 Artillery Monument and context, 2005 view

109 Artillery Monument, 1935 view

110 Artillery Monument, 2005 view

111 McFadden Farm Unit Existing Conditions Map

112 Rosecrans’s Headquarters parking lot and site

113 Vegetated buffer surrounding the site

114 Manicured privet hedge found at each side of the parking lot

115 1931 Rosecrans’s Headquarters cannonball pyramid marker

116 View across Old Nashville Highway to eastern red cedars and material piles

117 View toward the marker from the parking lot showing the new NPS wayside exhibit

118 Rosencran’s Headquarters Monument, 1975 view

119 Rosencran’s Headquarters Monument, 2005 view

120 Rosencran’s Headquarters Monument, 1975 view

121 Rosencran’s Headquarters Monument, 2005 view

122 Rosecrans’s Headquarters Site Existing Conditions Map

123 Hazen Brigade Monument parking lot and concrete sidewalk

124 Wide trail that leads to the woodlot northwest of the monument

125 Landscape leading up to the Hazen Brigade Monument

126 CSX Corporation railroad tracks behind the monument wall, looking northwest

127 Hazen Brigade monument, limestone wall, and metal gate at entrance

128 Headstones located within the monument wall

129 Headstones of William Harlan and William Holland located outside of the monument wall

130 View looking southeast toward Thompson Road bridge

131 Hazen Brigade Monument, nineteenth century view

132 Hazen Brigade Monument, 2005 view

133 Hazen Brigade Monument, nineteenth century view

134 Hazen Brigade Monument, 2005 view

135 Hazen Brigade Monument Existing Conditions Map

136 Bragg’s Headquarters site

137 NPS sidewalk as it intersects the Stones River Greenway Trail

138 One of two rows of trees that bound the site

139 Close view of the two-post and stacked rail fence that bounds the site

140 1931 Bragg’s Headquarters cannonball pyramid marker

141 Vertical NPS wayside exhibit erected in 2005

142 View to the Stones River Greenway trailhead and parking lot

143 View to the adjacent field southeast of the site

144 View looking southwest from Bragg’s Headquarters site to the road and railroad tracks

145 View from the Bragg’s Headquarters site to the fenced dog park

146 View from the dog park to the Bragg’s Headquarters site

147 Bragg’s Headquarters Monument, 1975 view

148 Bragg’s Headquarters Monument, 2005 view

149 Bragg’s Headquarters Site Existing Conditions Map

150 View from Lunette Palmer to parking lot and athletic complex beyond

151 View from Lunette Thomas to golf course

152 Asphalt parking lot with native plantings

153 Worm rail fence-edge social trail leading from path near Lunette Palmer to Lytle Creek

154 Lytle Creek, looking northwest, with Greenway Trail pedestrian bridge in background

155 Sinkhole covered with a grate and surrounded by worm rail fence
x Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

156 Interior of Lunette Palmer with magazine in center

157 Western edge of Curtain Wall No.2

158 Mature trees growing atop Lunette Palmer

159 Erosion and exposed earth on a segment of Lunette Palmer

160 Erosion and an animal burrow on a segment of Lunette Palmer

161 Asphalt path and typical wayside exhibit along the northern edge of Curtain Wall No. 2

162 Recycled wood and plastic boardwalk at Lunette Palmer

163 Boardwalk providing access to the parapet of Lunette Thomas

164 Social trail near the eastern end of Curtain Wall No. 2

165 Recycled wood and plastic bench between Lunette Palmer and Curtain Wall No. 2

166 Cannon and wayside exhibit

167 Present-day view from cannon location to Murfreesboro

168 Curtain Wall and Lunettes Existing Conditions Map

169 View from Redoubt Brannan path to Stones River, looking west

170 View from Redoubt Brannan to railroad bridge, looking southwest

171 View from Redoubt Brannan to nearby commercial development, looking north

172 Asphalt parking lot

173 Recycled wood and plastic boardwalk leading into the redoubt

174 Concrete sidewalk which leads over Stones River to Redoubt Brannan

175 Interior view of Redoubt Brannan and earthwork vegetation

176 NPS entrance sign and gate pillar

177 Redoubt Brannan Existing Conditions Map

178 Photographic Station Points Map–Nashville Pike Unit

179 Photographic Station Points Map–Bragg’s Headquarters, McFadden Farm, Hazen Brigade

Monument, and Rosecrans’s Headquarters Units

180 Photographic Station Points Map–Curtain Wall #2, Lunettes Palmer and Thomas, and

Redoubt Brannan

Treatment Plan

181 Treatment Concept Plan

182 Nashville Pike Unit Treatment Recommendations

183 McFadden Farm Unit Treatment Recommendations

184 Rosecrans’s Headquarters Site Treatment Recommendations

185 Bragg’s Headquarters Site Treatment Recommendations

186 Hazen Brigade Monument Treatment Recommendations

Implementation Guidelines

187 Section showing the relationship between park trails and filter strips

188 Section through a typical riparian buffer

189 Interpretive view before thinning and clearing

190 Interpretive view after thinning and clearing

191 Example of a viewhed carefully cleared in support of interpretation

192 Example of the foundation of a missing structure marked with brick corners

193 Example of the foundation of a missing structure marked with fencing

194 Property lines and building locations can be marked through mowing patterns
National Park Service xi

Figure Credits

1 National Archives II. Drawing by Private Alfred E. Mathews. R.G. 111

2 National Archives II. Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Matthew B. Brady Collection,

R.G. 111-BA, Box 11, print BA-1819. Photograph of a painting by William T. Trego

4 Civil War photographs, compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge,

Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0670

5 Kern photograph collection, image SR33

7 Kern photograph collection, image M50

8 Kern photograph collection, image SR17

9 Kern photograph collection, image SR16

10 Kern photograph collection, image M52a

11 “Map of Rutherford County, Tennessee.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: D.G. Beers & Co., 1878

13 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

14 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

15 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

16 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

17 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

18 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

19 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

20 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files

22 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files, image 551

23 National Archives II. National Park Service, Records of the Branch of Engineering, Final

Construction Reports, 1934–1942. R.G. 79

24 National Archives II. National Park Service, Records of the Branch of Engineering, Final

Construction Reports, 1934–1942. R.G. 79

25 National Archives II. National Park Service, Records of the Branch of Engineering, Final

Construction Reports, 1934–1942. R.G. 79

26 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 31260

27 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 31284

28 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 31287

29 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 31285

30 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 19314

32 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files, image 012

33 Tennessee State Library and Archives, Department of Conservation Collection, image 19604

34 Stones River National Battlefield archive, central files, image 283

145 Stones River National Battlefield

146 Stones River National Battlefield

Other maps and photographs in this document were prepared by the authors in 2005–2006.
xii Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service xiii

Foreword

Stones River National Battlefield tells the story of a major Civil War battle. The landscape at this

park, which comprises only a portion of that great field of battle, belies the carnage and

suffering which took place here. But through careful stewardship of the landscape, we can help

people understand the events that swept across these pastoral fields and forests. With the

guidance of this Cultural Landscape Report, we can manage land to reflect the fields and forests

of the 1860s, while fostering the success of native vegetation and wildlife where once there had

been the scars of battle. We hope that our stewardship of park land presents an example of how

a community can care for places important to all of us.

We appreciate the exceptional contributions of the preparers of this report from Wiss, Janney,

Elstner, Associates, Inc., Deborah Slaton and Kenneth Itle, along with those from John Milner

Associates, Inc., Krista Schneider, Liz Sargent, and Julie Basic. Their work along with the

contributions by Tracy Stakely of the Southeast Regional Office of the National Park Service, will

be reflected in the landscape of Stones River National Battlefield and will help visitors and

researchers understand the momentous events that took place here during the American Civil

War.

Stuart K. Johnson

Superintendent
xiv Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service xv

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the following persons who assisted in the preparation of this study:

staff of the Stones River National Battlefield, including Superintendent Stuart Johnson, Chief of

Operations Gib Backlund, Park Ranger Jim Lewis, and Ecologist Terri Hogan; Tracy Stakely of the

National Park Service Southeast Regional Office; Wayne Moore, Will Thomas, and other staff of

the Tennessee State Library and Archives; staff of the National Archives II in College Park,

Maryland; and Michelle Schneider of the National Park Service Denver Service Center.
xvi Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service 1

Introduction

Management Summary

Stones River National Battlefield is located about

three miles northwest of downtown

Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee.

The existing national park includes a portion of

the Civil War battlefield of Stones River, a key

battle in the campaign to control middle

Tennessee, which occurred December 31, 1862, to

January 2, 1863. The park was established by an Act

of Congress in 1927 as Stones River National

Military Park under the administration of the

Army Quartermaster General. The park was

transferred to the administration of the National

Park Service in 1933.

In addition to the main portion of the park,

referred to as the Nashville Pike Unit, the park

includes a number of outlying parcels, among

which are the McFadden Farm Unit and the

headquarters sites of Union Major General

William S. Rosecrans and Confederate General

Braxton Bragg. The park also includes two parcels

with portions of Fortress Rosecrans, the largest

enclosed earthwork built during the Civil War,

and the Stones River National Cemetery.

Stones River National Battlefield is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places. As noted in

the National Register nomination, the battlefield

is eligible under Criterion A for “its national and

state significance in the military history of the

Civil War and its national and state significance in

commemoration due to the design and historical

associations of the Hazen Brigade Monument and

Stones River National Cemetery. It is also eligible

for its local significance under Criterion A in

African American ethnic heritage and for its local

significance under Criterion C in landscape

architecture.”1

The National Park Service has previously

identified eight distinct cultural landscapes that

are included in the NPS Cultural Landscapes

Inventory. The integrity of the cultural landscape

has been greatly affected in recent decades by the

construction of new arterial streets through the

greater historic battlefield; intensive residential,

commercial, and industrial development around

the park; the growth of forest on previously

cleared land; and the thinning or cutting of trees

in historically wooded areas. The park

boundaries were expanded in the late 1980s and

early 1990s; however, the existing tour route and

interpretive signage were developed for the

previously established smaller extent of the park.

This Cultural Landscape Report has been

developed primarily to provide treatment

recommendations for managing the overall

landscape of the park. The treament

recommendations will support future

development of an alternative tour route and

other physical changes to the park and will

identify possible strategies to mitigate the effect of

the contemporary urban environment on the

historically rural battlefield.

Historical Summary

Prior to the Battle of Stones River, the landscape

over which the battle occurred was covered in

stands of woodland and agricultural fields. The

Nashville Pike ran through the northern portion

of the battle site, as did the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad tracks. The site of the battle

was occupied by scattered farms and woodlands

including Eastern red cedar growing in dense

thickets. The ground on the battlefield consists of

shallow soils overlaying limestone and shale

bedrock, pitted with sinkholes caused by surface

and underground water sources dissolving the

limestone: geological features that would prove to

be significant in the outcome of the battle.

In its central position within the state, Rutherford

County provided a strategic location for control

of roads, railroads, and access to the food

production of Tennessee. Murfreesboro in late

1862 was the base of operations for the Army of

Tennessee, the Confederacy’s principal western

army, commanded by General Braxton Bragg.

Nashville was controlled by Union forces and

1. Michael T. Gavin and Sean M. Styles, “Stones River

National Military Park / Stones River National

Battlefield National Register Nomination,

Additional Documentation,” November 14, 2003.
INTRODUCTION

2 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

used as a forward supply depot, making control

of Murfreesboro essential to the Federal 14th Army

Corps (the Army of the Cumberland). Control of

the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad was

necessary to supply Union forces in a campaign

to take Chattanooga.

The Battle of Stones River, which occurred from

December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, was one of

the bloodiest of the war. In all, more than 3,000

were killed and nearly 16,000 were wounded. The

Army of Tennessee lost control of the rich

farmland of middle Tennessee, which would now

support the Union forces, and dissent was

generated within its command. Following the

battle, the Army of the Cumberland was

established as a potent defensive force. With the

help of former slaves, Union forces constructed

Fortress Rosecrans, a fortification that served as a

supply depot and base of occupation for the

Union for the duration of the war. Fortress

Rosecrans was also important to the Union in

protecting and maintaining control of the

Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad throughout

the war.

During and following the war, the battlefield

became the site of several memorials. Soon after

the battle, in the spring of 1863 members of the

Hazen Brigade were detailed to construct a

monument to their unit’s heroism at Stones River.

On March 29, 1864, the National Cemetery was

established at a site between the Nashville Pike and

the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The

Artillery Monument was constructed in 1906.

Efforts to establish a national park on the

battlefield began in the late nineteenth century.

The Stones River Battlefield and Park Association,

chartered on April 28, 1896, secured options for

the purchase of property connected with the

battle to establish a park. Congressional action to

establish a park was delayed until after World

War I. The 1926 Act for the Study and

Investigation of Battlefields resulted in the

establishment of Stones River National Military

Park by Congress on March 3, 1927, under the

control of the War Department.

Between 1928 and 1934, additional land was

acquired by donation from the Nashville,

Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. The War

Department began rehabilitation and alteration of

the grounds in July 1930, and the park was

officially dedicated in July 1932. In 1933, the

National Park Service gained jurisdiction over all

historic sites, battlefields, monuments, and parks

previously administered by the War Department,

and additional acreage was added to the park at

Stones River. Development of Stones River

during the 1930s occurred through the efforts of

the new federal public works agencies established

in 1933.

The National Park Service Mission 66 program

was developed to provide funding to revitalize

the national parks over a ten year period

concluding in 1966, to coincide with the agency’s

fiftieth anniversary. Construction in the early

1960s included a new visitor center with parking

lot. On April 22, 1960, the park was redesignated as

Stones River National Battlefield. The battlefield’s

authorized boundary was expanded in 1987 and

in 1991. In 1997, the National Park Service reversed

tour routes through the park to improve visitor

understanding of the history of the battlefield. In

2003–2004, the visitor center was extensively

expanded and remodeled. Within the last two

years, some social trails have been closed to

provide protection for the cedar glades.

Project Methodology

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) of

Northbrook, Illinois, was the lead firm for this

study. WJE staff performed archival research for

the project and prepared the management

summary and site history portions of the written

report. The Charlottesville, Virginia, office of

John Milner Associates, Inc. (JMA) provided

landscape architectural services for the study,

including existing conditions documentation and

physical condition assessments, comparative

analyses and integrity evaluations, and

preparation of treatment recommendations.

Existing conditions documentation and physical

condition assessments were undertaken during

two site visits. The first site visit was conducted by

JMA landscape architects Liz Sargent and Julie

Basic in October 2005; this visit involved

documentation of the Nashville Pike, McFadden

Farm, and Hazen Brigade units, as well as the sites

of General Rosecrans’s and General Bragg’s

headquarters. During this time, WJE and JMA

staff also participated in the start-up meeting at the

park’s administrative offices to initiate the project.

The second site visit was conducted by JMA
INTRODUCTION

National Park Service 3

landscape architects Krista Schneider and Julie

Basic in April 2006; this visit primarily involved

documentation of the Fortress Rosecrans parcels.

During the second site visit, JMA staff met with

key park staff to discuss management issues and

treatment concerns regarding the cultural

landscape. During both site visits, JMA staff

ground-truthed and annotated base maps

obtained from the park and completed digital

photography as part of the existing conditions

survey. The base maps were created by exporting

linework from the GIS (geographic information

system) data provided by the park into AutoCAD.

The project team gathered historical materials

from the collection of the park during the site visit

of October 2005. WJE performed additional

research at the Tennessee State Library and

Archives in Nashville and at the National

Archives II in College Park, Maryland. WJE also

contacted the Denver Service Center of the

National Park Service, which provided copies of

relevant documents to the project team. The

materials collected included previous written

reports; historic photographs and sketches; maps

and plans; and written documents such as letters

and journal descriptions.

JMA completed comparative analyses and

integrity evaluations by comparing historical

information—taken from the site history and

historic maps and photographs—to existing

conditions data in order to understand how the

landscape changed over time. This process was

aided by comparative photography undertaken

during the October 2005 visit, where views in

historic photographs were recreated as closely as

possible in today’s landscape. Integrity

evaluations were completed using the seven

aspects of historic integrity as described in A

Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports and

according to standards set by the National

Register of Historic Places.

After completing the analyses and evaluations,

landscape features were classified as either

contributing (dating from, and supporting, the

period of significance); non-contributing (postdating and/or not supporting the period of

significance); or undetermined (too little

information was known about the feature to make

a definitive classification). Missing features that

were present during the period of significance,

but no longer exist, were also identified. This

classification system aided in understanding

which landscape features should be retained or

restored, which features could be adapted to

accommodate new changes, and which missing

features might be returned to the landscape.

The treatment plan drew from the condition

assessments and the results of the comparative

analyses and integrity evaluations in order to

determine appropriate treatment alternatives for

the park. An overarching treatment concept was

developed to direct treatment guidelines and

recommendations. Guidelines and

recommendations responded to existing issues,

such as maintenance concerns and the proposed

tour road, and offered suggestions that would

preserve and enhance the park’s historic landscape

character, as well as enhance interpretation efforts.

Scope of Work

The project team was provided with a detailed

statement of work for this CLR by the National

Park Service. The CLR study includes the core

battlefield, the McFadden Farm/Artillery

Monument site, General Bragg’s Headquarters

site, General Rosecrans’s Headquarters site, the

Hazen Brigade Monument site, and the Fortress

Rosecrans parcels. Detailed study of the national

cemetery is not included, nor is study of the larger

historic battlefield beyond the park boundaries.

The CLR describes the historical development of

the site; documents the existing conditions;

analyzes the landscape’s potential National

Register significance; identifies character-defining

landscape features; determines an appropriate

treatment strategy; and develops specific treatment

recommendations.

The final CLR report consists of the following

chapters:

z Introduction: The introduction provides the

administrative context for the project;

describes its purpose; summarizes the physical

history of the site; reviews the project scope

and methodology of the project team;

describes the physical boundaries of the study

and the regional context of the study area;

summarizes the findings of the study; and

recommends areas for further investigation.

z Site History: The site history is a historical

description of the landscape and its
INTRODUCTION

4 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

significant features. It includes a discussion of

the historic contexts and describes the periods

of significance associated with the landscape.

z Existing Conditions and Analysis: The

existing conditions of the extant landscape

are documented and described, for each unit

of the park and for landscape characteristics

such as land use, circulation, and structures.

For each unit of the park, the existing

conditions are compared to the conditions in

existence during the periods of significance,

and the integrity of the landscape is analyzed.

z Treatment: The recommended approach for

long-term management of the landscape is

described, based upon its significance,

existing condition, and use.

During discussions with park and Southeast

Regional Office staff, the following key issues were

identified to be addressed in the CLR:

z Planning is in progress to change the route of

the tour road through the park, with new

wayside exhibits planned for the revised tour

route. The Environmental Assessment for this

project is complete. The Finding of No

Significant Impact was signed on December

23, 2005.

z Control and monitoring of invasive and alien

plant species is ongoing, and limited areas

that were historically open fields have been

converted to native grasses. A draft plan for

vegetation management is under

development. Also, a fire management plan

was completed in 2003 and is scheduled to be

updated in 2008.

z To maintain open field areas, selected areas

that were fields at the time of the battle were

planted with corn, cotton, soybeans, and hay

by local farmers since the early 1970s. This

arrangement ended in 2004. During 2005 and

2006, the School of Agribusiness and

Agriscience at Middle Tennessee State

University continued to plant these fields. A

local farmer may be interested in continuing

to farm these fields in the future, but this has

not been resolved. (During the Civil War, the

dominant crops were corn and cotton.

Livestock roamed freely in the woods and

pastures, which were bounded by fences to

contain the farm animals.)

z The recently completed Medical Center

Parkway connecting downtown

Murfreesboro to Interstate Highway 24 is

leading to many new developments for

historic battlefield lands south of the park

boundaries. Another new street adjacent to

the park boundaries is Garrison Drive east of

Thompson Lane, completed in 2006. Planned

developments include a multi-story hospital,

a Chamber of Commerce visitor center, a

conference center, multi-story hotels,

numerous restaurants, and an outdoor mall.

Several strip shopping centers and multistory buildings have already been constructed

in this area. The potential to screen these new

developments from view needs to be

considered.

z Newly-acquired park lands include forest and

fallow agricultural land with invasive alien

species as well as former landfill sites.

Planning for the long term cleanup and

restoration of these lands needs to be

undertaken.

z The ecologically significant cedar glades

ecosystem within the park boundaries

contains two federally endangered plant

species. The cedar glade area is currently

bisected by the park tour road. Alteration of

this road is part of the planned change to the

tour route.

Description of Study

Boundaries

The CLR study boundaries are identical to the

boundaries of the park, except that the National

Cemetery has been excluded. The park parcels

included in the study are the Nashville Pike Unit,

the Hazen Brigade Monument site, the McFadden

Farm Unit, the General Rosecrans’s Headquarters

site, the General Bragg’s Headquarters site, the

Redoubt Brannan parcel, and the Lunette Palmer/

Lunette Thomas/Curtain Wall No. 2 parcel.

The Nashville Pike Unit of the park lies near the

intersection of two historic roadways. The Old

Nashville Highway, known as the Nashville Pike

during the Civil War, runs northwest to southeast.
INTRODUCTION

National Park Service 5

This road is intersected by historic McFadden’s

Lane, now known as Van Cleve Lane, which is

currently closed to traffic within the park. The

historic Wilkinson Pike forms the southern

boundary of the park. Parallel to the Nashville

Pike is the historic Nashville & Chattanooga

Railroad; control of this railroad was a major

factor in the Civil War campaign in middle

Tennessee. The railroad currently forms the

northern boundary of the Nashville Pike Unit

with the exception of the Unicorn Tract north of

the railroad. The park is also bordered by a

number of non-historic contemporary roadways,

all of which experience heavy automobile and

truck traffic. Two major routes run parallel to Old

Nashville Highway: New Nashville Highway

(U.S. Highway 41/70S), north of the railroad

between the Nashville Pike Unit and the

McFadden Farm Unit; and Interstate Highway 24,

about one mile southwest of the park. The eastern

boundary of the Nashville Pike Unit is formed by

Thompson Lane, a new road built in the 1990s.

Thompson Lane includes a large embankment

and bridge passing over the Old Nashville

Highway and the railroad. The western boundary

of the Nashville Pike Unit is an irregular property

line through fields and woods. The Hazen

Brigade Monument site is located between the Old

Nashville Highway and the railroad.

The second-largest parcel of the park is the

McFadden Farm Unit. This area is north of New

Nashville Highway and west of Thompson Lane.

The park property extends to the Stones River on

two sides. This area is currently accessible either

from the south via Van Cleve Lane or from the

east via the Stones River Greenway trailhead. The

two points of access are connected by a footpath

that passes under the bridge carrying Thompson

Lane over Stones River.

The two generals’ headquarters sites are relatively

small parcels along the Old Nashville Highway

and West College Street. The General Rosecrans’s

Headquarters site is northwest of the larger park

sections, and the General Bragg’s Headquarters

site is southeast of the larger sections, reflecting

the disposition of the armies at the start of the

battle.

The two small parcels associated with Fortress

Rosecrans are located southeast of the remainder

of the park. Redoubt Brannan is on West College

Street where it crosses Stones River; Lunette

Palmer/Lunette Thomas/Curtain Wall No. 2 are

farther south near the Old Fort Golf Course and

the commercial development along Tennessee

Highway 96 west of downtown Murfreesboro.

Summary of Findings

This CLR generally concurs with the significance

evaluation of existing National Register

documentation for Stones River National

Battlefield regarding the areas, criteria, and period

of significance for the property. Based on a

comparative analysis of historic and existing

conditions associated with the battlefield, the

CLR suggests that the majority of the park

possesses sufficient integrity to either the Civil

War battle sub-period of significance, or the early

park development sub-period of significance, to

convey its important associations to the visitor.

Many of the battlefield’s historic cultural and

natural resources survive from one of these

periods of significance. Despite the fact that

changes within and around the park have

occurred to diminish aspects of its integrity, the

strong relationship between the military events of

the battle and the surviving features of the

landscape continue to be expressed in the

surviving fabric of the park.

One of the most significant threats to the integrity

of the park today is the extensive industrial,

commercial, and residential subdivision

development occurring along its boundary and

within its viewshed. Another threat to integrity is

the evolving character and composition of

vegetative communities. Although National

Register Bulletin 40 recognizes that vegetation is

often a reversible condition that is one of the

more easily managed threats to battlefield

integrity, natural resource protection

considerations, viewshed protection, and the

constant management needs associated with the

control of invasive plant species render vegetative

scene restoration difficult at best. The CLR

focuses to the degree possible on enhancing

integrity by suggesting specific alternatives for

land cover where it will support the park’s new

Interpretive Plan.

This CLR supports the goals established by the

park and the region for managing and

interpreting Stones River National Battlefield. Of

primary importance is the ongoing desire to
INTRODUCTION

6 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

continue to enhance the legibility of 1863

landscape conditions, particularly in association

with a proposed change to the tour road and the

preparation of a new Interpretive Plan. The

treatment plan developed as part of this CLR

addresses these goals by making

recommendations regarding changes in land

cover (removal of non-contributing woodland,

rehabilitation of historic woodlands, and reestablishment of historic field and fencing

patterns), protection and rehabilitation strategies

for important natural resources such as the cedar

glades and riparian buffer areas, as well as

identification of missing buildings and structures,

and guidelines for managing and maintaining

special resources such as Civil War earthworks.

The treatment plan recommends that the overall

approach to landscape treatment should be

rehabilitation. This approach affords the park

the opportunity to update and enhance its

interpretive program and make changes to land

cover while continuing to protect resources and

systems associated with the period of significance.

The overarching concept for cultural landscape

treatment at Stones River is to balance the

protection and enhancement of the battlefield’s

historic integrity with contemporary park visitor

access and interpretation responsibilities and

sustainable land management practices. Many of

the specific landscape treatment actions are

intended to help convey the story of the battle by

reinstating historic conditions or establishing aids

to interpreting missing battle features. The

concept also takes into consideration

contemporary land ownership issues, which

include a park composed of numerous

noncontiguous parcels linked by public road

corridors and edged by developments that are

often inconsistent with the character of the

landscape at the time of the battle. Finally, the

concept also recognizes the value of post-battle

commemoration, and seeks to reconcile

commemorative features with features that relate

directly to the battle.

The CLR also spells out the overarching

approach to treatment for each of the landscape

characteristics considered within the document:

spatial organization; natural systems and features;

vegetation; circulation; buildings and structures;

views; small-scale features; and archeological

resources including earthworks. The CLR also

addresses other related landscape issues such as

new design and construction, and opportunities

for pursuing partnerships with local entities.

Recommendations related to the various

landscape issues are developed from the overall

treatment approach. Specific projects for

implementation of the treatment plan have also

been defined. The CLR team has identified

seventeen implementation projects that the park

can utilize in securing funding for and

implementing various landscape treatment

recommendations. These projects include the

following:

1. Remove invasive plants from cedar glade

communities

2. Rehabilitate cedar brake and dense cedar

woodland communities in areas of

interpretive value

3. Enhance and expand native warm-season

grass fields and meadows

4. Establish filter strips in association with crop

exhibits, roads, parking areas, and trails

5. Remove non-contributing woodland

vegetation

6. Manage mixed woodlands to promote a

combination of natural and cultural resource

values

7. Update invasive plant species control plans

8. Establish screen plantings in specific

locations to manage views

9. Protect the Pioneer Brigade Earthworks, and

manage woodland environs to preserve

associated resources

10. Mark and interpret the locations of historic

buildings and structures missing from the

battlefield landscape

11. Restore fencelines missing from the battlefield

landscape

12. Consider alternatives for establishing and

maintaining non-historic fencelines,

controlled visitor access points, and linear

connections between park units
INTRODUCTION

National Park Service 7

13. Rehabilitate portions of historic Van Cleve

Lane

14. Convert a portion of the tour road to a

pedestrian trail that connects with the

proposed new tour route

15. Establish design guidelines for contemporary

park features, such as site furnishings

16. Enhance connections between

noncontiguous park units and parcels

Recommendations for

Further Research

This CLR recommends that a former African

American community that once edged Van Cleve

Lane within the park be interpreted to the public.

This effort would require conducting additional

research and investigation into the community.

Archeological investigation of the missing

buildings that are known to have been present at

the time of the battle—McFadden Farmstead, Toll

House, Block House, and cabins west of Van

Cleve Lane, along Old Nashville Pike, and on the

site of General Rosecrans’s Headquarters—are

warranted given their interpretive value to the

park.
INTRODUCTION

8 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
National Park Service 9

Site History

2. Anne Wilson Willett, A History of the Stones River

National Military Park, Thesis for Master of Arts

degree (Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Middle

Tennessee State College), August 1958, 10.

3. Carlton C. Sims, ed. A History of Rutherford County

(Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Rutherford Courier,

1947), 11.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid., 16.

6. Ibid., 25.

7. Sean M. Styles, with Miranda Fraley, Mary O.

Ratcliffe, and Robert W. Blythe, eds. Stones River

National Battlefield Historic Resource Study

(Atlanta, Georgia: Cultural Resources Division,

Southeast Regional Office, National Park Service,

2004), 17.

8. Rutherford County. History of Tennessee (Chicago

and Nashville: The Goodspeed Publishing Company,

1887), 815.

Development of the Site

prior to the Battle

The earliest occupants of the middle Tennessee

region were likely the Native Americans known

as Mound Builders. Prior to the arrival of

European settlers, Shawnees lived along the

Cumberland River in middle Tennessee, but were

driven out by Cherokees and Chickasaws.2 Many

battles occurred among the Native American

tribes in the region. The area was eventually

regarded as a common hunting ground with no

single tribe settling there.

The middle Tennessee region remained unsettled

by European colonists until approximately the

1760s, but was visited by explorers, hunters,

trappers, and fur traders prior to that time. A

trading post was established at French Lick (later

Nashville) in 1710, and the first permanent

settlement was established in the Nashville area

in 1779–1780. The settlement survived despite

attacks by Native Americans on the unguarded

settlers. In 1783, Davidson County was created by

an act of the legislature of North Carolina,

incorporating what was later to become

Rutherford County. Attempts to establish

permanent settlements in the county were

initially unsuccessful because of hostile Native

Americans, although the area had been explored

by non-native hunters as early as 1767.3

 The first

permanent settlement in the county was

probably established on the upper banks of

Stones River in 1797.4

In 1786 forty grants of land were made in the

Stones River tract, many in return for military

service, although some recipients never settled

on or even visited the land they had been

granted. North Carolina issued titles to land in

the area well after that state ceded its claim and

after Tennessee became the sixteenth state in the

Union on June 1, 1796. In 1795, signing of

Pinckney’s Treaty ended Spanish attempts to

control the Mississippi River and Spanish

encouragement of Native American attacks on

settlers in the region ended as well, further

encouraging additional settlement. Among the

earliest settlers in the area of Stones River were

Samuel Wilson, who was probably granted land

by North Carolina as a result of service in the

army, and Nimrod Menifee, who owned the land

that was to become the site of the national

cemetery.5

 After 1805, when treaties were signed

with the Cherokee, increased settlement

occurred in middle Tennessee.

Rutherford County was organized by the

Tennessee General Assembly on October 25,

1803. The county was named in honor of General

Griffith Rutherford, a Revolutionary War hero

who also fought Native Americans within the

region.6 By 1836, the boundaries of the county

were amended to reach their present extent.7 The

Rutherford County seat remained at Jefferson,

between the forks of the Stones River, until 1812

when it was moved to Murfreesboro. The town

was first named Cannonsburg after Tennessee

governor Newton Cannon, and renamed

Murfreesboro after Captain Matthew Murfree

on November 19, 1811.8 Murfreesboro was

incorporated in 1817 and served as the capital of

Tennessee from 1819 until 1826. At that time,

Nashville was established as the state capital

because of its favorable location on the

Cumberland River.

To facilitate commerce, the state of Tennessee

had constructed several macadamized roads in
SITE HISTORY

10 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

9. Styles, 26. See also Edward C. Annable, Jr., A History

of the Roads of Rutherford County, Tennessee,

1804–1878: Historic Road Research, and Its

Applications for Historic Resource Surveys and Local

History (Thesis for Master of Arts degree, Middle

Tennessee State University), 159–162.

10. Styles, 28, citing the United States Bureau of Census,

Population of the United States in 1860: Compiled

from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864),

136, 459.

11. Anne Willett, 24, citing Carter Patten, A Tennessee

Chronicle (Chattanooga, Tennessee: 1953), 185.

12. Robert Selph Henry, ed., As They Saw Forrest

(Jackson, Tennessee: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1946),

40.

the 1830s, including the Nashville, Murfreesboro

and Shelbyville Turnpike (referred to as the

Nashville Pike). The state roads had a convex

roadbed overlain with crushed stone, topped

with stone dust, and compacted with water; the

Nashville, Murfreesboro and Shelbyville

Turnpike had a graded roadbed at least thirty feet

wide. The turnpike had a toll gate every five

miles, with toll houses for the gatekeepers who

collected fees from persons using the road. The

turnpike and its related structures were

completed by 1842, providing a high quality road

that was later used by military forces for

transport of supplies.9

The first railroad in the state, the Nashville &

Chattanooga, was chartered in 1845 and began

service from Nashville to Murfreesboro on

July 4, 1851. The line was completed to

Chattanooga in February 1854. The railroad

linked middle Tennessee with the ports of

Charleston and Savannah, as well as the Ohio

River at Louisville, Kentucky, and thus the

Midwest. A workforce of slaves owned by the

Nashville & Chattanooga, together with Irish

immigrant labor, completed construction of the

railroad through Rutherford County. The lines of

the Western Union Telegraph Company followed

the railroad, and telegraph operators had offices

at intervals along the rail system. During the Civil

War, federal forces sought to control the

Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad as part of a

campaign to capture Confederate-held

Chattanooga. Both armies used the telegraph for

communications, and during the war these lines

were vulnerable to attack by cavalry patrols,

which intercepted dispatches and cut lines in

enemy-held territory.

In 1860, the population of Rutherford County

was 27,918 persons, of whom nearly half were

slaves. Tennessee was the second largest corn

producing region in the Confederacy east of the

Mississippi River, and Rutherford County alone

provided more than a million and a half bushels

of corn annually. The county also provided

150,401 bushels of wheat each year; more than

fifty tons of sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes in

1860; and was also significant for production of

hogs, horses, and mules.10 The site of Stones

River National Battlefield was occupied by

scattered farms and woodlands including eastern

red cedar growing in dense thickets or “cedar

brakes.” Each farm typically consisted of a

farmhouse, barn, and outbuildings including

corn cribs and shelters for cotton gins.

Woodland boundaries were rectilinear and

bordered by rail fences and cultivated fields of

corn or cotton. The ground on the battlefield

consists of shallow soils overlaying limestone

and shale bedrock, pitted with sinkholes caused

by surface and underground water sources

dissolving the limestone. These geological

features would prove to be significant in the

Battle of Stones River.

As conflict loomed and other states seceded

from the Union, secession meetings were held in

Tennessee. In a referendum on February 9, 1861,

the state voted against secession.11 Unlike east

Tennessee, where pro-Union sentiment was

strong, west and middle Tennessee, including

Rutherford County, initially supported slavery

but wanted to remain neutral and part of the

Union. However, as pressure increased to

support the Union cause, in a referendum on

June 8, 1861, Tennessee voted to secede—the last

state in the Union to do so.

In its central position within the state,

Rutherford County provided a strategic location

for control of roads, railroads, and access to the

food production of Tennessee. The Union army

occupied Murfreesboro from February through

September 1862, except for a period of two days

when General Nathan Bedford Forrest and 1,400

Confederate cavalry captured and held the

Union garrison in mid-July.12 In October, the

Union army concentrated at Nashville and the

Confederates moved north from Chattanooga to

Murfreesboro.
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 11

13. Styles, 24. Soon after the Battle of Stones River, the

14th Corps was renamed the Army of the

Cumberland. At that time, each wing became a

corps. Citing Peter Cozzens, No Better Place to Die:

The Battle of Stones River (Urbana, Illinois:

University of Illinois Press, 1991), 14 –15.

14. Styles, 24.

15. The synposis of the battle history is adapted from

that presented in the Historic Resource Study for

Stones River National Battlefield. Styles references

the following sources of information relative to the

campaign: Charles M. Spearman, The Battle of

Stones River; Peter Cozzens; No Better Place to Die:

The Battle of Stones River; from the Confederate

perspective: Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee:

A Military History; Thomas L. Connelly, Autumn of

Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862 –1865; from

the Union perspective: Thomas B. Van Horne,

History of the Army of the Cumberland: Its

Organization, Campaigns, and Battles and William

Bickham’s Rosecrans’ Campaign with the Fourteenth

Army Corps, or the Army of the Cumberland: A

Narrative of Personal Observations . . . with Official

Reports of the Battle of Stone River. Styles notes the

limitations of the latter two documents and

indicates the need for a new study of the Army of

the Cumberland. Such a study, Days of Glory: The

Army of the Cumberland, 1861–1865, by Larry

Daniel, was published in 2004.

16. Styles, 24. Citing Thomas L. Connelly, Autumn of

Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862 –1865 (Baton

Rouge, Lousiana: Louisiana State University Press,

1971), 41.

The Battle of Stones

River, December 31, 1862,

to January 2, 1863

Murfreesboro in late 1862 was the base of

operations for the Army of Tennessee, the

Confederacy’s principal western army,

commanded by General Braxton Bragg. From

Murfreesboro, the Confederate cavalry staged

raids against Union supply lines in Tennessee,

Kentucky, and Alabama. The proximity of

Murfreesboro to Nashville, controlled by Union

forces and used as a forward supply depot, made

control of Murfreesboro essential to the Federal

14th Army Corps.13 Control of the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad was necessary to supply

Union forces in a campaign to take Chattanooga.

In addition to practical considerations, the

Union was anxious for a military victory to boost

morale after the disappointing Maryland and

Kentucky campaigns. A demoralizing defeat at

Fredericksburg, Virginia, in mid-December

amplified the need for military success. President

Abraham Lincoln also hoped a victory in late

1862 would make his recently issued

Emancipation Proclamation an effective tool for

ending the possibility of foreign recognition and

support of the Confederacy.

On October 30, 1862, Major General William S.

Rosecrans assumed command of the Union

forces in Bowling Green, Kentucky, sixty miles

north of Nashville. In response to the proximity

of the Army of Tennessee to Nashville, Rosecrans

moved the Union army to the Tennessee capital

in early November. He then reorganized his

force into three wings, commanded by Major

Generals Thomas L. Crittenden, Alexander M.

McCook, and George H. Thomas.14 On

December 26, Rosecrans sent the three wings of

his army along different routes toward the

Confederate army: Thomas toward Franklin,

McCook toward Nolensville, and Crittenden

toward Murfreesboro.15

Bragg had spent the fall of 1862 foraging the

region around Murfreesboro for supplies and

recruiting troops, with divisions of the Army of

Tennessee billeted in Murfreesboro and

surrounding towns. The army’s cavalry was

organized in commands under Brigadier

Generals Nathan B. Forrest and John H. Morgan.

Forrest’s troops had attacked the Mobile & Ohio

Railroad, which supplied Brigadier General

Ulysses S. Grant’s army in Mississippi, and

Morgan’s troops attacked the Louisville &

Nashville in Kentucky, which supplied General

Rosecrans’s army in Nashville. A third of the

cavalry remained under Brigadier General Joe

Wheeler for picket duty. Bragg’s lack of concern

about the threat of a Union offensive led to

Major General Carter Stevenson’s division being

detached from the Army of Tennessee and sent

to Vicksburg.16 Stevenson’s departure and the

absence of Forrest’s and Morgan’s forces

prompted Rosecrans to move against the

weakened Confederates. It took four days for the

entire Union army to unite west of

Murfreesboro, delayed by cavalry resistance and

rain, sleet, fog, and mud.

Both Bragg and Rosecrans chose to attack the

right flank of the enemy and cut off their supply

line and escape route. Rosecrans’s plan called for

Crittenden’s wing to leave its position on the

west bank, ford Stones River, and attack Bragg’s

right the following morning. Rosecrans deployed

the wings of McCook and Thomas on the west
SITE HISTORY

12 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

FIGURE 1. Troops in General Samuel Beatty’s Union brigade repel attacking Confederates at about noon on the first day

of the battle, in this drawing by Private Alfred E. Mathews of the 31st Ohio Volunteers.

17. Ibid., 29. Citing Connelly, 51–54.

18. Sam Seay, First Tennessee Infantry. Quoted in “The

Union Approach,” Stones River National Battlefield

internet site, History & Culture section, http://

www.nps.gov/stri/

bank of the river, on his right and center

respectively. Bragg had the same plan of attack,

calling upon General John C. Breckinridge’s

Division to hold his right flank on the river’s east

bank, while assaulting with Lieutenant William

Hardee’s Corps on the left.17

On the evening of December 30, the military

bands of both armies began to play. As described

by a soldier present at the battle:

The still winter night carried their strains to

great distance. At every pause on our side, far

away could be heard the military bands of the

other. Finally one of them struck up “Home

Sweet Home.” As if by common consent, all

other airs ceased, and the bands of both

armies as far as the ear could reach, joined in

the refrain. Who knows how many hearts

were bold next day by reason of that air?18

At dawn on December 31, 1862, Bragg’s troops

stormed across the fields to attack the Union

right flank, hoping to drive the Union forces

back to the river while cutting off their main

supply routes at the Nashville Pike and the

Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The Union

forces were cooking breakfast when the

Confederate forces swept in. Union commanders

tried to halt and resist but the attack was too

powerful. The rocky ground and cedar forests

blunted the assault to some extent, although the

Army of the Cumberland’s right flank was in

shambles by 8:00 a.m. Confederate units to the

north began attacking the enemy in their front, to

hold the Union units in place as the flanking

attack swept up behind them. General Philip

Sheridan’s troops were able to repulse the first

enemy attack, but had to reposition themselves

to maintain their escape routes. Confederate

troops assaulted the federals without

coordination, with communication made

difficult by the terrain. With great losses, the

Union forces slowed the Confederate assault.

The terrible carnage among the rocks and trees

of this area prompted soldiers to name it “the

Slaughter Pen.”

General Rosecrans cancelled the attack across

the river and brought his reserve troops into the

fight. With General George Thomas, Rosecrans

rallied fleeing troops and formed a new line

backed by artillery along the Nashville Pike. The

horseshoe shaped line provided better
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 13

FIGURE 2. Union cavalry in pursuit during the battle, from a painting by William T. Trego.

19. Styles, 33–34.

20. Ibid.

communication, and the Union cannon covered

the open fields between the cedars and the road.

The woods and rocky ground helped the Union.

Confederate organization fell apart during the

struggle through the cedars, and the Confederate

artillery was unable to penetrate the forest with

its dense growth and uneven terrain. As night

approached, the Union army retained control of

the turnpike, its lifeline to Nashville, with access

to supplies to continue the fight.

The Round Forest, located between the

Nashville Pike and Stones River, anchored the

left of the Union line. At 10:00 a.m. on December

31, General James Chalmers’ forces advanced

across the fields in front of General William B.

Hazen’s men. The partially-burned Cowan

house and outbuildings forced Chalmers’ men to

split just before they came within range, and

General Chalmers was wounded as his line

wavered and broke. Despite a following attack by

General Daniel Donelson’s Brigade through

Cruft’s Brigade south of the pike, Hazen’s

Brigade was able to hold to the north. During the

afternoon of December 31, Colonel Hazen’s

Brigade held against four Confederate attacks

and provided an anchor for the Nashville Pike

line of supply to the Union forces. Hazen’s

Brigade was the only Union unit not to retreat on

that day, but the carnage in this fighting

prompted soldiers to name the field Hell’s Half

Acre.19

After spending January 1, 1863, reorganizing and

caring for the wounded, the two armies engaged

again on the afternoon of January 2. General

Breckinridge attacked General Horatio Van

Cleve’s Division on a hill overlooking

McFadden’s Ford on the east side of the river at

4:00 p.m. The Confederate forces took the hill

and continued on towards the ford, but came

within range of fifty-seven Union cannon massed

on the west side of the Stones River. In forty-five

minutes more than 1,800 Confederates were

killed or wounded, and the Union counterattack

that followed pushed Breckinridge’s Division

back to Wayne’s Hill.20

Beginning on January 1 and continuing to

January 3 or 4, the Union Pioneer Brigade dug

earthworks parallel to the Nashville Pike for the

Chicago Board of Trade Battery and rebuilt the
SITE HISTORY

14 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

21. Battle Reports, December 26, 1862, to January 5,

1863. Battle Report No. 10, Report of Capt. James

St. Clair Mortor, U.S. Engineers, commanding

Pioneer Brigade. O.R., Series I, vol. XX, pt. I, sec. 29.

22. Styles, 34, Citing Charles M. Spearman, The Battle of

Stones River (Columbus, Ohio: Blue & Gray

Enterprises, Inc., 1993), 27; Cozzens, 201; casualties

from Official Records, vol. XX, 215, 261.

trestle over the river that the Confederates had

destroyed.21 With the approach of Union

reinforcements, the Army of Tennessee withdrew

to the Duck River, twenty-five miles to the south,

on the evening of January 3, 1863. On January 5,

the Union army marched into Murfreesboro.

The Battle of Stones River was one of the

bloodiest of the war: the Confederate casualties

numbered 10,266 of the 37,700 engaged, and the

Union casualties were 13,259 of the 43,400

present. In all, more than 3,000 were killed and

nearly 16,000 were wounded; some of the

wounded spent as many as seven days on the

field before help could reach them.22 The Army

of Tennessee lost control of the rich farmland of

middle Tennessee, which would now be available

to support the Union, and dissent was generated

within its command.

Landscape Character: 1863

Refer to the Period Plan for 1863 (Fig. 3). Prior to

the Battle of Stones River, the landscape over

which the battle occurred was characterized by

irregularly ordered stands of cedar forest or

“cedar brakes,” mixed stands of cedars and

hardwoods, and open agricultural fields utilized

to grow primarily corn, cotton, and hay, or as

pastures for livestock. Farmsteads dotted the

landscape in a dispersed pattern; many were

sited along the major road corridors in existence

at the time. Farmsteads typically consisted of a

dwelling house, a small grouping of outbuildings

nearby, and fenced crop fields. At least one of the

local farmsteads is known to have included a

peach orchard in close proximity to the Nashville

Pike.

The primary circulation corridors that traversed

the landscape in the mid-nineteenth century

included the Nashville Pike and the Nashville

and Chattanooga Railroad tracks. The lesser

roads included McFadden’s Lane and the

Wilkinson Pike. A ford crossing of Stones River

existed north of the McFadden Farm near the

end of McFadden’s Lane. Post and rail fences

lined the Nashville Pike, a toll house and gate

stood along the pike, and a block house was

located along the rail line. Other important

landscape features present at the time of the

battle included bridges across Stones River: one

for the Nashville Pike and one for the rail line.

Local industries, most on a very small scale,

included brick plants, cotton processing, and

mills that relied on the water power generated by

Stones River.

The site of General Rosecrans’s Headquarters

was a small cabin along the Nashville Pike. The

cabin was surrounded by woods. In the decades

after the war, the cabin was apparently used as a

church by an African American congregation.

The site of General Bragg’s Headquarters was an

open field just south of the location where the

Nashville Pike crossed over the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad. Trees and other

vegetation lined Stones River just northeast of

the site. The headquarters likely occupied a tent

or temporary building on the site.

The three-day battle that was waged across the

agricultural landscape was heavily influenced by

the local terrain and land cover. Because the

battle occurred in winter, there were no crops

growing; however, it is likely that corn and cotton

stalks remained standing in the fields.

Outcroppings of limestone, dense stands of

cedar trees, and knolls with commanding views

played key roles in the tactics and outcome of the

battle. The dense cedar brakes and limestone

outcroppings in the vicinity of present-day

Wilkinson Pike and Van Cleve Lane blunted the

initial Confederate attack on the Union forces,

and later slowed the Confederates as they

attempted to attack again across the Wilkinson

Pike. Union occupation of the high ground

overlooking the western banks of Stones River

near the McFadden Farm was another key factor

in the Union deflection of Confederate attack.

The Battle of Stones River left a lasting

impression on the local landscape. Artillery fire

damaged, denuded, and killed many of the trees

within the woodland areas. Both armies

appropriated features of local farmsteads for use,

particularly the wooden rail fences, which would

have been used for firewood. Existing woodland

was also likely cut over for the same purpose.

During the later Battle of the Cedars, the soldiers

used rail fences and woodland trees for

SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 17

FIGURE 4. Workmen repair the Nashville & Chattanooga

Railroad near Murfreesboro after the battle, 1863.

23. Gavin and Styles, 8-5.

24. Styles, 34. Styles notes that the design of the fort

was probably based on the Treatise on Field

Fortifications, written by Dennis Hart Mahan, the

former commandant of West Point. (Citing O. R.,

Series I, Vol. XXIII, pt. II, 81.)

25. Quoted by Edward C. Bearss, The History of Fortress

Rosecrans (Stones River National Military Park,

1960), Chapter 1: 3, citing O.R., Series I, Vol. XXIII,

pt. II, 154.

26. Styles, 36. Citing O. R., Series I, Vol. XLIX, pt. II, 502;

Edwin C. Bearss, The History of Fortress Rosecrans

(Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1960), 4.

temporary protective field cover. Military

personnel appropriated food stores from

residents’ barns and storage structures. After the

battle, the many dead are known to have been

buried on the battlefield, leaving the local

landscape riddled with the burial trenches

holding more than 3,000 corpses. Finally, soon

after the battle, as a direct result of the

engagement, the Hazen Brigade Monument was

erected on the high ground overlooking the rail

line and near the Nashville Pike, standing as a

constant reminder of the events of December 31,

1862–January 2, 1863.

Union Occupation and

Reconstruction

Following the battle, the Army of the

Cumberland was established as an “immovable

defensive force,” and Union forces, with the help

of former slaves, constructed Fortress

Rosecrans, an earthen fortification that served

as a supply depot and base of occupation for the

Union for the duration of the war.23 This large

enclosed earthen fortification was designed by

James St. Clair Morton, Chief of Engineers of

the Army of the Cumberland, and was intended

to provide a forward supply depot and a refuge

in case of a future defeat.24

Fortress Rosecrans was sited atop several low

hills for the defense of the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad, and encompassed the

river crossings of both the railroad and the

Nashville Pike. (Raids by Confederate cavalry

often targeted bridges, the destruction of which

offered an easier way to disrupt supply lines than

attacks along the route.) Construction of

Fortress Rosecrans began on January 23, 1863.

Union troops worked seven days a week on the

earthworks from January to April 1863. General

Rosecrans reported in March, “Our depots and

defenses are being pushed forward here with

almost 4,000 men daily at work.”25 A railroad

spur 1,200 feet long and crossing the Nashville

Pike was built within the fortress to help supply

the troops building the fortress; the first supply

train arrived in February 1863.

As completed by the end of April 1863, the

earthworks measured 1,250 yards from north to

south and 1,070 yards east to west, creating an

enclosure of about 200 acres surrounded by a

line of curtain walls, lunettes, and rifle pits. Both

the railroad and the pike bisected the fort, with

openings in the fortress walls to allow passage on

these arteries.26 Trees and brush around the fort

were cleared and ditches constructed fronting

the lunettes and curtain walls. Four earthwork

redoubts—each constructed on a hill and

containing artillery, a powder magazine, and a

wooden blockhouse—were intended as a last

line of defense in case the lunettes were overrun.

One of these, Redoubt Brannan, was built across

the Nashville Pike to guard the rail and road

bridges. The smaller section of the fortress,

northwest of Stones River, encircled four

sawmills along the river and two railroad freight

depots. The larger section of the fortress,

southeast of Stones River, contained the bulk of

the warehouses and barracks, which were

located near the railroad for easy supply.
SITE HISTORY

18 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

27. Ibid., 38. Citing Daniel A. Brown, Marked for Future

Generations: The Hazen Brigade Monument 1863–

1929 (Murfreesboro, Tennessee: National Park

Service, 1985), 7–8.

During the summer of 1863, members of the

Hazen Brigade were detailed to construct a

monument to their unit’s heroism at Stones

River. The site selected for the monument was an

area in the Round Forest containing the graves of

forty-five of the brigade’s fallen. Lieutenant

Edward Crebbin of the Ninth Indiana Volunteers

supervised construction of the monument from

June to November 1863.27 Crebbin’s crew was

threatened by the appearance of Confederate

cavalry in October 1863. The Union Army of the

Cumberland was besieged within Chattanooga,

and Wheeler’s Confederate command had been

ordered to break the railroad line at

Murfreesboro, but the proximity of Fortress

Rosecrans discouraged an assault.

The Hazen Brigade Monument consisted of an

eleven foot tall square limestone mass. The

monument and adjacent cemetery were enclosed

by a four foot tall, dry laid stone wall, with access

through three steps on the south side. In November

1863, the 115th Ohio Regiment was transferred to

Murfreesboro. Two experienced stonecutters from

the regiment, Sergeant Daniel C. Miller and Private

Christian Bauhoff, were employed to inscribe the

monument during the spring of 1864.28

28. Ibid., 39. Citing Brown, 11–19.

FIGURE 5. The Hazen Brigade Monument, shortly after its construction.
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 19

By June 1863, General Rosecrans began to move

troops forward in the campaign to capture

Chattanooga. With the fortress completed, its

defense was left to a few thousand convalescent

troops, supported by other army reserve

divisions throughout the summer and fall.

Throughout the Tullahoma and Chattanooga

campaigns, Fortress Rosecrans served as a

critical link in the supply chain for the Union

army.

Following the battle of Chickamauga on

September 19 and 20, the Confederate army

pushed forward toward Chattanooga. With their

control of middle Tennessee threatened, Union

reinforcements were sent by train from Nashville

to supplement the defense of Fortress Rosecrans.

The troops arrived at the fortress on the morning

of October 5. Seeing the Union defensive

strength of the fortress, Confederate cavalry

under Major General Wheeler instead attacked

and destroyed the railroad bridge on the Middle

Fork of Stones River, about three miles south of

Murfreesboro.

Following the Battle of Misionary Ridge at

Chattanooga, Tennessee, on November 25, 1863,

the main Confederate army withdrew to Georgia.

Fortress Rosecrans remained a vital link in the

Union supply chain as General Sherman began

the campaign through Georgia in 1864.29

On March 29, 1864, General Horatio Van Cleve

was asked to select a site for the founding of a

national cemetery.30 Van Cleve detached Captain

John A. Means of the 115th Ohio for duty as a

topographical engineer. Means oversaw the

cemetery’s layout from June 2, 1864, until his

discharge on April 25, 1865.31 The site of the

National Cemetery was located between the

Nashville Pike and the Nashville & Chattanooga

Railroad, on a slight rise where Union artillery

had repulsed Confederate attacks on the

afternoon of December 31, 1862. The burials in

the National Cemetery were arranged in a

trapezoidal pattern centered on a gravel carriage

path leading to a square with a flapole.

29. Bearss, Chapter 2: 10.

30. Styles, 39. Citing Brown, 19.

31. Ibid. Report of Chaplain William Earnshaw to Brevet

Major General J.L. Donaldson, Chief Quartermaster

of the Department of Tennessee, October 5, 1866,

229.

Fortress Rosecrans again showed its importance

when General Hood’s Confederate Army of

Tennessee invaded middle Tennessee from

Alabama in November 1864, with the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad as its target. A

Confederate force of about 1,600 men advanced

to within six miles of Murfreesboro on

December 2. But with several thousand Union

troops encamped at Fortress Rosecrans, a direct

assault was not possible. On December 5, the

Confederates attacked Union defenses along the

Nashville Pike at Overall Creek, about four miles

northwest of the fortress. Union troops

dispatched from Fortress Rosecrans fought the

Confederate raiders in an engagement known as

the Battle of the Cedars on December 7. Most of

the fighting occurred several miles west of the

fortress where the Wilkinson Pike crosses

Overall Creek. Meanwhile, the main

Confederate force was attempting to overcome

the Union defenders of Nashville. When news of

the destruction of the Army of Tennessee at

Nashville reached the Confederate forces near

Murfreesboro on December 16, they were forced

to withdraw, ultimately retreating back to

Alabama. By December 24, 1864, the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad was again open for Union

supply trains between Nashville and

Murfreesboro.32

After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in

Virginia, on April 9, 1865, the remnants of the

Army of Tennessee in North Carolina

surrendered in May 1865. At that time, most of

the Union occupation forces at Fortress

Rosecrans were mustered out of service and

Chaplain William Earnshaw was designated to

oversee the completion of Stones River National

Cemetery. The Union dead buried throughout

middle Tennessee were reinterred at the

cemetery, while many of the Confederate dead

remained buried where they had been interred,

or were removed to local family plots.

Many Confederate sympathizers had moved

south after the defeat at Stones River. After the

war, veterans and their families returned to their

homes and farms in Rutherford County.

Buildings that had been abandoned or

demolished during the fighting or subsequent

Union occupation were salvaged for lumber.

When the Union occupation troops left in 1866,

32. Bearss, Chapter 7: 17.
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20 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

the buildings of Fortress Rosecrans were sold at

auction and the earthworks left to continue to

erode or to be used as fill in construction.33

Fortress Rosecrans Landscape Character:

1863

Refer to the Fortress Rosecrans Period Plan for

1863 (Fig. 6). Fortress Rosecrans, a series of

earthen fortifications and abatis enclosing a

central supply depot, was constructed east of the

battlefield in 1863 after the Battle of Stones River.

Beginning on January 23, 1863, federal troops

occupied Murfreesboro and adjacent lands and

constructed the fortress to protect the two

important local bridge crossings of Stones River

along the Nashville Pike and the rail line, and

supplies stored within the large fortress, from

Confederate attack. Work on the fortress

continued for six months, and included rock

blasting and earth moving.

Fortress Rosecrans extended to either side of

Stones River, and measured 1,250 yards from

north to south and 1,070 yards from east to west.

It included four redoubts, or rectangular

defensive structures, and nine lunettes, or angled

forms, connected by linear systems (curtain

walls) of earthworks. The lunettes and curtain

walls included traverses behind their walls, and

were fitted with embrasures, or openings,

through which the defenders could fire their

cannon. Gabions (earth filled baskets) were

placed outside the embrasures for extra

protection against incoming artillery fire.

Artillery emplacements were sited near the

breaks in the fortification where the rail line and

Wilkinson Pike extended into the fortress. The

redoubts, sited on the hills, were supported by

powder magazines and blockhouses.

The landscape in the vicinity of the fortification

was heavily impacted by the earth moving

associated with establishment of the system of

parapet walls, ditches, fields-of-fire, glacis,

traverses, and redoubts. The troops cleared trees

within 1,000 yards of the fortification to establish

a clear and unobstructed field of fire for the

artillery. Felled trees were utilized to form abatis,

or obstructions to slow attackers. The troops

also used the trees to construct housing and

necessary military structures. Local circulation

systems were disrupted as well. The Wilkinson

Pike was terminated at the walls of the

fortification, blocking the connection to

Murfreesboro.

33. Lenard Brown, “Fortress Rosecrans: A History, 1865 –

1990,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 50, no. 3

(1991), 139.

SITE HISTORY

22 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 23

Continued Agricultural

Use of the Site and Early

Commemoration

In 1878, four structures standing on the battlefield

at the time of the battle—the Burris, Gresham,

Harding, and Jenkins houses—were still present.

Other houses on the battlefield included the

Hord House, McCullough House, Blanton

House, James House, and MacGregor House. In

addition, dwellings existed along McFadden

Lane and the Wilkinson Pike. A cabin along the

Nashville Pike that had served as General

Rosecrans’s headquarters during the battle had

become an African American church by that

date.34

After the battle, a total of 11,933 acres of land in

Rutherford County was either abandoned by its

owners or confiscated by the federal government

when the owners left voluntarily to aid the

Confederacy. During the war this land was

distributed to freedmen, but when President

Andrew Johnson pardoned former Confederates

after the war much of the land was returned to its

previous owners and was used for farming corn

and cotton. Most of the Stones River battlefield

remained in private hands from the conclusion

of the battle in 1863 until 1928, when the War

Department began to acquire land to establish a

battlefield park.

The first established unit of what would become

the national cemetery system was the soldiers’

cemetery at Gettysburg, laid out by the State of

Pennsylvania in 1863. On Christmas Day 1863,

Major General George H. Thomas ordered the

establishment of a national cemetery at

Chattanooga. Orders to establish a national

cemetery at Stones River were issued in 1864.

Work at the site began in June 1865 with

interments beginning in October of that year.

Work on the cemetery was mainly completed by

1869.

In 1867, the federal government established

twenty-six additional national cemeteries on or

34. Styles, 56. The Historic Resource Study cites the D.G.

Beers & Company Map of Rutherford County,

Tennessee from New and Actual Surveys. (Compiled

and Published by D.G. Beers & Company,

Philadelphia, 1878.). See Fig. 11.

FIGURE 8. Farmers on the battlefield in the 1890s.

FIGURE 7. The Nashville Pike near the Stones River

National Cemetery, circa 1890s.

FIGURE 9. The Hazen Brigade Monument, circa 1890s.
SITE HISTORY

24 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

FIGURE 10. Interpretive sign on the battlefield, circa 1890s.

35. Ibid., 63. Citing Mabel Pittard, Rutherford County

(Memphis. Tennnessee: Memphis State University

Press, 1984), 96; John C. Spence, Annals of

Rutherford County 2 (Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

Rutherford County Historical Society, 1991), 257–58;

Murfreesboro Monitor, 7 December 1867 and 18

June 1874.

36. Wallace E. Davies, Patriotism on Parade: the Story of

Veterans’ and Hereditary Organizations in America,

1783 –1900 (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard

University Press, 1955), 31 –35.

37. Styles, 60. Citing Foster, 50–54, 91.

38. James M. Mayo, War Memorials as Political

Landscape (New York: Preager Publishers, 1988),

256; McConnell, 213 –18; Foster, 79–87.

39. Styles, 62. Citing Ronald F. Lee, The Origin and

Evolution of the National Military Park Idea

(Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, Office of

Park Historic Preservation, 1973), 22–26; Davies, 28.

near Civil War battlefields. The national

cemeteries became central to memorial services,

first with the holiday known as Decoration Day,

which initially recognized the Union dead, and

later when that holiday became Memorial Day.

During the war, Confederate dead were

commonly buried on the battlefield or in a

nearby cemetery, or were sent home in sealed

coffins. Unlike their Union counterparts, the

Confederates had no systematic method or the

resources for burying their dead. After the war,

local “ladies’ memorial associations” were

formed in the South, some originating in wartime

women’s aid societies that were organized to

perform hospital and relief work. At Stones River

following the war, local women formed the

Memorial Society of Murfreesboro to purchase

land for a cemetery. The Confederate cemetery

was located one-and-a-half miles south of

Murfreesboro, between the railroad and the

Shelbyville Pike. On April 3, 1873, the city of

Murfreesboro bought twenty acres of land for

the creation of Evergreen Cemetery with the

intention of moving the dead from the

Confederate cemetery.35

In the North, several veterans’ organizations

formed in the wake of the national cemetery

movement. The largest and most influential of

these was the Grand Army of the Republic

(GAR), founded in Springfield, Illinois, in 1866.

From 25,000 members in 1877, the organization

grew to 409,000 members by 1890 and offered

benefits including funeral services for members

and admission to old soldiers’ homes run by the

organization.36 Numerous other veterans’ groups

consisting of Union and Confederate veterans

also appeared in the decades following the war.

In the South, these included the Southern

Historical Society, founded in 1869 by veterans

including General Bragg; the Association of the

Army of Northern Virginia (AANV), founded in

1870; and the Association of the Army of

Tennessee, founded in 1871.37 Several local

women’s groups banded together to form the

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in

September 1894.

The movement toward sectional reconciliation

that marked the 1880s and 1890s, as expressed in

joint reunions of Union and Confederate

veterans, focused on battlefield bravery and

sacrifice.38 Confederates participated in reunions

after 1880, and in 1888, a watershed gathering of

both Union and Confederate veterans occurred

at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of

Gettysburg.

The GAR was involved in preservation of the

Gettysburg battlefield as a memorial to the men

who fought in the battle,39 and also in preserving

the battlefield of Vicksburg. The Societies of the

Army of the Cumberland and the Army of

Tennessee also urged the creation of parks, the

former to preserve the battlefields of

Chickamauga and Chattanooga and the latter to

preserve the battlefield of Shiloh. A bill was

submitted in early 1890 to create a national park

at Chickamauga and Chattanooga that would

mark the lines of both sides and interpret the

tactical aspects of the battles with strategically

placed observation towers. These two clashes

engaged troops from every southern state,

eighteen northern states, and involved famous
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 25

40. Ibid. Citing John C. Paige and Jerome A. Greene,

Administrative History of Chickamauga and

Chattanooga National Military Park (Denver:

National Park Service, Denver Service Center, 1983),

9–10; Lee, 28–32.

41. Ibid., 65. 42. Ibid.

large number of substantial wooden tablets,

marking points of special interest and

importance, such as headquarters of Federal and

Confederate commanders, McFadden’s Ford on

Stone’s River, places where distinguished officers

were slain, and many other important

localities.”42

In December 1895, Tennessee Congressman

James D. Richardson introduced legislation to

establish a national military park at Stones River.

The bill initially proposed the acquisition of

1,000 acres in addition to the existing national

cemetery, while later versions proposed

acquiring 3,100 acres. When these bills were not

secured, the association instead lobbied to have

markers erected on the field. Senate Bill 4818 and

House Resolution 18713, introduced in 1912, were

meant “to establish an accurate system of

markers on the battle field of Stones River, in

Tennessee.” The Commissioner of Chickamauga

and Chattanooga National Park, Charles H.

Grosvenor, argued against the establishment of a

park at Stones River, stating, “More than fifty

years have elapsed since the battle of Stone’s

generals as commanders on both sides. Realizing

the national significance of the battlefield,

Congress established a national military park at

Chickamauga and Chattanooga on August 18,

1890, two years after the Gettysburg reunion.

Congress later passed legislation that created

national military parks at Antietam in 1890,

Shiloh in 1894, Gettysburg in 1895, and Vicksburg

in 1899.40

The Stones River Battlefield and Park

Association, chartered on April 28, 1896,

included both Union and Confederate veterans.

The association secured options for the purchase

of property connected with the battle, reportedly

2,400 acres in January 1897, and 3,400 acres in

June of that year.41 Members erected wooden

signs to mark and interpret specific locations on

the battlefield. The secretary of the Stones River

Battlefield and Park Association wrote: “The

association has placed upon the battlefield a

FIGURE 11. Detail of “Map of Rutherford County, Tennessee” (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: D.G. Beers & Co., 1878). Van

Cleve Lane is shown as a dashed line connecting the Wilkinson Pike to the Nashville Pike.
SITE HISTORY

26 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

River and the marks, locations, earth works, or

whatever else there was there are entirely

obliterated. . . . The Commission is of the

opinion that the bill should not pass.”43

Creation of a park at Stones River was delayed

after the turn of the century because of

numerous requests for establishment of military

parks nationwide. The establishment of new

military parks was also postponed around 1902

until a survey of sites could be completed.44 The

commissions that oversaw the first four military

parks were phased out by the Sundry Civil Bill of

1912, and responsibility for all military parks was

shifted to the Secretary of War to administer

through the War Department. When legislation

in 1916 created the National Park Service, this

new agency had jurisdiction over national parks

and monuments within the Department of the

Interior but no authority over military parks.

After World War I, Congress authorized a survey

under the 1926 Act for the Study and

Investigation of Battlefields. This study classified

Stones River as a Class IIA battlefield worthy of

some kind of monument or marker, resulting in

the establishment of Stones River National

Military Park by Congress on March 3, 1927.45

Landscape Character: 1926

Refer to the Period Plan for 1926 (Fig. 12). After

the Civil War, the landscape associated with the

Stones River battlefield returned to agricultural

use, land owners returned to their farmsteads

and rebuilt their homes, and new residents began

to settle in the area. The majority of the area was

utilized for agriculture, and little tree cover or

woodland was present during this period. In

addition, the landscape began to change due to

increasing subdivision. As parcels changed

hands, they were often broken into smaller lots.

One area that changed dramatically was the

central section of the battlefield west of the

Nashville Pike and the Hazen Monument. Here,

a small community became established. By the

time of park establishment, the community

featured two primary roads lined with houses, at

least two churches, and likely small businesses.

The community was composed primarily the

homes of African American families.

Other post-battle additions to the landscape

included the Hazen Brigade Monument,

completed in 1863; the National Cemetery,

completed in 1865; the U.S. Regulars Monument

in 1882; and the Artillery Monument placed in

1906. Commemoration of the Battle of Stones

River most likely led to an increase in visitors to

the region, including veterans and the families of

those buried in the cemetery.

Little if anything is known about the condition

and character of the Fortress Rosecrans site at

this time. Agricultural use of the landscape and

erosion likely claimed portions of the earthen

fieldwork. Successional woodland also probably

obscured other portions. It is known that the

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway

owned Redoubt Brannan in 1926.

43. Ibid., 66.

44. Ronald F. Lee, The Origin and Later Evolution of the

National Military Park Idea (Washington, D.C.:

National Park Service, Office of Park Historic

Preservation, 1973), accessed at http://www.nps.gov/

history/online_books/history_military/

45. Anne Willett, 61.

SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 29

46. “Report of the Inspection of Battlefield of Stones

River, Tennessee,” typescript submitted to the

Secretary of War, July 17, 1928; Daily News Journal

(Murfreesboro), April 23, 1929.

Federal Stewardship

War Department Administration,

1927–1933

Portions of the Stones River battlefield were

designated a national military park under the

control of the War Department on March 3, 1927.

Legislation to create a park at Stones River had

been introduced to Congress several times

during the early twentieth century, but it was not

until 1928 that acquisition of property for the

park began. The War Department appointed a

three-member commission to research troop

movements and inspect the battlefield. The

commission consisted of Major John F. Conklin

of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Union

veteran John D. Hanson, and Confederate

veteran Sam H. Mitchell.46 A study was

completed by Lt. Col. H.L. Landers of the Army

War College to support the commission’s work,

including preparation of maps of the battlefield

and troop movements.

Prior to 1928, land set aside to commemorate the

Battle of Stones River included the Stones River

National Cemetery and the Hazen Brigade

Monument, both owned and administered by

the War Department since the time of the Civil

War. Two additional commemorative sites were

owned by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis

Railway, formerly known as the Nashville &

Chattanooga Railroad. In addition to the Hazen

Brigade Monument and the monuments within

the national cemetery, other monuments erected

at the battlefield included the U.S. Regulars

Monument, a fifteen foot tall sandstone column

erected in 1882 in the Stones River National

Cemetery, and the Artillery Monument, a thirtyfour foot tall concrete obelisk designed by

Hunter McDonald and built by the shops of the

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, and

erected in 1906.

In 1928, the commission submitted its report with

recommendations for land acquisition and park

development. Following approval by the acting

secretary of war, the commission was directed to

oversee implementation of the plan and the State

of Tennessee ceded jurisdiction over lands that

would be included in the park.47 The commission

identified for acquisition a 325-acre tract

considered to have encompassed most of the

battle’s heaviest action, with boundaries of the

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway

right-of-way on the north; Wilkinson Pike on the

south; Van Cleve Lane on the east; and a line

parallel to and less than half a mile from the

eastern boundary on the west. Acquisition of two

separate privately-owned quarter-acre tracts was

also recommended. These tracts included the

locations of the headquarters sites of Generals

Bragg and Rosecrans.48 The commission did not

recommend acquiring land north of Stones

River, where fighting occurred on January 2,

noting that “. . . at the present time this land is

very inaccessible. There are now no bridges

across Stones River in the vicinity of the battle

field; the battle field north of Stones River can

only be reached by poor county roads leading

from the vicinity of Murfreesboro.”49 The War

Department also did not acquire seven, oneeighth-acre parcels recommended by the

commission for placement of interpretive

markers.

Only a portion of the approximately 4,000-acre

battlefield could be obtained; the commission

noted that “the 325 acre tract of land that it is

proposed to acquire by no means covers fully the

entire site of the hardest fighting of the battle of

Stones River, but with the funds available it is

believed to be the best selection possible under

the circumstances.”50 The recommended land

was described by the commission as a nucleus

for future acquisition, should funding become

available.51

Between 1928 and 1934, land including the

Artillery Monument (Monument Lot) and

Redoubt Brannan at Fortress Rosecrans (Old

Fort Lot) was acquired by donation from the

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. The

Hazen Brigade Monument and Stones River

National Cemetery, both of which predated the

1927 establishment act, were already federally

47. Anne Willett, 62, 75.

48. Ibid., 64 –65.

49. “Report on Inspection of Battlefield of Stones River,

Tennessee,” July 17, 1928, to the Secretary of War.

50. Ibid.

51. Anne Willett, 65–73.
SITE HISTORY

30 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

52. Styles, 47. A 1931 newspaper account mentions a

“Negro settlement” along Van Cleve Lane. One of

these dwellings was retained for future use as a

museum for the United Daughters of the

Confederacy. This cabin was destroyed by a severe

storm on March 25, 1935. Letter from

superintendent Richard B. Randolph to Director

Cammerer, March 28, 1935.

owned. Administration of these sites was

transferred to the park. The commission also

recommended that thirty-five interpretive

markers be erected within the park, two at the

Artillery Monument, and one at Redoubt

Brannan. Seven additional tablets were to be

erected on parcels of land to interpret and mark

specific events of the battle, although these seven

one-eighth-acre parcels were the only tracts

recommended by the commission that were not

eventually purchased for the park.

Although title to all forty-six properties slated for

procurement had not yet been acquired, the War

Department began rehabilitation and alteration

of the grounds in July 1930. All existing domestic

and agricultural structures on park property,

particularly along Van Cleve Lane, were

determined to postdate the battle and were

subsequently removed. The commission

recommended removal of the dwellings of

African American households that lined Van

Cleve Lane during the 1920s, with one structure

retained for future use as a museum.52

When the administrative functions of the

military park and the national cemetery were

consolidated in 1927, visitor contact,

administrative, and utility functions continued to

operate out of the superintendent’s lodge and

dependencies at the cemetery. The two roads

that existed at the time of the battle, Nashville

Pike and Van Cleve Lane, were widened, graded,

and graveled where they passed through the

park. A new tour road was constructed leading

south through the park from Nashville Pike and

turning east to Van Cleve Lane.

From the initial development of the battlefield

until the early 1960s, there were four entrances

into the main park area. Vehicular entrance from

FIGURE 13. Farmhouses on the battlefield, 1928.

FIGURE 14. Farmhouse and the Artillery Monument, 1929.
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 31

FIGURE 17. The main entrance to the park under

construction in 1931.

FIGURE 18. The completed main entrance to the park,

1932.

Dedication of Stones River Park Tomorrow,”

Rutherford Courier (Murfreesboro, Tennessee),

July 14, 1932, 1.

58. Anne Willett, 75.

59. Styles, 68.

In the commission’s 1928 inspection of the site,

the northern section of the 325-acre tract was

described as open and under cultivation, while

the central and southern portions of the field,

north of Manson Pike, were described as rocky

and wooded with cedar. Immediately following

acquisition by the War Department, local

farmers plowed and seeded the open areas of the

tract with fall oats; in return for which they were

to receive the harvest for their work.58 Landscape

changes were made under the direction of

Captain. H. J. Conner. In October 1931, a

newspaper reported that, “acres and acres of

dense underbrush have given way to carefully

cleared land and many of the huge rocks, which

dotted the landscape, have been removed,

however leaving a sufficient number to add

greatly to the attractiveness of the park.”59 Other

War Department alterations included

construction of a median at the park roads to

FIGURE 15. Van Cleve Lane south of the Nashville Pike was

almost impassable in January 1931.

FIGURE 16. Van Cleve Lane in February 1931, after regrading and surfacing by the War Department. This view

is looking south across the Nashville Pike intersection.

the Old Nashville Highway was through the main

entrance and at the intersection of Old Nashville

Highway and Van Cleve Lane. Each of these

entrances was marked with stone pillars. The first

park tour road also connected with Van Cleve

Lane.53 A local stone mason, Herbert Smith,

constructed the stone pillars at the two primary

entrances. He was later hired to create entrances

at the national parks at Fort Donelson and

Shiloh.54

In October 1931, a ceremony was held at the main

entrance gate located across from the staff

residence. Sam Mitchell, the Confederate veteran

who had served on the Battlefield Park

Commission, raised an American flag near the

ranger station, which was located in the center of

the main entrance drive near the stone pillars.55

Three cannon from Redoubt Brannan and a

flagpole were erected adjacent to the northern

entrance gate.56 The park was officially dedicated

in July 1932.57

53. Styles, 68.

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid.

56. Ibid.

57. “Elaborate Event with Colorful Exercises Will Mark
SITE HISTORY

32 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

60. Anne Willett, 73–76.

61. James Garland, “Stones River National Military Park:

Approximate Location of Exotic Plants with Number

& Variety, March 17, 1934,” NPS map number 327-

1063; and Garland, “Stones River National Military

Park: Entrance and Drive to Park and Cemetery,

March 12, 1934,” NPS map number 327-1064

create a boulevard, preparation of landscape

plans, and planting of 2,500 trees, plants, and

shrubs.60 Maps developed by the NPS after 1933

document the formal landscape treatments

created during the War Department tenure of the

site, including formal plantings of exotic

flowering trees and shrubs along Nashville Pike

and along the tour road at park entrances.

Flowering trees and shrubs were planted at the

park entrance and along sections of the park tour

road, including roses, arborvitae, wisteria, holly,

chokeberry, dwarf spirea, maple, peach, juniper,

and a magnolia.61

Fortress Rosecrans Landscape Character:

1938

Refer to the Fortress Rosecrans Period Plan for

1938 (Fig. 21). Little is known about the specific

evolution of the site of Fortress Rosecrans

between the end of the war and acquisition of

portions of the site by the federal government in

the 1920s and 1930s. After the Civil War and the

abandonment of Fortress Rosecrans, the City of

Murfreesboro began to expand. While much of

the area remained in agricultural use, new

residential development also occurred. Both of

these activities likely contributed to the

deterioration of the earthen fortifications of

FIGURE 19. The Artillery Monument in 1931, after

repainting by the War Department.

FIGURE 20. The General Bragg Headquarters Site marker

immediately after its completion in 1931.

Fortress Rosecrans, which began to erode or be

incrementally plowed under or built upon with

roads and dwellings. Areas that were not

developed or farmed were left unmanaged, and

woodlands began to colonize the earthworks.

The structures associated with the fortress’

interior were likely dismantled and the materials

reused in other construction projects.

Between 1928 and 1934, the War Department

slowly acquired parcels related to the Battle of

Stones River. A four-acre parcel encompassing

Redoubt Brannan was acquired by the War

Department in 1928 from the Nashville,

Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway as part of the

original establishment of the park, but there was

no interpretation or public access to the site.62

The Lunettes and Curtain Wall parcel remained

in private ownership throughout this period.

62. Preservation and Visitor Use Plan and

Environmental Assessment: Remnants of Fortress

Rosecrans: Redoubt Brannan. National Park Service

Southeast Region, March 1995.

SITE HISTORY

34 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 35

Early National Park Service

On August 10, 1933, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6166, through

which the National Park Service gained

jurisdiction over all historic sites, battlefields,

monuments, and parks previously administered

by the War Department, the Department of

Agriculture, and the Office of Public Buildings

and Public Parks of the National Capitol.63 With

transfer of administration to the NPS, Stones

River was expanded to include an additional 65.6

acres of land in the Nashville Pike unit. This

addition to the park boundaries had been

authorized for acquisition by the War

Department but not yet officially transferred to

the government. The tracts were acquired

through deeds by the NPS. The total park

acreage was brought to 344.69 acres by this

acquisition.

Much of the development of Stones River in the

1930s occurred through the efforts of the new

federal public works agencies established under

the National Industrial Recovery Act of June

1933, which provided unemployment relief and

helped to conserve land and water resources.

Agencies whose efforts benefited the national

parks included the Civilian Conservation Corps

(CCC), the Public Works Administration (PWA),

and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Projects in the national parks involved land

reclamation and park development, with $40

million allocated by the PWA from 1933 to 1937 to

fund road and trail construction, campground

development, museum construction, and

restoration of historic structures.64

From 1933 until 1955, the park was administered

by Chickamauga and Chattanooga National

Military Park, after which Stones River was

assigned its own superintendent. From 1933

through 1935, PWA workers made improvements

to the main battlefield and erected a wire fence

around the park perimeter to keep out livestock

from adjacent farms. In 1933 and 1934, the tour

road and Nashville Pike were re-graded.

Vegetative buffers were planted along portions of

63. Styles, 69. Citing Barry Mackintosh, The National

Parks: Shaping the System (Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Department of the Interior, 1991), 24; Unrau, 43.

64. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Coming of the New

Deal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959), 284 –288;

Unrau, 96 –101.

FIGURE 22. View of the Artillery Monument, September

1935.

FIGURE 23. The main entrance to the park, 1937.

FIGURE 24. Van Cleve Lane, view south from the Nashville

Pike, 1937.

FIGURE 25. View northwest toward the filling station just

beyond the park boundaries, showing screen planting

implemented in 1934.
SITE HISTORY

36 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

FIGURE 26. Informational sign at the General Bragg’s

Headquarters site, 1930s. The marker is visible in the

background at left.

FIGURE 27. Park entrance, 1930s.

FIGURE 29. Park entrance, 1930s.

FIGURE 28. Roadside markers and directional signage

along Old Nashville Highway, 1930s. Also note the

overhead electrical lines and wood utility poles along the

road.
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 37

the park’s perimeter, and the open fields were

harrowed, fertilized, and graded. Severe storms

on March 25, 1935, uprooted more than one

hundred large trees, damaged many smaller trees

and the wire fence, and severely damaged the

United Daughters of the Confederacy cabin

along Van Cleve Lane, which was not rebuilt.65

The exotic flowering plantings at the entrances

and along the tour road that had been planted

during the War Department era were likely

removed prior to 1962.66 By 1938, most of the

park, aside from areas along the western

65. Richard B. Randolph, Superintendent, Chickamauga

and Chattanooga National Military Park,

Superintendent’s Narrative Report, March, 1935,

CHCH park archives. Refer also to Garland maps

cited in note 59.

66. Styles, 70. He notes that these plantings were not

recorded on the park maps drawn in 1962, and

comments on a trend toward the removal of exotic

plantings and the reintroduction of native species

to historical parks during the 1930s and 1940s.

FIGURE 30. View of the Hazen Brigade Monument, April 20, 1960.

boundary, did not contain dense foliage, except

for isolated trees and small stands. The dense

cedar brakes of the battle era were no longer

present.67 Visitor access to the site changed when

the New Nashville Highway (U.S. Route 41) was

built north of the railroad in 1950–1952.68

The National Park Service prepared several

master plans for the park between the late 1930s

and the late 1950s. These plans, some of which

were not implemented due to lack of funding, all

addressed the rehabilitation of the park through

physical development. Recommendations

67. Ibid., citing Record Group 145, Records of the

Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service,

Can #2281, AEY-8-69, National Archives and Records

Administration, Cartographic and Architectural

Branch, College Park, Maryland. Refer also to aerial

photograph of the park taken in April 1938.

68. John T. Willett, Master Plan for Preservation and

Use of Stones River National Military Park

(Murfreesboro: National Park Service, 1960), vol. III,

sec. C, p. 2.
SITE HISTORY

38 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

included construction of a new visitor center,

relocation of the tour road and entrance gates,

and acquisition of an additional 1,000 acres to

connect the various tracts within the park and

increase the percentage of the original battlefield

under federal protection. Limited funding made

only minor improvements possible in response

to these plans. In the 1940s and 1950s, this work

included the resurfacing of the tour road and

Van Cleve Lane.69

Landscape Character: 1955

Refer to the Period Plan for 1955 (Fig. 31). By the

mid-1930s, the park included land on both sides

of the Nashville Pike, encompassing the Stones

River National Cemetery and the Hazen Brigade

Monument, and south to Wilkinson (Manson)

Pike and east to Van Cleve Lane. The park also

included lands associated with the McFadden

Farm and the Artillery Monument, two small

parcels marking the sites of the headquarters of

the generals of the opposing forces, as well as the

Redoubt Brannan parcel of Fortress Rosecrans.

Throughout the 1930s, the War Department

managed the landscape associated with the park

to approximate the mid-nineteenth century

conditions of the battlefield, and to enhance the

experience for the visitor. The park established

new entrance features, including stone pillars,

fences, gatehouses, and ornamental plantings,

along the Nashville Pike and Van Cleve Lane.

The entrances were linked through construction

of a new tour road. The War Department also

erected a series of painted cast iron tablets that

described the key events of the battle. These

were similar to those utilized at other National

Military Parks such as Vicksburg, Chickamauga

and Chattanooga, and Shiloh. Concrete

boundary markers and directional signs were

established as part of the development of the

park. The War Department also erected

cannonball monuments at the sites of the

headquarters of Generals Rosecrans and Bragg.

As part of park development, existing residences

and institutions located within the boundary

were demolished, including the buildings of the

existing African American community.

During the 1930s, as part of the national work

programs established by the federal government

69. Anne Willett, 87.

in response to the public need during the Great

Depression, Civilian Conservation Corps

workers planted trees and shrubs in order to

diminish the open nature of the park landscape,

and to enhance the character of the cemetery,

park entrances, and park margins. They also

conducted erosion control measures along the

Nashville Pike and in other areas undergoing

soil erosion.

Changes that occurred within the landscape

adjacent to the park included the construction of

the New Nashville Highway (U.S. Route 41)

north of the railroad tracks, a vehicular bridge

over Stones River near McFadden Ford, and a

filling station at the edge of the park near the

National Cemetery. Overhead electrical lines and

utility poles were also placed along the Old

Nashville Highway (formerly called the Nashville

Pike). Despite these changes, much of the

region’s economy continued to rely upon

agricultural activities, and farmsteads and farm

fields were an ongoing presence within the

Stones River landscape.

SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 41

Mission 66 Development

The National Park Service Mission 66 program

was developed to provide funding to revitalize

the national parks over a ten year period

concluding in 1966, to coincide with the agency’s

fiftieth anniversary. During and following World

War II, limited funding and deferred

maintenance had contributed to deterioration of

the parks’ infrastructure. At the same time, park

visitation had increased as Americans had more

income, leisure time, and access to automobiles

for transportation.

Conrad L. Wirth, an NPS landscape architect

who had overseen recreational planning and

state park development during the 1930s, was

appointed director of the NPS in 1951. In January

1956, Wirth proposed the Mission 66 program,

supporting the concept with a slide show

depicting the poor conditions of the parks that

was presented to President Dwight D.

Eisenhower and his cabinet. The multimilliondollar Mission 66 program involved

improvements to roads, expansion of park

facilities, and repair of existing infrastructure.70

The Mission 66 report for Stones River notes:

As the fighting actually occurred over a

general area some four or five miles in

diameter, the present park embraces only a

small portion of the original battlegrounds.

The historic remains, besides the fields,

woodlands and streams (which may be

considered historic because of the events

associated with them) are few in number.71

In support of the park improvements proposed

for Mission 66, Park Superintendent Victor H.

Shipley noted that:

The National Park Service is, without doubt,

the greatest experiment of its kind in the

whole world. Begun in 1916, with the ten or

twelve parks then in existence, the Service

has expanded until we find some part of it in

every section of our great country. This vast

empire-for-pleasure has been put together

and maintained by those who believe in the

philosophical principle that true patriotism

has, among its many component parts, the

two indispensable qualities which are known

as pride and appreciation and that this pride

in and appreciation for our native land can be

increased by making it possible for any and

all of us to make some sort of contact with

these certain geographical sections which

have, in some peculiar way, become a definite

part of the American heritage. This

philosophy, then, presupposes that these

certain geographical sections which have

been set aside as parks, monuments, military

parks, etc., should be developed to the extent

that all our people may have the opportunity

to visit and become acquainted with them . . .

Development of a new entrance road,

headquarters area and interpretation center,

other facilities for visitor comfort and

experience, and proper staffing as set out in

Mission 66 for Stones River will permit this

area to take its rightful place as one of the

most important memorials of the American

heritage.72

Mission 66 work at the park was guided by the

1960 Master Plan for Stones River National

Battlefield, including the historic fence and

FIGURE 32. Aerial view of the newly-constructed visitor

center, 1963.

70. Conrad L. Wirth, Parks, Politics, and the People

(Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press,

1980), 111; Unrau, 59–62.

71. Mission 66 for the Stones River National Military

Park (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service,

United States Department of the Interior, 1957), 1.

72. Victor H. Shipley, Superintendent, Stones River

National Park, Memorandum to Director, NPS, 10

February 1956. See section on “Philosophy and

Accomplishments Proposed (Mission 66).”
SITE HISTORY

42 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

ground cover map prepared by NPS historian

Edwin C. Bearrs.

On April 22, 1960, the park was redesignated as

Stones River National Battlefield (74 Stat. 82),

part of a larger reorganization of NPS

administration and nomenclature. The Secretary

of the Interior was directed to administer,

protect, and develop the battlefield in

accordance with the provisions of the National

Park Service Organic Act of August 25, 1916. Also,

the park boundary was expanded to include

approximately seven additional acres at the

McFadden Farm unit. The land acquired

extended this unit northward to the banks of

Stones River.

Construction in the early 1960s included a new

visitor center with parking lot. The visitor center,

constructed in 1961–1963, was designed by

Donald F. Benson of the NPS Eastern Office of

Design & Construction. The original plan

included three equal wings at 120-degree angles

arranged around a central hexagonal lobby

space. It incorporated offices, a museum, and

related interpretive facilities.73

In the summer and fall of 1963, landscape and site

work related to the new visitor center was

implemented, including concrete sidewalks at

the visitor center and staff residences, a new

culvert at the entrance roadway, brick and

redwood (not cypress as originally specified)

park signs, and replanting of the ground areas

disturbed by the visitor center project. Small

features built at this time included a flagpole and

drinking fountain. At the main entrance to the

park, the stone walls extending from each of the

pillars and the wooden gates were also

constructed as part of this work.74

The Mission 66 program for Stones River

National Battlefield emphasized the need for an

improved vehicular approach and circulation.

FIGURE 33. View of the newly completed Visitor Center, June 1, 1966.

73. Sara Allaback, Ph.D., Mission 66 Visitor Centers: The

History of a Building Type (Washington, D.C.:

National Park Service, 2000), Appendix I.

74. Darren H. Bohnet, Project Supervisor, “Narrative to

Accompany the Completion Report of the

Landscape Construction” (Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

Stones River National Battlefield, 1964).
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 43

The need to establish a new entrance approach

was given particular emphasis, as the existing

county road leading to the site reportedly was

low, prone to flooding, and involved a hazardous

railroad crossing. In the prospectus, a discussion

of land and water rights noted:

A modest amount of additional land will be

required for a protected right-of-way for a

suitable park entrance road from the new

four-lane highway location. This will

necessitate acquiring some 8.5 acres of land

in six private ownerships at a total estimated

cost of approximately $28,000.75

Improvements included conversion of the

existing tour road into a closed-loop road with a

single entrance on the Nashville Pike. Alterations

were also made to entrance gates from Nashville

Pike to the tour road. Other components of the

plan included construction of two residences for

site personnel (a third house was added to the

plan and completed in 1963); installation of

outdoor exhibits and markers; and additions to

staffing and seasonal personnel (tour leaders). A

total cost of $246,000 was estimated for physical

improvements.

In 1966, the city of Murfreesboro acquired fifty

acres at the site of Fortress Rosecrans and

established Old Fort Park. The new park

included Lunette Palmer, Curtain Wall No. 2, and

Lunette Thomas.76 The city considered Old Fort

Park primarily a recreational area, and little effort

was made to protect and interpret the remains of

Fortress Rosecrans as a cultural resource. In

1976, one observer noted:

The city owns a cycle park immediately

contiguous to the fortification [Lunette

Palmer], and apparently little or no effort has

been made to prevent the cyclists from using

the steep earthen banks for their

entertainment. Road cuts through the

embankments are common . . . Portions of

the fortification contain trash . . . [The city]

proposes building a golf course up to the very

edge of the lunette . . .77

Contemporary National Park

Service

The battlefield’s authorized boundary was

expanded in 1987 (Public Law 100-205) and again

in 1991 (Public Law 102-225). The 1987 boundary

increase added two parcels along the western

side of the Nashville Pike unit and one smaller

parcel at the eastern side along Old Nashville

Highway; and additional land at the McFadden

Farm unit. The 1987 boundary increase also

incorporated the Fortress Rosecrans Curtain

Wall No. 2 and Lunettes Palmer and Thomas

parcel owned by the city of Murfreesboro into

the authorized boundary. The 1991 boundary

expansion increased the park to its current

limits, with additional parcels added to the east

and west sides of the Nashville Pike unit, an

expansion of the McFadden Farm unit, and an

expansion of the Redoubt Brannan parcel.

In the early 1990s, Thompson Lane was extended

south from the New Nashville Highway to

connect with Wilkinson Pike and Tennessee

Highway 96, Old Fort Parkway. This project

included the construction of an overpass to carry

Thompson Lane over the CSX railroad and Old

Nashville Highway. The new overpass and

associated embankments greatly affected

viewsheds from the park eastward.

The National Park Service began to address the

condition and interpretation of the Redoubt

Brannan and the Curtain Wall No. 2 and

Lunettes Palmer and Thomas parcels in the early

to mid-1990s. These features were described as

“preserved under a forest cover” in a 1991 study.78

The woodland cover was also described as

having a well-developed understory and dense

communities of invasive species such as privet

and honeysuckle.79 Visitor use of the former Old

Fort Park had led to the establishment of hardpacked earth trails along the top of the parapet

walls and within the fortifications. These

conditions were subsequently addressed by the

National Park Service through removal of hazard

75. Mission 66 Prospectus, Stones River National trees and invasive species, the addition of soil to

Military Park, Tennessee (Washington, D.C.:

National Park Service, April 1956 ), 14.

76. Mike West, “The Post's Top 10 Historic Sites,” The

Murfreesboro Post, www.murfreesboropost.com.

77. Catherine H. Blee, “An Assessment of the Cultural

Resources of Stones River National Battlefield and

the Proposed Development Impacts on Them”

(Denver Service Center, National Park Service,

January 1976), 19.

78. National Park Service, Preservation and

Management Plan; Environmental Assessment;

Remnants of Fortress Rosecrans: Lunettes Palmer

and Thomas; Old Fort Park; Murfreesboro,

Tennessee (Atlanta: Southeast Regional Office,

1991), iii.

79. Ibid., 11.
SITE HISTORY

44 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

compacted trail prisms, removal of trash, and the

establishment of new visitor access and

interpretive improvements. A boardwalk and

interpretive trail was established and a parking

lot was constructed to enhance the visitor

experience.

In 2003–2004, the visitor center was extensively

expanded and remodelled. The work included

several additions and replacement of all exterior

materials.

Planning is under way to change the route of the

tour road through the park. The Environmental

Assessment for this project has been completed.

New wayside exhibits are planned for the

battlefield. Installation of these exhibits is

planned for late 2008 or early 2009.

Control and monitoring of invasive and alien

plant species is ongoing, and limited areas that

were historically open fields are being converted

to native grasses. A draft plan for vegetation

management is under development. Also, a fire

management plan was completed in 2003 and is

scheduled to be updated in 2008.

To maintain open field areas, selected areas that

were fields at the time of the battle have been

farmed since at least the early 1970s by a number

of different farmers. Crops included soybeans

and hay, as well as wheat, corn, cotton, milo, and

millet. This arrangement ended in 2004. During

2005 and 2006, the School of Agribusiness and

Agriscience at Middle Tennessee State University

planted and harvested these fields. Another local

farmer may be interested in continuing to farm

these fields in the future, but this has not been

resolved. (At the time of the Civil War, the

dominant crops were corn and cotton. Livestock

roamed freely in the woods and pastures, which

were bounded by fences to contain the farm

animals.)

The Medical Center Parkway connecting to a

new interchange on Interstate Highway 24,

completed in 2005, has led to many development

proposals for historic battlefield lands south of

the park boundaries. This planned development

includes a multi-story hospital, a Chamber of

Commerce visitor center, a conference center,

and a shopping center. The potential to screen

this new development from view needs to be

FIGURE 34. The Thompson Lane overpass at the Old Nashville Highway under construction, early 1990s.
SITE HISTORY

National Park Service 45

80. Tennessee coneflower was planted in the cedar

glades in the 1970s by Professor Thomas Hemmerly

of Middle Tennessee State University. Pyne’s ground

plum was planted by the National Park Service. No

intentional plantings within the cedar brakes have

been documented.

considered. Another new street, Garrison Drive,

was completed in 2006, connecting from

Wilkinson Pike to West College Street east of

Thompson Lane.

In addition to fallow agricultural land and former

landfill sites, newly acquired park lands also

include dump sites, home sites, non-historic farm

outbuildings, animal pens, fences, and business

sites. Planning for the long term cleanup and

restoration of these lands needs to be

undertaken. The ecologically significant cedar

glades ecosystem within the park boundaries

contains two federally endangered plant species:

the Tennessee coneflower (Echinacea

tennesseensis) and Pyne’s ground plum

(Astragalus bibullatus).80 The cedar glade area is

currently divided by the park tour road.

Reduction of one leg of this road is part of the

planned change to the tour route.

Landscape Character: 2005

Refer to the Period Plans for 2005 (Figs. 35 and

36). Between 1956 and 2006, the Mission 66

program, property acquisitions, and a move

toward balancing cultural and natural resources

greatly altered the appearance and composition

of the park landscape. Mission 66-era additions

included a visitor center, a parking lot, the

conversion of the existing tour road to a singleentry closed-loop road, interpretive stops along

the loop road, and the installation of several

wayside exhibits. In 2005, with the exception of

some of the wayside exhibits, the addition of new

trails and signage, and alterations to the visitor

center, all of these elements remain intact and

little changed.

Since 1955, the park has worked to better

approximate land cover conditions at the time of

the battle. Trees have been planted in areas that

were wooded at the time of the battle, and

agricultural fields have been approximated,

either through limited cropping or through the

establishment and maintenance of warm season

grass fields in historic locations. In some areas,

woodland cover now exceeds the historic

conditions, for example at the McFadden Farm

property, along the park’s southern boundary,

and west and southwest of the Visitor Center.

Woody growth has increased in part due to

diminished maintenance funding. Areas that are

less wooded than at the time of the battle include

the northwestern edge of the park’s Nashville

Pike unit.

During this period the park has grown,

encompassing a larger portion of the battlefield

and affording the park the opportunity to

increase its interpretation of the events of

December 1862–January 1863. The landscape

surrounding the park has changed dramatically,

affecting the park’s setting and the visitor

experience. Many of the roads that connect the

various park units, particularly U.S. Highway 41,

are now lined with commercial businesses and

light industrial facilities. The construction of a

factory nearby and the Thompson Lane overpass

has heavily impacted the setting of the Hazen

Brigade Monument. Finally, agricultural activities

on the lands surrounding the park continue to

diminish, and are increasingly being replaced by

residential subdivisions.

The construction in the 1990s of the Thompson

Lane connector and overpass has had a dramatic

impact on the historic landscape. Located east of

Van Cleve Lane, the road corridor is visible from

the eastern portion of the Nashville Pike Unit

and the Hazen Brigade Monument. The large

concrete structure that carries the road corridor

across Old Nashville Highway and the rail line is

particularly visible from these areas. In addition

to the impact this roadway has had on the visual

quality of the park, the road has changed local

circulation patterns, due to its bypassing of the

Old Nashville Highway. In fact, the Old Nashville

Highway has become obsolete for most travelers

with the exception of local residents and park

visitors.

The Fortress Rosecrans earthworks are

maintained under a variety of vegetative cover,

including dense forest, light forest, and tall grass.

The focus of vegetation management has been

the removal of exotic and hazardous vegetation,

and the establishment of native plants with “the

least amount of intervention and ground
SITE HISTORY

46 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

81. National Park Service, Preservation and

Management Plan, 16.

disturbance.”81 Vegetation has also been managed

to stabilize the slopes leading to Lytle Creek.

Currently, woody vegetation obscures some of

the historic views of the river that help connect

the fortification to its historic use.


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50 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

Evaluation of Significance

Stones River National Battlefield maintains

significance in military history, landscape

architecture (National Cemetery), African

American ethnic heritage, and commemoration.

The park’s nomination to the National Register

of Historic Places documents this significance by

describing how the site’s history and associations

meet the terms of Criteria A, B, C, and D.

Per Criterion A, the battlefield is associated with

events that have made a significant contribution

to the broad patterns of our history: generally,

the Civil War, and specifically, the Battle of

Stones River that occurred from December 31,

1862, to January 2, 1863. Per Criterion B, the

battlefield is associated with the lives of persons

significant in our past, particularly Union Major

General William S. Rosecrans, commander of the

Army of the Cumberland; Brigadier General

Philip H. Sheridan; and Confederate General

Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of

Tennessee. Per Criterion C, the battlefield

(National Cemetery) embodies the distinctive

characteristics of a period of landscape design

and possesses high artistic values. Finally, per

Criterion D, preliminary archeological

investigations performed by the National Park

Service indicate that areas of the battlefield are

likely to yield information important in

prehistory or history.

The National Register Nomination (Additional

Documentation) for Stones River National

Battlefield notes that the property is eligible for

listing under Criterion A for national and state

significance in the military history of the Civil

War, and for national and state significance in

commemoration due to the design and historical

associations of the Hazen Brigade Monument

and Stones River National Cemetery; for local

significance under Criterion A in African

American ethnic heritage; for its local

significance under Criterion C in landscape

architecture; and for local significance under

Criterion D.82

Military History

The Stones River National Battlefield is

nationally significant under Criterion A because

it contains a large portion of the area where the

most intense fighting during the Battle of Stones

River occurred. Over the course of three days,

from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863,

Union and Confederate armies fought at Stones

River to determine control of the rich

agricultural region of middle Tennessee and its

turnpikes, rivers, and railroads. In 1862, the

Confederate Army of Tennessee was

headquartered in Murfreesboro, from which the

Confederates contested Union control over

agricultural resources and sent cavalry raids

against Union supply lines. Twenty-five miles

northwest of Murfreesboro, Nashville served as

supply base to the Federal 14th Army Corps (the

Army of the Cumberland). In terms of supplying

Union forces, capture and control of

Murfreesboro and the Nashville & Chattanooga

Railroad was essential to the Union goal of

moving from Nashville toward Chattanooga.

The outcome of the Battle of Stones River was

important in the direction of the war. It was a

major battle in the Union’s effort to divide the

southeastern Confederacy.83 In addition, the

battle provided an important victory for the

North at a time when defeat might have brought

England and France into the war on the side of

the Confederacy.84 Finally, the loss at Stones

River prevented the Confederacy from taking the

strategic initiative in the Western Theater,

affecting the outcome of the entire war.85

The Battle of Stones River also served an

important role in the future of both armies. As

noted in the National Register Nomination–

Additional Documentation:

The ability of Rosecrans’s army to withstand

Bragg’s furious assault without breaking

established the Army of the Cumberland’s

reputation as an immovable defensive force.

This defensive resiliency would resurface

again in battle at Chickamauga, Atlanta, and

82. Gavin and Styles.

83. James L. McDonough, Stones River: Bloody Winter

in Tennessee (Knoxville: University of Tennessee

Press, 1980).

84. Cozzens.

85. Earl Hess, Banners to the Breeze: the Kentucky

Campaign, Corinth, and Stones River (Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press, 2000).
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National Park Service 51

Franklin, but it was forged at Stones River.

Likewise, the Battle of Stones River typified

the Army of Tennessee’s fate as a hard-luck

loser and produced dissent within its

command structure that reduced its

effectiveness for the balance of the war.86

Fortress Rosecrans, including the Curtain Wall,

Lunettes, and Redoubt Brannan, is significant for

several reasons. First, the fort provided an

important supply depot for the Army of the

Cumberland and a means of protecting the

critical resource of the railroad. Fortress

Rosecrans was the largest enclosed earthwork of

the war, encompassing the river crossings of both

the Nashville Pike and Nashville and

Chattanooga Railroad and protecting the large

bridge and railroad trestle spans between

Nashville and Murfreesboro. The surviving

remnants of Fortress Rosecrans and Redoubt

Brannan are nationally significant under

National Register Criterion A for their

association with the post-battle Union

occupation of Murfreesboro; under Criterion C

because they represent advanced nineteenthcentury military fortifications, and convey

significant information about the immense

logistical network that allowed the Union to

prevail in the Civil War; and under Criterion D

because they may possess information that could

increase our understanding of nineteenthcentury earthen fortifications.

Landscape Architecture

Stones River National Battlefield is considered

significant in terms of landscape architecture

with specific reference to the Stones River

National Cemetery. The National Register

Nomination (Additional Documentation)

ascribes local significance to the cemetery for its

formal geometric plan (circa 1892) and funerary

sculpture. The cemetery design is a departure

from the popular Victorian style of winding

paths and naturalistic plantings, instead

following a formal design with rows of simple

grave markers. The Stones River National

Cemetery exemplifies the style selected for

national cemeteries to create a character of

“simple grandeur” rather than Romanticism.

Commemoration

The battlefield is significant in terms of

commemoration, as represented first by

construction of the Hazen Brigade Monument in

1863. The Hazen Brigade Monument,

constructed as the war was still in progress, is the

oldest Civil War monument in the United States

still extant at its original location. Other

commemorative structures including the U.S.

Regulars Monument (1882) and the Artillery

Monument (1906) were later added to the

landscape of the battlefield.

Commemoration also occurred through

establishment of the Stones River National

Cemetery, created in 1864 as part of the system of

national cemeteries authorized by Congress on

or near Civil War battlefields. The battlefield was

the site of memorial celebrations by the GAR and

other organizations over the next several

decades, and the subject of tourism encouraged

by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis

Railway.

Establishment of a park in commemoration of

the battle began with chartering of the Stones

River Battlefield and Park Association in 1896,

and continuing through acquisition of property

and placement of markers. Congress did not join

in the effort to establish the park until the 1926

Act for the Study and Investigation of Battlefields

recommended commemoration of the Battle of

Stones River. This recognition resulted in the

establishment of the Stones River National

Military Park on March 3, 1927.

Ethnic Heritage

Stones River National Battlefield is considered

significant in terms of African American ethnic

heritage in that African Americans played an

important role in the construction of Fortress

Rosecrans during the war and in building the

National Cemetery after the war. The National

Cemetery houses the remains of members of the

United States Colored Troops (USCT) and is the

largest burial ground for USCT veterans in the

country. African American soldiers carried out

the dangerous task of transferring the remains of

the Union dead from other battle sites and reintering them at Stones River. William Holland, a

USCT veteran, is buried in the Harlan/Holland

86. Gavin and Styles, 8-5. family cemetery (circa 1909) adjacent the walls of
SITE HISTORY

52 Cultural Landscape Report: Stones River National Battlefield

the Hazen Brigade Monument cemetery. In

addition, an African American community

known as Cemetery existed near the battlefield

from 1863 until the 1930s.

Period of Significance

The National Register Nomination (Additional

Documentation) defines the period of

significance of Stones River National Battlefield

as 1862–1931.87 Primary dates and periods of

importance associated with the site include the

dates of the battle itself (December 31, 1862–

January 2, 1863); the period in which Fortress

Rosecrans was in use (January 1863 through May

1865); the overall period of the Civil War (1861–

1865); and the decades of the early park

development period (1927–1931).

The significance of the primary character areas

of the battlefield is related to the period of the

battle and the period of early park development.

The Nashville Pike unit, McFadden Farm,

General Rosecrans’s Headquarters Site, and

General Bragg’s Headquarters Site are all

significant in terms of the dates of the battle. The

Hazen Brigade Monument, although constructed

after the battle, is a memorial of the battle and is

associated with the broader Civil War period.

Fortress Rosecrans, including the Curtain Wall

and Lunettes as well as Redoubt Brannan unit, is

associated with the broader Civil War period and

particularly with the dates of the construction

and active use of the fortress.

The integrity of each character area of the

battlefield landscape is assessed in the Existing

Conditions and Analysis chapter, following the

condition assessment and comparative analysis

of the landscape in each area.

87. Ibid.