Within one hour, the field of battle as well as the river was littered with 1,800 Southern corpses. Broken cannon commemorates the brutal struggle at the Slaughter Pen. The battle ended with that final slaughter, and the retreating Confederates left the Federal Army of the Cumberland in control of Middle Tennessee. With its 23,000 casualties, Stones River can be mentioned in the same breath as the bloodbaths of Antietam and Shiloh. The transportation network and agricultural lands of central Tennessee served the Yankees well when they drove far into Georgia the following year.
Commercial development threatens the battle site on all sides.
The battlefield terrain around Stones River had a decisive influence on the course of the battle, and with each acre lost our ability to understand this crucial turning point in the Civil War is further eroded. The Civil War Preservation Trust Copyright 2001 by the Civil War Preservation Trust.