In 10 images: A moving monument, cemetery at Stones River

Part of the inscription on the west face of  the Hazen Brigade monument. 
(CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

The Hazen Brigade monument, completed in October 1863, is the oldest Civil War monument
still at its original battlefield location. (Read more on National Park Service site.)

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A Philadelphia newspaper correspondent was unimpressed during his 1882 visit to the Hazen Brigade monument and cemetery on the Stones River (Tenn.) battlefield. “Little inspiration could be drawn from the surroundings,” he wrote nearly 20 years after the battle, lamenting that “a few dozen unkempt graves, some rough prickly pears, and corners overgrown with weeds” were the only notable features near the shaft. Any lingering patriotic reflection, he added, was abruptly ended when “a fresh bulldog of yellow hue” chased the weary sight-seer through a cotton field and back to his waiting buggy.

My own 30-minute visit proved far more agreeable. No bulldogs, for one. And unlike the long-ago correspondent, I found plenty of inspiration in the stark Union monument and the small cemetery pressed up against the railroad tracks. 

“To the memory of its soldiers who fell at Stone River, Dec. 31st, 1862,” reads the inscription on the monument’s south face. “Their faces towards heaven, their feet to the foe.” 

On New Year’s Eve 1862, roughly 1,600 soldiers in Colonel William Hazen’s brigade stood fast in the “Round Forest,” a strip of timber anchoring the extreme left of the Union line. Wave after wave of Confederate attacks crashed against the position. When the fighting ended, more than 400 of Hazen’s men — from the 41st Ohio, 6th Kentucky, 9th Indiana, and 110th Illinois — were casualties. They were the only Federal unit to hold their ground throughout the battle. In October 1863, Union soldiers returned to the spot to raise a monument of massive limestone blocks on the very ground Hazen’s brigade had defended, beside the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad line and Nashville Pike. 

It stands among the graves of 55 brigade soldiers who died of wounds or disease at Stones River — quiet testimony to a stand that never broke.

A train chugs past the Hazen Brigade monument and cemetery on the Stones River (Tenn.) battlefield.

"Killed at Stone River Dec.31st 1862," reads an inscription on the monument.

Three stones atop a marker for an unknown soldier.

Soldiers from the 41st Ohio, 9th Indiana, 110th Illinois and 6th Kentucky are buried in the cemetery.

Fifty-five soldiers from Hazen's Brigade are buried in the small cemetery adjacent to a railroad track.

All four sides of the monument include an inscription honoring Union soldiers.

Grave of 6th Kentucky Private Casper Krebs, who died of disease.

A row of pearl-white graves in Hazen's Brigade Cemetery, which is surrounded by a stone wall.

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SOURCE AND NOTE

-- Philadelphia Times, Aug. 28, 1882
-- In 1985, workers repairing the monument discovered a time capsule inside it. Objects found included horse's teeth, bone fragments, two bullets, three artillery shells and two musket barrels.