The fighting 1352 January 1863, Bragg was dumbfounded to
find that Rosecrans had not left. When the
Confederate commander ordered
Breckinridge to dislodge what he thought
remained of the enemy force east of Stone's
River late in the afternoon, the Federals
initially fell hack. As the Confederates
advanced to the river, they found to their
tremendous surprise that the Federals had
prepared to counter the charge. Nearly
60 Federal cannon unleashed a thunderous
barrage, and a counter of infantrymen
followed that retired the Confederates in
short order.
With his army exhausted and convinced
that Rosecrans had been reinforced, Bragg
reluctantly left the battlefield that night. He
fell back to Tullahoma. Tennessee, thus
conceding the battlefield and the victory to
Rosecrans. whose soldiers had stood their
ground. The Battle of Stone's River was a
stalemate that cost the Union some 13,000
casualties and the Confederates roughly
10.200 casualties, or in both cases roughly
30 percent of their forces. In proportion to
men engaged and men lost, this battle
ranked as the bloodiest of all battles.The Union campaign on
the MississippiSouthern hopes of redeeming the western
losses had been significantly dashed by the
new year. The Union army was now poised
to move against Chattanooga. One
demoralized Confederate remarked, 'I am
sick and tired of this war, and I can see no
prospects of having peace for a long time to
come, I don't think it ever will he stopped by
fighting, the Yankees can't whip us and we
can never whip them.' Lincoln was so
impressed by the victory that he later
confided to Rosecrans, 'you gave us a hard
earned victory which, had there been a
defeat instead, the nation could hardly have
lived over.'
The Civil War had not begun with Union
authorities arguing that points of occupation
were more important than defeating
Confederate armies. By 1863, however, it
certainly appeared that this was the case in
the Western Theater. The war in this region
was about occupation of significant Southern
ports, railroad junctions, cities, loyalist
pockets, and plantation districts. Although
this meant supplying armies over long
distances and protecting the vital
transportation arteries, the Union held firm
to a belief that occupying strategic points
would ultimately bring about the demise of
the Confederacy. It was how to conduct
affairs as proprietors of Southern domain
rather than how to combat soldiers that
consumed the attention of Union
authorities. The resolve of Southern soldiers
and civilians alike convinced many
commanders that the war would not end
until popular support ended. Consequently,
the limited-war attitude gave way to total
war - the seizure and destruction of personal
property as part of subjugating the enemy,
irrespective of their presumed loyalty.
The Union campaigns of 1863, therefore,
would be at a distinct advantage over those