L
ate in the morning of January 2,
1863, Confederate Maj. Gen.
John Breckinridge gazed through
the brush at newly arrived Union
infantry occupying a partially wooded
hill to his front near Murfreesboro, Tenn.
The Yankees had moved in the day
before, alarming the local Rebel com-
manders. Some suspected a trap, prompt-
ing the general to crawl beyond his picket
line for a look.
Just then a rider galloped up, summoning
the Kentuckian to General Braxton Bragg’s
Army of Tennessee headquarters. The daywas cold and overcast as Breckinridge
mounted his horse to ride back to join his
moody commanding officer. He could not
have been enthused about the meeting.
Bragg’s unfair criticism of him after the 1862
Kentucky campaign, coupled with Bragg’s
seemingly vindictive execution of a young
soldier in Breckinridge’s command the
month before, had left the two men bitter
enemies. Things were about to get worse.
Two days earlier, December 31, the Con-
federates had opened the battle of Stones
River (also called Murfreesboro) by sur-
prising Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans’sArmy of the Cumberland in a dawn attack
that staggered the Yankees. The Union line
bent but never quite broke. Bragg’s
assumption that the battered Yankees
would retreat that night was dashed when
New Year’s Day revealed the enemy still in
place. Now Bragg had to come up with a
new plan. Thirty hours later he had it—
Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk’s Corps would hit
the Federal left. But first Bragg had to take
care of a preliminary matter, which is
where Breckinridge came in.
Just after noon Breckinridge rode up to
army headquarters, dismounted, andUnion Private Alfred E. Mathews drew a number of sketches of the
fighting at Stones River, in which he participated. This one shows
Breckinridge’s attack on the first day of the three-day conflict.CWQ-EW16 Stone's River_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:14 PM Page 49