Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

[548] He established Headquarters that night

Dec. 31, 1862.

at a log hut near the Nashville pike, and there he called a council of general officers. These had seen his gallant bearing throughout the day, as he rode from point to point where danger to his troops was most apparent, and recognized the wisdom of his orders in the fact of success. He had been seen on every part of the field, directing the most important movements with perfect composure. When the head of the accomplished Garesche, his warm friend and his chief of staff, was shot off while he was riding by his commander's side, the General simply remarked, “I am very sorry, but we cannot help it;” and when it was erroneously reported to him that McCook was killed he made a similar reply, adding, “This battle must be won.” With that determination he went into the council and said, “Gentlemen, we conquer or die right here.” For his admiring officers his will was law. It was resolved to continue the fight,¹ and the Army of the Cumberland rested that night in full expectation of renewing the struggle the next morning.

Bragg was confident of final victory. He sent a jubilant dispatch to Richmond, saying that, after ten hours hard fighting, he had driven his foe from every position excepting his extreme left (held by Hazen), maintained the field, and had as trophies four thousand prisoners, two brigadier-generals, thirty-one pieces of artillery, and two hundred wagons and teams. He expected Rosecrans would attempt to fly toward Nashville during the night, and was greatly astonished in the morning to find his opponent's army not only present, but in battle order. He began to doubt his ability to conquer his foe, and moved more circumspectly. He attempted but little, and the sum of that day's operations was some heavy skirmishing and occasional artillery firing. That night both armies, alert and anxious, slept on their arms.

Friday morning

Jan. 2, 1863.

found Rosecrans with his army well in hand, and in an advantageous position. During the preceding evening Van Cleve's division of Crittenden's corps, then commanded by Colonel Beatty, of the Nineteenth Ohio, had been thrown across Stone's River, and occupied an eminence commanding the upper ford, nearly a mile below the bridge of the Nashville turnpike. Bragg, during the night, had stealthily planted four heavy batteries to sweep the National lines, and with these he suddenly opened a terrific fire at eight o'clock in the morning, to which Hascall's division was more immediately exposed, and made to suffer severely. Estep's battery was quickly disabled, but Bradley's, and the guns of Walker and Sheridan's divisions, soon silenced the cannon of the assailants. Then there was a partial lull until about three o'clock in the afternoon, yet it was evident from skirmishing along Beatty's front that the foe was massing in that direction.