Palestine Public Library ~ 201 South Washington Street ~ Palestine, IL 62451
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Did You Know...?

Ten Crawford County men were killed in the Battle of Stones River during the Civil War?  In late 1862, the Union effort was not going well and Major General Rosecrans was expected to get positive results with his 14th Army Corps.  Rosecrans was based in Nashville and Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his Army of Tennessee had its winter quarters in Murfreesboro, 30 miles southeast of Nashville, along the railroad and the Nashville Pike.  On December 26, 1862, Rosecrans started out from Nashville to meet and engage the enemy and drive him out from central Tennessee.  The two armies aligned themselves in a north-south line astride the railroad and the pike with the bulk of both forces south of the highway.  The Stones River ran near the pike but was north of the road.  Bragg's army was divided into two Corps; Rosecrans' army into three wings.  As night fell December 30, both sides were planning a major attack for the next morning.  Coincidentally, both commanders were planning an attack on the right of their opponent's lines.  Rosecrans planned to force Bragg away from his communication line on the railroad; Bragg planned to sweep the Union into a bend in the river and destroy them.  Bragg just got his attack started earlier than Rosecrans.  At daylight, the Confederate infantry shocked the Union troops who were outflanked and retreated back towards the highway.  Unfortunately for the Confederates, their pursuit drew them farther west than Bragg's plan had called for, causing much confusion between units and spreading out the Confederate line.  The only Union troops prepared were Brigadier General Phil Sheridan's division which was forced to pull back but his stand blunted and delayed the progress of the Confederates.  By nightfall, the Union army had been pushed back and rested entirely along the railroad and pike, but they still had control of their lines of communications back to their base in Nashville.  Bragg expected to see the Union withdrawn the next day, but as the sun came up, the Union troops were still in place.  Both sides rested that day.  Finally, on January 2, Bragg ordered Breckenridge to attack some Union troops that held a hill on the north side of the river that commanded some of his lines.  Breckenridge, unsure about the order, moved his troops forward and drove the Union off the hill, but as his troops pursued, they came into range of massed artillery on the other side of the river that decimated his forces, forcing them to withdraw.  Bragg pulled his forces back to a line south of Murfreesboro, ending the Battle of Stones River, a move that incensed Bragg's subordinates.  The battle so weakened both armies, that neither moved out of camp for six months.  Total casualties for the two days of fighting were over 23,000 for both sides, which included these ten Crawford County men:  William H. Dean, James G. Gilmore, Henry Hardy, Alfred Harrison, Solomon Jones, Henry B. Longnecker, John W. Martin, Joseph W. Maxwell, Allen Patton and Hiram C. Phillips.  Taken from http://ilgenweb.net

More information about Palestine's history can be found in books and newspaper articles here at the library.

 

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