County of marker: Rutherford County
Location of marker: sidewalk east of visitors center, Stones River National Battlefield, Murfreesboro
Marker erected by: National Park Service, Department of the Interior
Marker text:
The Charge Kept Coming, Coming Like the Sea
The fields you see here witnessed a full afternoon of ferocious fighting on the first day of battle at Stones River. Federal cannon raked the Confederates charging across the open cotton fields toward the Nashville Pike. Here Union regiments that had been pushed back since sunrise stopped their retreat and held ground.
There was no time for fear. Every eye strained forward on tat line of dingy grey...wavering, reeling, checked completely as the full weight of our fire poured into their ranks.
Enenezer Hannaford, private, 6th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
The [Federal] artillery opened up on us and cut the timber off over our heads, and it seemed the heavens and earth were coming together. Our men sheltered themselves as best they could behind trees and ledges of rock...a retreat...was our only salvation from death or capture.
John T. Tunnel, private, 14th Texas Infantry
We were not able to rout the enemy from his strong position. At the time we charged, one battery...was pounding shot and shell upon us, and two others, one on each side, turned loose a perfect hail of balls on us.
James A. Williamson, lieutenant colonel, 2nd Arkansas Mounted Infantry
Private Alfred E. Matthews of the 31st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, an eyewitness to the fighting here published this scene. [see gallery]
I never saw guns served so fast...Before the recoil was expended the gunners...threw the pieces[back] into [firing] position...the swab was run in, the handle turned, withdrawn, the charge sent home, and the gun fired...The [Confederate] charge kept coming, coming like the sea, ever nearer at each succeeding wave. But men were not born who could...face the storm of canister...they broke, they fled...and took refuge in the clump of trees and weeds.
Alfred Pirtle, lieutenant, 10th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Rosecrans Division