Breckinridge, and General Hardee resumed command of that portion of the line.

Apprehending the possible success of a flank attack upon his left, Bragg had caused all the tents and baggage to be loaded on wagons and sent to the rear. On Saturday morning, the 3d of January, the soldiers of both armies had been in battle for four days and nights; their provisions, if cooked at all, were scanty and unfit to eat; their clothing soaked with rain and stiff with mud, with no fires to dry them and to warm their chilled bodies, they had responded with a will to every command. With death beckoning them to his clammy embrace they had advanced with unfaltering tread, leaving their trail marked by the dead forms of their comrades. Even now there was no word of complaint. It rested with the generals in command of the contending armies whether another holocaust of lives should be offered before either would acknowledge himself vanquished. No thought of retreat had at any time entered the minds of Rosecrans, Thomas, or Crittenden. With one exception, neither of the division commanders in the center or on the left wings had favored it. McCook, after his bloody repulse on the 31st, had advised falling back upon Nashville upon purely military grounds, but had readily acquiesced in the decision of the commanding general to “fight or die right here.” The fugitives in his command who had not pursued their shameless way to Nashville had rallied to their standards and were anxious to restore their tarnished laurels. The losses during the three days of battle were nearly evenly divided. General Bragg acknowledged a loss of 9,000 in killed and wounded, 25 per cent of his army of 38,250, while General Rosecrans’ report shows a loss of 8,778, over 20 per cent of killed and wounded of his force of 43,400. It is impossible to do full justice to the heroic constancy of the soldiers of the Union, whose valor wrung victory from defeat on the morning of the 31st of December, and who all through that terrible day bared their breasts to the storm of battle. To the living the great wealth of a Nation’s gratitude is due, but to those to whom death came in the cause of National unity, his

“Voice sounds like a prophet’s word
And in its solemn tones are heard
The thanks of millions yet to be.”

It came like a pæan of victory to the ears of the long suffering President and to the sorely taxed patience of the loyal people of the United States. It fell with the dull thud of a mortal wound upon the hearts of the Southern people. Gone and forever dispelled were the fond delusions that one Confederate was equal to three Yankees. Henceforth it was known by each that victory would perch upon the banner of the strongest force, and that the god of battle was on the side of the heaviest artillery. As the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church, so was that spilled at Stones River the inspiration by which the magnificent Army of the Cumberland bore its banners through two years more of carnage to final victory. They renewed their vows of fidelity to the flag of their country upon the field of Chickamauga and upon the bloody slope of Mission Ridge, and through a hundred days of battle to Atlanta, at Franklin, and Nashville. Marching through Georgia with Sherman to the sea, the devoted soldiery followed their leaders with unfaltering courage, billowing every battle-field with the graves of their fallen comrades.

Transcriber’s Notes:

“Stones” (rather than “Stone’s”) is used consistently throughout the original text.

The lone quotation mark on page 5 appears in this text as it is presented in the original.