The old Cotton Field

By the end of the first day’s fighting the Union right flank had been driven all the way back to Nashville Pike (today’s Old Nashville Highway), having been swept around by Confederate troops from the southwest to northeast as if being pushed by the hands of a clock. Not wanting to be cut off from an escape route back to Nashville, Union General William Rosecrans organized a defensive last stand along the Pike while his troops at the Slaughter Pen held off the Rebels until around noon, then retreated back to join the rest of the Union Army.

Pursuing Confederates were slowed first by the rock formations at the Slaughter Pen and then by a forest of cedar trees. When they finally emerged from the woods and onto this field—a cotton field at the time of the battle—they were confronted by 30,000 Union troops and hammered by 38 cannon positioned where the National Cemetery is today. This defensive stand by the Union finally brought the Confederates’ day-long advance to a halt, and it is at the Cotton Field where the fighting ended for the day. To see how the battle played out, please study the Stones River Battle Maps.

The exhibits at Stop 3 on the Stones River National Battlefield tour consist of an information panel and Union soldier silhouettes aiming across the field and towards the forest from where the Confederates emerged. The exhibit lies along a short, flat trail, a couple minute’s walk from the parking lot. The trail continues past the exhibit, but this is just part of the park’s hiking trail system. For those on the Battlefield Tour, walk to the exhibit and then return to your car.

A fence has been erected at this spot. To the modern tourist it appears to keep people off the battlefield. However, this is not the case. Tennessee law in the early 1800s stated that farmers had to build a fence around their property to keep hogs from getting out. Thus, this fence recreates the battlefield as it was on December 31, 1862.