From the Ohio River to Stones River: Pennsylvanians at Stones River, Part I

Few eastern units served with the western Union armies in places like Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In the Army of the Cumberland, which fought at Stones River, Tennessee, most of the troops were from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, along with smaller numbers from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. There were even troops raised in Kentucky and Tennessee with General William S. Rosecrans’s army.

I don’t know that this was on purpose, I think it was simply a matter of geography. As units were raised, they were sent where they were needed. Those closest to the front in the western states naturally went to assembly points there. But at times a unit might find itself far from home, simply being sent where needed as it was available at the time. Look at the large number of New England troops in the Gulf, fighting in the Red River campaign, or the few western units like the Iron Brigade that ended up in Virginia.

In the order of battle for Stones River, you will not find troops from New York, Maryland, New Jersey, or New England states. One of the few eastern units here was the 77th Pennsylvania, one of only three Pennsylvania infantry units in the battle.

Raised in Pittsburgh in October, 1861, the 77th moved to Kentucky that fall. They were part of the Army of the Ohio which occupied Nashville in the spring of 1862, and marched to the relief of Grant’s forces at Shiloh (where they were the only eastern unit on the field). On April 7 they fought their first major battle at Shiloh, helping push the Confederates back. They then moved on to Corinth, Mississippi.

By the fall of 182 the western Pennsylvanians found themselves in General Edward Kirk’s brigade, with regiments from Indiana and Illinois. Led by Lt. Col. Peter Housum, they advanced with General McCook’s wing on the far right of the Union army as it closed in on Murfreesboro in late December, 1862. The Pennsylvanians deployed on December 30th in a thin line of cedars on the left of Kirk’s brigade, with Colonel Sidney Post’s to their left.

The regiment has the distinction of being part of the brigade that took the brunt of the massive Confederate attack at the very start of the battle. They were the very right of the entire Union army.

The 307 men of the 77th were positioned in cedar woods with a cornfield to their front. Pickets moved out to the east, towards the Confederates. Housum had his men up at 4 am, likely shivering in the cold as they formed into line and waited for dawn and the warming rays of the sun. December 31st was a foggy morning and the pickets could hear movement but not see anything until the Confederates were within sixty yards of them. They quickly scurried back to the main line, but many were wounded or killed in the first volley of the Confederates. The troops assaulting them were General Evander MacNair’s Arkansas brigade.

Housum’s men lay down to fire at the enemy but didn’t stay in position long, being quickly overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. They were also isolated, not having contact with the friendly units on their right and left. The rest of Kirk’s brigade was hit simultaneously and crumbled.

Falling back about 150 yards, the Pennsylvanians made another stand, eventually falling back and tying in with another brigade from a different division, their own comrades being driven away. The 77th stood alongside Colonel Sidney Post’s brigade, now facing south.

The Confederates had overrun and captured Edgarton’s Ohio battery here, but the guns were not being manned. Seeing this, Housum aggressively had his small detachment charge the abandoned guns and retake them. As they charged, artillery fire poured into them, “a hurricane of grape and canister,” and Confederate reinforcements arrived, stopping them and forcing them back.

Separated from the rest of Kirks’ brigade, the 77th continued to fight with Post’s brigade until driven back to the north. They made a stand at a fence until flanked on both sides, and fell back again to the north for about two miles, crossing the Wilkinson Pike. Here Colonel Housum mortally wounded, Captain Thomas Rose of Bucks County took over the regiment and led it through the rest of the battle. Rose was later captured at Chickamauga and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond. He engineered the mass escape of 109 prisoners in March, 1864.

Reaching the Nashville Pike, they reformed with other units and aided in halting the last Confederate attacks that day. Captain Rose wrote that they “delivered our fire with such great effect that the rebels began to give way.”

Eventually the 77th retired to the rear where it rested and replenished its ammunition. Here they remained on New Year’s Day and on January 2nd and 3rd. They lost 63 of their 307 men, most in the first hour at dawn on December 31st. Kirk’s brigade as a whole lost a staggering 859 men in those few minutes.

When I gave tours of Stones River, I always started at a gas station along the Franklin Pike (now TN Route 96). People usually assumed I was pulling in for a pit stop, but this was actually a planned part of my tour. Here the battle started. That gas station sits at the site of Kirk’s December 31st position.

Unfortunately, most of this part of the battlefield, where the engagement started, is lost to development. Recently the American Battlefield Trust has purchased an area that includes where part of Kirk’s brigade fought. This is significant because it is the first preserved land from the early morning attack phase of the battle (support their work!). Hopefully in the not too distant future it will be possible to walk the ground where these Pittsburgh men made their stand that chilly morning.

Bert Dunkerly is co-author, with Caroline A. Davis, of the book, Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, published by Savas-Beatie.