Hazen Brigade Monument

The Hazen Brigade at the Battle of Stones River

On December 31, 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg surprised the Union army of Major General William S. Rosecrans, driving its right flank back three miles. Supported by massed artillery on high ground behind them, Hazen's men repulsed four Confederate assaults.

The area became known as Hell's Half-Acre. Hazen's regiments suffered 409 casualties, including 45 killed. Their stand arguably prevented the Confederate Army of Tennessee from breaking the Union line.

Creation of the monument

During the summer of 1863, while the Union Army of the Cumberland maneuvered against Bragg in the Tullahoma campaign, members of Hazen's Brigade were detailed back to Stones River to build a monument commemorating their heroism and fallen comrades. A Union army captain described it as a quadrangular pyramidal shaft ten feet square at the base and eleven feet high, enclosed by a dry-stacked stone wall four feet high and two feet thick. In 1864, two experienced stone cutters carved inscriptions including the names of regimental officers killed at Stones River and Shiloh.

Subsequent history

The War Department acquired the 0.84-acre site in 1875, and before 1930 it was administered under the superintendent of Stones River National Cemetery. During that time the monument experienced periods of neglect and deterioration. In 1930, administration of the Hazen Memorial and the National Cemetery were consolidated into Stones River National Military Park; in 1933, the Military Park was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service.

In 1908 he published the story "A Resumed Identity," in which the monument plays a critical role. In 1985, workers repairing the monument discovered in its fill two bullets, eight buck and ball shot, a lead disk, a freshwater mussel shell, two bone fragments, six horse teeth, and two small wood fragments. About five feet above ground, nine other artifacts were found: two 12-pound and one 6-pound cannonballs, three rifled artillery shells, two rifled musket barrels, and a cedar staff.

Because these items were placed at a single level, the National Park Service believed their inclusion was purposeful, though no agreement existed about the meaning of this presumptive time capsule.

Did You Know?

• Ambrose Bierce, who survived the battle unscathed as a staff officer, visited the monument in 1907 and later wrote a story called 'A Resumed Identity' featuring it.
• The monument's south face is inscribed: 'HAZEN'S BRIGADE / TO THE MEMORY OF ITS SOLDIERS WHO FELL AT STONES RIVER, DEC. 31ST 1862 / THEIR FACES TOWARDS HEAVEN, THEIR FEET TO THE FOE.'