Third Battle of Murfreesboro ~ Civil War Battles

The Third Battle of Murfreesboro, also known as Wilkinson Pike or the Cedars, was fought December 5–7, 1864, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War.

Background

In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered a terrible loss at Franklin, he continued toward Nashville. In operating against Nashville, he decided that destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and disruption of the Union army supply depot at Murfreesboro would help his cause. He sent Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, on December 4, with an expedition composed of two cavalry divisions and Maj. Gen. William B. Bate's infantry division to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Battle

On December 2, Hood had ordered Bate to destroy the railroad and blockhouses between Murfreesboro and Nashville and join Forrest for further operations. On December 4, Bate's division attacked Blockhouse No. 7 protecting the railroad crossing at Overall Creek, but Union forces fought it off. On the morning of December 5, Forrest headed out toward Murfreesboro, splitting his force, one column to attack the fort on the hill and the other to take Blockhouse No. 4, both at La Vergne. Upon his demand for surrender at both locations, the Union garrisons did so. Outside La Vergne, Forrest hooked up with Bate's division and the command advanced on to Murfreesboro along two roads, driving the Union forces into their Fortress Rosecrans fortifications, and encamped in the city outskirts for the night. The next morning, on December 6, Forrest ordered Bate's division to "move upon the enemy’s works." Fighting flared for a couple of hours, but the Union troops ceased firing and both sides glared at each other for the rest of the day. Brig. Gen. Claudius W. Sears's and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's infantry brigades joined Forrest's command in the evening, further swelling his numbers.

On the morning of December 7, Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, commanding all of the forces at Murfreesboro, sent two brigades out under Brig. Gen. Robert H. Milroy on the Salem Pike to feel out the enemy. These brigades, led by veterans Horatio P. Van Cleve and Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski, engaged the Confederates and fighting continued. At one point some of Forrest's troops broke and ran causing disorder in the Confederate ranks; even entreaties from Forrest and Bate did not stem the rout of these units. The rest of Forrest's command conducted an orderly retreat from the field and encamped for the night outside Murfreesboro. Forrest had destroyed railroad track, blockhouses, and some homes and generally disrupted Union operations in the area, but he did not accomplish much else. The raid on Murfreesboro was a minor irritation, and Forrest was absent at the Battle of Nashville.

Order of battle

Union

District of Tennessee - Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau

Defenses of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad - Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy
- 1st Brigade - Brig. Gen. Horatio P. Van Cleve
- 3rd Brigade - Col. Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski
4th Division (XX Corps) - Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau
- 1st Brigade - Col. William P. Lyon
- 2nd Brigade - Col. Edwin C. Mason

Confederate

Cavalry Corps - Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest

Buford's Division - Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford
- Bell's Brigade - Col. Tyree Bell
- Crossland's Brigade - Col. Edward Crossland
Jackson's Division - Brig. Gen. William Hicks Jackson
- Armstrong's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Frank C. Armstrong
- Ross's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Lawrence S. Ross

Attached Infantry

Bate's Division (from Cheatham's Corps) - Maj. Gen. William B. Bate
- Tyler's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Thomas Benton Smith
- Finley's Brigade - Major Jacob A. Lash
- Jackson's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Henry R. Jackson
Stevenson's Division
- Brown's & Reynolds's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer
French's Division
- Sears's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Claudius W. Sears

Third Battle of Murfreesboro

Part of the American Civil War