February 16, 2025
The massive field just outside the NPS Visitor Center in Murfreesboro, TN was the location of one of the Civil War’s bloodiest battles. 81,000 men fought here to control middle Tennessee’s railroad and supply lines. 1677 Union and 1294 Confederate soldiers died in the field.
The field now contains wild grass instead of cotton. The railroad is still there. The Hazen Brigade Monument, erected soon after the battle by Union soldiers to commemorate their fallen comrades buried just yards away, is the oldest Civil War monument still standing in its original location.
After the battle, the Union army built the nearby enclosed and earthen 200-acre Fortress Rosecrans to warehouse food, ammunition, and other supplies, facilitating the Union’s continued push through the South.
