Army of the Cumberland and the Battle of Stone's River

In the autumn of 1862, a change of command brought William S. Rosecrans to the army gathering near Bowling Green, Kentucky. G. C. Kniffin follows the decisions and personalities behind that transition before tracing the approach to Stone's River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Prepared as a military paper and read in 1907, the account combines campaign history with sharply drawn portraits of commanders, including George H. Thomas, Thomas L. Crittenden and Alexander McD. McCook.

Kniffin writes from a Union perspective and brings himself into the action when he describes watching an artillery exchange near La Vergne. A shell passing between two horses gives the discussion of troop movements a sudden personal scale. Elsewhere, roads, river crossings and the coordination of separate columns shape his explanation of Rosecrans's battle plan. Readers interested in Civil War command will find both operational detail and a veteran's judgments about the officers responsible for carrying it out.