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Saturday, December 31, 2011

31 December 1862: Wednesday - Battle of Murfreesboro, TN

Union - government
In Washington, President Lincoln meets with his Cabinet to make final adjustments to the Emancipation Proclamation. Burnside, called for courtmartial testimony, meets with the President.

President Lincoln also approves an act admitting West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state. He also signs an agreement with a promoter for a colony of free Negroes on Il a Vache, Haiti.

Confederacy - Government
President Davis wires his Secretary of War from Mobile, "Guns and ammunition most effective against ironclads needed at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Very much depends upon prompt supply."

Confederacy - Military
Tennessee

The Confederates at Murfreesboro had awaited assault from Rosencrans advancing Union army, but it did not come on the 30th. So they decided that they would do the attacking. General Bragg was to swing with his left and crush the Union right flank. Rosencrans was to swing in much the same way.

But Bragg got the initiative and immediately after dawn Hardee's reinforced Southern corps opened strongly on the Union right.

From the beginning the Union troops were on the defensive. The Confederate divisions wheeled into line and the Union troops wheeled with them, holding for a time until , after several assaults on the Norther flank, the Union troops were forced back to Murfreesboro-Nashville Pike and pinned with their backs against Stone River.

By noon, Rosencrans men had a strong defensive position along the turnpike.

Assaults continued until late afternoon, but the Union line did not break.Casualties of the assaulting Confederates were heavy but success was there.

After the day-long fight, the armies remained on the field within range of each other; the Confederates entenvhing, the Union conferring. They could withdraw toward Nasdville for the road was still open, or they could stay along the road with their backs to the river.

Rosencrans, supported by George H. Thomas, decides to stay.

Confederate cavalry under Joseph Wheeler had been active all day, riding completely around the Union army, seizing wagons and supplies and fighting skirmishes.

Tennessee
At Parker's Store or Cross Roads, near Lexington, KY, Nathan Bedford Forrest attempts to escape Union pursuers after his successful raid on Grant's lines, finds his way blocked. He manages to push forward, but then is also hit from behind. He loses 300 prisoners, guns, horses and materiel of war he had captured. But his command manages to escape.

Arkansas/Missouri
Confederate John S. Marmaduke begins a month-long raid from Arkansas into Missouri.

Union - Military
Mississippi

General Sherman continues to explore various plans for assaulting the bluffs at Vicksburg from Chickasaw Bayou.

Kentucky
There is a skirmish at Muldraugh's Hill.

Louisiana
There is a skirmish at Plaquemine.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

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