Bragg, Report. Part I., p. 669. Rousseau's division cleared the woods in his front CH. XIII. and captured some prisoners. The reserve strength was evidently on the side of the Northern army. Bragg's forces were sinking with fatigue, with lack of rest and food; their clothes were drenched with the cold rain; a constant stream of sick and exhausted was dribbling to the hospitals in the rear; worse than that, straggling had set in, the vol. XX., most ominous sign of all. The exasperating rain kept on, and the rise in the waters of Stone's River filled General Bragg with alarm. General Joseph Wheeler, coming in from the front, reported that instead of Rosecrans's retiring there was a prospect of reënforcements coming to him. As a last discouragement, at midnight of the 2d, after the Jan., 1863. costly repulse of Breckinridge, B. F. Cheatham and Jones M. Withers, two of Bragg's principal generals, had reported that there were only three brigades in their commands upon which they could rely, and that even these were more or less demoralized; they intimated that grave disaster might follow if they held their ground much longer. This sinister communication was forwarded by Polk, who added to it his own recommendation to retreat. "I very greatly fear," he said, "the consequences of another engagement at this place in the ensuing day. We could now, perhaps, get off with some safety and some credit, if the affair is well managed. Should we fail in the meditated attack the consequences might be very Vol. XX., disastrous." Deeply distressed, but convinced that the safety of his army required it, Bragg determined to withdraw from the field of his barren victory, and made his preparations with such skill and W. R. Part I., p. 700. W. R. Part I., p. 662. CH. XIII. secrecy that he was on the march before midnight Jan., 1863. of the 3d, and on the 5th he telegraphed from Tullahoma: "Unable to dislodge the enemy from his intrenched position, and learning of reënforcements Vol. XX., to him, I withdrew from his front night before last. He has not followed." Rosecrans learned of the retreat of his enemy the next day, and at once moved forward and occupied Murfreesboro, but, considering the start that Bragg had gained, the state of the roads, and the heavy loss of artillery horses in the late battles, he decided not to pursue. Although the fight at Murfreesboro was tactically a drawn battle, though each general failed in making the points he intended, its ultimate results justified the Government and the country in hailing it as an important victory for the Union arms. It was fought by equal forces on either side. Each general, in his report, naturally attributed superior numbers to his adversaries, but in truth there was little difference in the forces engaged, there being some 43,000 on each side. The Union loss was slightly greater than that of the Confederates, but the proportion of casualties to the numbers engaged on both sides was appalling. Rosecrans lost, in killed and wounded alone, onefifth of his entire force in action, and Bragg almost as many.1 The captured arms and stores, though 1 Rosecrans says in his report an effective force of 51,036— (W. R. Vol. XX., Part. I., p. 39,304 infantry; 10,070 cav196): "We fought the battle alry, and 1758 artillery; half with the following force: in- of his cavalry was away at the fantry, 37,977; artillery, 2223; time of the battle, which would cavalry, 3200; total, 43,400." reduce his force to about the Bragg's field return for the 10th same number as that commanded of December, 1862 (W. R. Vol. by Rosecrans. Bragg lost 10,266 XX., Part. II., p. 446), gives him killed, wounded, and missing. valuable to Bragg, were of little importance to Rosecrans; while the demoralization of the Confederates after the battle, as shown by the reports of Polk's division officers, to which we have referred, had no counterpart in the firm ranks of the national troops. In its wider significance and results the advantage of the battle was entirely upon the Union side. West Tennessee and Kentucky were never again seriously threatened by the armies of the Confederacy. When, after a long delay, the two armies resumed active operations in the following summer, the ease with which Rosecrans pushed his way from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga was a result of the stubborn power displayed by the Union army on the last day of the year 1862 at Stone's River. It must be said also that Rosecrans deserved the credit which this great battle brought him. It is true his plan went altogether awry, but his magnificent coolness and courage in staying the tide of disaster in the morning, and repulsing the victorious enemy in the afternoon, his fortitude in breasting the blows of circumstance and obstinately refusing to accept the fact of defeat, magnificently redeemed the errors of his plan and the faulty formation of his line of battle. In the midst of the gloom which the carnage of Fredericksburg had spread over the country, even the drawn battle of Murfreesboro, and the consequent retreat of the enemy, was a source of wide comfort and encouragement, and Rosecrans (W. R. Vol. XX., Part I., p. 674.) Rosecrans lost (W. R. Vol. XX., Part. I., p. 215) in killed, 1730; wounded, 7802, CH. XIII. CH. XIII. will be held to have fully deserved the warm words Jan. 5, 1863. of greeting which President Lincoln sent him: "God bless you and all with you! Please tender to all, and accept for yourself, the nation's gratitude for your and their skill, endurance, and dauntless courage." W. R. Vol. XX., Part I., p. 186. CHAPTER XIV WEST VIRGINIA ADMITTED IN reviewing the work of Congress and the Ad- CHAP. XIV. ministration during the winter of 1862, we must again take up the account of the political division of the original State of Virginia, and the formation from a portion of her territory of the new State of West Virginia. To do this we must briefly recapitulate what has already been narrated; namely, that a Convention of delegates chosen by the Virginia counties lying west of the great Alleghany mountain range repudiated the secession and rebellion, of which Governor Letcher was chief and Richmond the center, and formally organized the restored government of Virginia, at Wheeling, on the 19th of June, 1861. They made Francis H. Peirpoint governor, who officially invoked the protection of the Federal Government, which President Lincoln duly promised. They constituted a Legislature by calling together such members, recently chosen, as would take an oath of allegiance to the United States and the restored government of Virginia, and filled the vacancies of those who refused by new elections. This Legislature chose United States Senators whom Congress admitted to seats. Still further, the Convention which passed these ordinances reassembled at |