o succeeded Major-General Buell in command, General
McCook was assigned to command the right wing in the Department of the
Cumberland. On the 26th of December, 1862, the Army of the Cumberland
moved from Nashville to attack the enemy in position in front of
Murfreesboro. General McCook commanded the right. On the evening of
December 30 the two armies were in line of battle, confronting each
other. Rosecrans had massed his reserves on the left, to crush the
rebel right with heavy columns, and turn their position. Bragg,
unfortunately, learning of his dispositions during the night, massed
almost his entire army in front of McCook, and in the gray of the
following morning, and before we had attacked on the left, advanced
with desperate fury upon the right wing. Outnumbered, outflanked, and
overpowered, the right was forced to retire, not, however, until its
line of battle was marked with the evidences of its struggle and the
fearful decimation of the enemy. To check the advancing rebel masses,
already flushed with anticipated victory, the Federal reserves moved
rapidly to the rescue. The furious onslaught of the enemy was
resisted, and the right and the fortunes of the day were saved.

The rebels, whipped on the left and center, checked on the right,
foiled in every attack, having lost nearly one-third of their numbers,
fled from the field on the night of the 3d of January, and the
victorious Union army advanced through their intrenchments into
Murfreesboro. The great battle of Stone River, dearly won, and
incomplete in its results, was yet a victory.

The right was turned and forced to retire in the first day's fight.
Whether this was attributable to accidental causes, that decide so
many important engagements, or to the superior generalship of the
rebel commander, it is at least certain that generalship was not
wanting in the disposition of the forces under General McCook; nor was
courage wanting in his troops.

Major-General McCook now commands the Twentieth Army Corps.

CHAPTER IV.

Looking for the Body of a Dead Nephew on the Field of
Murfreesboro -- The 6th Ohio at Murfreesboro -- The Dead of
the 6th -- The 35th Indiana -- Putting Contrabands to Some
Service -- Anxiety of Owners to Retain their Slaves --
Conduct of a Mistress -- "Don't Shoot, Massa, here I Is!" --
Kidd's Safeguard -- "Always Been a Union Man" -- Negroes
Exhibiting their Preference for their Friends.