Telling the Stories

Telling the Story – an entry from both C and H

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

“What do you do?” is a fair question.  Quite simply, we tell the story of the Stones River conflict that took place December 31, 1862 – January 2, 1863.   But how does one tell such a story?

I’ve been thinking about that.  The Stones River battle has been called one of the ten bloodiest of the Civil War, and no doubt it is.  But how do we know that?  On what basis can we tell visitors that?   Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Stones River compiled and edited by David Logsdon is one of my best starting points.  Using excerpts from letters and diaries of both Confederate and Union soldiers, as well as those of civilians living in and around Murfreesboro at the time of the battles he tells the chronological story from the Federal encampment in mid-December at Nashville to the Confederate retreat south starting on January 3.  Details such as from an Illinois sergeant, “Some of the men had just put on their coffee to boil, others starting a fire and getting ready for breakfast when we heard light skirmishing on our flank, and immediately the firing grew heavier,” provide the human side of military history.

Each visitor or group of visitors arriving at the Center are greeted by either Hillary or myself, and after a bit of introductory comments, we orient them to the site.  I invite them to join me outside on the patio, at the edge of the “cotton field,” one of the many areas of fighting, to introduce the story and the museum, all within two – three minutes.  Each time we tell the story, and with anywhere between 100 and 300 visitors/day, we tell the story many times, I find myself adding a new detail, omitting something I had been using, all based on additional reading I have done.  We often change the details, and the question we usually ask is whether the visitor has any ancestors who fought at Stones River.  Each week three to five individuals indicate that they have a great-grandfather or some other relative who did fight for one side or the other.  We then ask if they know what regiment they were part of and if so, show them a map indicating not only where that unit fought, but at what hour of the day on December 31 or January 2.

In addition we have excellent secondary resources, of which we can provide copies to give more information about that relative’s unit.  Probably the most difficult part comes if a relative was killed at Stones River and he was a Confederate soldier; we cannot direct them to find a grave in the national cemetery across the road because Confederate soldiers were not Federal soldiers and thus ineligible for national cemetery burial and are buried in private cemeteries, once of which is on the south end of Murfreesboro.

Visitors then move into the museum and view an excellent nine minute movie that clearly and concisely tells the story of the battle, which is considered a Federal victory due to the Confederate retreat by 6:00 on the evening of January 2.  President Lincoln, in a letter to the Union General Rosecrans, expressed his thanks for the “hard-earned battle” which had it not gone as it did, the “country may well not have got over.”

Another aspect of our work is to engage children in the Junior Ranger Program, an effort of the National Park Service to encourage kids to learn more about history and nature.  We have now become photo items as parents record our swearing in of their children.

Hillary also works at the Eastern National book and gift shop, part of the Visitor Center.  In March after two days of work she won the award for most sales for the month - $1800!

Finally, since the site is over 400 acres in size we are sent “roving” on occasion.  That means we walk perhaps 2 ½ miles around the site checking in with park visitors, providing information, assistance, and who knows what all else.  As of today, we have been invited to hop on bikes to increase our range of roving!

To say the least, this does feel on occasion like boot camp.  We will return either very physically fit or casualties of the Civil War ourselves!