General Rosecrans's Headquarters Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Stones River National Battlefield, National Park Service

National Park Service

General Rosecrans’s Headquarters Site is a discontiguous tract of the Stones River National Battlefield, located northwest of Murfreesboro in Central Tennessee. A parking pull-off provides visitor access from Old Nashville Pike. The significance of the landscape is associated with Civil War events and the subsequent period of battlefield commemoration. The defining feature of the site is a monument; aside from the inscription, the marker is identical to the Bragg's Headquarters Site marker located approximately one-and-three-quarter miles to the southeast. The War Department erected both markers in 1931 during its establishment of the Stones River National Military Park, commemorating the headquarters of the opposing commanders during the Battle of Stones River (1862-1863). Thus, the site is significant for its importance during the Civil War battle, as well as for its association with the War Department’s efforts in early battlefield preservation and commemorative landscape development (1928-1933). Rosecrans’s Headquarters site was believed to be the strategic position used by the Federal commander Maj. General William Rosecrans on January 2, 1863; however, recent historic research has indicated that the actual headquarters location was elsewhere. While the battle era continues to be suggested by the monument, the appearance of the current landscape represents the 1930s design. The historic commemorative landscape is defined by a flat, open lawn surrounded on three sides by an overgrown privet hedge and fencerow. The visual focus of the small, rectangular site is the Rosecrans's Headquarters marker, situated in the center of the tract. A concrete walk leads directly to and encircles the headquarters monument. The monument consists of a six-by-six beveled granite base supporting a pyramidal stack of cast concrete cannon shot. Vegetation along three of the property boundaries screens the site from the adjacent private land holdings. Other features of the site include an earthen berm piled chest high with slag from the adjacent quarry, located behind the fence and privet, and manicured privet hedges bounding the parking lot. The overall design of the landscape is representative of Civil War commemoration developed by the War Department in battlefield parks during the 1930s. The landscape surrounding the site was once part of the Stones River Battlefield, indicating this site’s importance with regard to the broader context of battle-era events. The site is flanked by open fields with views of the road and railroad tracks, suggestive of historic views and the significance of these transportation routes during the Civil War. Although some of the vegetation at the site boundaries is overgrown and changes have been made to vegetation species and walkway materials, the site retains its overall design, views, and spatial organization. It appears much as it did during the commemorative period, and - despite not being the actual location of Rosecrans’s Headquarters - the associations between the landscape, Civil War events, and the subsequent commemoration period persist.

General Rosecrans's Headquarters Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Stones River National Battlefield, National Park Service

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