Stones River DVD now available.

Wide Awake Films brings the Battle of Stones River to life through original photos, maps, and the backdrop of one of the largest reenactments ever held in Tennessee with an impressive cast of over 5,000 "soldiers" in full battle regalia. Learn about the commanders, and their soldiers, that fought the Battle of Stone's River, and see why it was such a pivotal fight.

Included on this DVD is a special tour of Stone's River National Battlefield Park with NPS Chief Historian Emeritus, Ed Bearss.


Tennessee's bloodiest battle

After Confederate General Braxton Bragg's defeat at Perryville, Kentucky in October of 1862, he and his Confederate army retreated and reorganized near Murfreesboro, Tennessee; prepared to go into winter quarters. Major General William Rosecrans' Union army followed Bragg from Kentucky to Nashville. In December, Rosecrans' 44,000-man army left Nashville to defeat Bragg's 37,000 Rebels.

At dawn on the December 31st, Bragg's Confederates attacked the Union right flank. The Confederates smashed the Union line and had driven them back to the Nashville Pike but the Yankees held. Union reinforcements arrived in the late forenoon to bolster and establish a new, reformed, line. Bragg surmised that Rosecrans would withdraw, but the next morning the Yankees were was still in position. In late afternoon of January 2, Bragg attacked a Union division that had taken up a strong position on the bluff east of Stones River. The savage Confederate assault drove most of the Federals back across McFadden's Ford, but with the assistance of artillery, the Federals repulsed the attack, compelling the Rebels to retire to their original position.

Bragg left the field, retreating to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, Tennessee. Rosecrans claimed the victory at Stones River boosted Union morale and solidified that much of the State would remain in Union control. In total, more than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, missing or captured; making December 31st, 1862 Tennessee's deadliest day in history, and the bloodiest fight in the "Western Theater" of the American Civil War.