Battle of Clarksville (The First Stone)

Prelude
The Battle of Cedar Grove had dealt horrendous losses to the Northern Army of the Ohio. As a result, William Rosecrans was relieved of command and placed in a divisional position, and George H. Thomas took command of the army. Still, things were incredibly grim for the Northern army. For four days the army had retreated through upper Tennessee, following the Cumberland River. On the seventeenth, Thomas took a platform and gave a long and powerful speech to encourage his troops to fight hard. Thomas still needed a successful battle to turn the tide of the war, and he expected to get one in the morning.

Battle
At approximately 9:30 a.m. on the eighteenth, Thomas attacked his pursuers. He sent a brigade under General McCook as well as one under General Van Cleve, and attacked the salient on the Confederate left. Early in the battle Thomas was wounded, and Rosecrans took up temporary command. Both brigades punched through, routing the Confederate troops. Only the brigade under General Benjamin Cheatham managed to pull up in time and slow the breakthrough. Still, his division would not hold for long. Reinforcements trickled in to aid him, but Bragg also had to contend with an attack on his right. A division under General Crittenden had slammed into the Confederate lines, the two sides seesawing back and forth over a creek for much of the battle. By the time it had seemed that General Van Cleeve had broken the lines of Cheatham's division, night had fallen.

Aftermath
The Battle of Clarksville was a bloody and confused mess. With almost five thousand casualties total, the battle was not the bloodiest, but in improving the morale of northern troops it was decisive. Although Bragg retreated first, theoretically making him the loser, by nightfall no one had achieved the upper hand, and battle lines were almost as they were preceding the battle. Thomas would ride on this victory and besiege Bragg and his forces in Clarksville, not knowing that this encounter would be the bloodiest he ever endured.