On the evening of December 30, 1862, Union Brigadier General Joshua Sill grew nervous. Large numbers of rebel troops could be heard in the darkness marching toward his corps’ right flank; a march, perhaps, to outflank the Union Army of the Cumberland prior to launching an attack. Erring on the side of caution, Sill rode to division headquarters to warn his division commander, Brigadier General Philip H. Sheridan. Afterwards, both of them preceded to the corps headquarters at the Gresham House, a log cabin just off the Wilkinson Turnpike near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They found their corps commander, Major General Alexander M. McCook, sleeping on a bed of hay, exhausted from a winter march in mud and freezing rain. Unlike his subordinates, he was confident the rebels across the river would not attack. Besides, Union troops were going to attack the Confederate right flank in the morning, thus preventing any rebel attack on the Union right. “I am only to hold my line, and wait for orders from headquarters,” he told them. The matter was dropped. Complacent in their confidence, McCook and his troops were about to endure the most terrifying ordeal in their lives. Less than a mile from his position, 12,000 Confederate troops were amassed for an all out assault the following morning. Spearheading the assault was a brigade of battle-hardened Texans under Brigadier General Matthew Ector.
A lawyer by profession, Ector was born in Putnam County, Georgia on February 28, 1822. He moved to Henderson, Texas in 1850 where he practiced law, edited the Henderson “Democrat” newspaper and served in the Texas State Legislature for a single term. When the war began, Ector enlisted as a private then later became adjutant to General Joseph L. Hogg. He was later elected colonel of the 14th Texas Cavalry. In August, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general after his regiment distinguished itself at the Battle of Richmond during Major General Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky.
Ector’s Brigade consisted of four brigades of dismounted Texas cavalry and a battery under Captain James P. Douglas. Most of the men had enlisted in cavalry regiments from North Central and East Texas, serving in Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Under the mercurial command of Major General Earl Van Dorn, they rode for the Tennessee border to join the Army of Mississippi under the command of Major General P. G. T. Beauregard. Before crossing the Mississippi, they were ordered to give up their horses upon payment for their value and convert to infantrymen. Their destination was Corinth, Mississippi - a disease-ridden railroad junction and Beauregard’s army headquarters. After Beauregard’s ignominious retreat from Corinth, he was replaced with Bragg; who renamed the army - the Army of Tennessee. Supporting butternut jackets, homespun shirts and slouch hats, the Texans were originally armed with their own weapons from home – mostly crudely-made Bowie knives and short-range shotguns that were eventually replaced with Enfield or Belgian rifles acquired through capture or blockade runners..
Placed under the command of Tennessean Major General John P. McCown, Ector’s Brigade marched into Kentucky in an unsuccessful attempt to bring the Bluegrass State into the Confederacy. After the Battle of Perryville, they retreated back into East Tennessee. Failing in Kentucky, Bragg settled for an occupation of Middle Tennessee and the crucial railroad town of Chattanooga. From Knoxville, Bragg marched his 35,000 troops to Murfreesboro, setting up a defensive line along Stone’s River under two corps commanders – Major General William J. Hardee and Major General Leonidas Polk. Both were outspoken opponents of Bragg. McCown’s division was under Hardee and assigned the far left end of Bragg’s line.
Across the river, the 42,000 man Army of the Cumberland, under Major General William S. Rosecrans, approached Murfreesboro after a 34 mile march from Nashville. By December 30, both armies faced each other from north to south along the banks of Stone’s River. Yanks and rebels slept in cold mud covered with a rain-drenched blanket or no blanket at all. No campfires were allowed; their sole comfort was their respective army bands serenading them through the night. The song “Home Sweet Home” was a special favorite. Bragg and Rosecrans planned to attack the right flank of the opposing army, cutting off its supply line and escape path. Planning to attack at dawn, the rebels would beat Rosecrans to the punch. If all went well, the Union right would be jackknifed into the Union left, forcing them into the river. With the Ector’s Brigade in the middle, seven brigades under McCown and Major General Patrick Cleburne would initiate the assault. In front of them were the Union brigades of Brigadier General Edward N. Kirk, a lawyer in civilian life, and German-born revolutionary Brigadier General August Willich, who once served in the Prussian Army and edited a Communist newspaper.
Commands were passed down to McCown’s field officers, “Be quiet - get your men in line - see that their guns are in working order - no talking or laughing.” Whiskey, for warmth or fortitude, was also passed around the ranks. At 6:00 AM, the order was given, “Forward, march!”
Union pickets saw them first - a ghostly line of gray emerging from the morning fog. Fleeing to the rear, they spread the alarm, “They’re coming!” Advancing at the double-quick, the Texans overran the 34th Illinois first along with an Ohio battery under Captain Warren P. Edgarton. To make matters worse for the Yanks, their field of fire was blocked by innumerable cedar trees. “It seemed that the whole Confederate Army burst out of a piece of wood immediately on the front,” recalled a Union private. Both brigades collapsed, sending a wave of terrified artillery horses and panicked Union troops, bereft of their muskets, fleeing to the rear. Lt. Tunnel of the 14th Texas recalled the panic, “Many of the Yanks were either killed or retreated in their nightclothes. We found a caisson with the horses still attached lodged against a tree and other evidence of their confusion.” Both Kirk and Willich were taken prisoner. Sheridan, who was still suspicious of a Confederate attack, kept his men in line and at arms through the night. Together with Brigadier General James S. Negley, they stalled the rebels along their lines; a site of gnarled cedars and rocky outcroppings the combatants referred to as “The Slaughter Pen.” General Sill was killed after a bullet struck him square in the face. Ector continued his advance, losing men along the way from bullets and canister shot. After three miles, the exhausted Texans were halted by an impenetrable blue line of infantry and artillery along the Nashville Turnpike; their dead left in piles after several fruitless attempts to capture the Union’s Chicago Board of Trade Battery. One of the Texans recalled, “The artillery opened up on us and it seemed that the heavens and the earth were coming together.” A group of Texans waived a white handkerchief to surrender. One of them told his captors, “I am tired of this foolishness and I want to see it stopped.” The charge stopped for the night, leaving a long trail of dead and wounded. Ector’s Brigade suffered 343 casualties. One colonel, J. C. Burks, was killed during the charge.
For three grueling miles, Ector’s Brigade and the Army of Tennessee pushed Rosecran’s army into near destruction. Union resolve, diminished numbers and low ammunition turned the tide. An assault on the Union left the following day by Major General John Breckinridge met with disaster. Bragg decided to retreat to Shelbyville. Both sides suffered 24,000 casualties - three thousand lay dead on the field. Ector’s Brigade served with the Army of Tennessee until the end of the war, suffering heavy casualties at the Battle of Allatoona. They surrendered at Meridian, Mississippi on May 4, 1865. Ector returned to his law practice in Henderson with a new wife, Sallie P. Chew, and without a leg, amputated from a wound suffered during the Atlanta campaign. He was buried in Marshall Texas after his death in 1879. Ector County in West Texas was named after him.
