The Murfreesboro Post, April 3, 2009
Stones River National Cemetery: The federal government established Stones River National Cemetery by means of an order issued by Major Gen. George H. Thomas to Brig. Gen. Horatio Van Cleve on March 29, 1864. Assistant Quartermaster Captain John Means selected the site, designed the layout of the cemetery and initiated the construction. Chaplain William Earnshaw supervised most of the work of creating the cemetery.
During 1865 and 1866, the 111th Regiment United States Colored Troops performed the arduous and gruesome labor of disinterring and then reburying Union soldiers’ remains in Stones River National Cemetery. Earnshaw reports that he oversaw the process of disinterring the bodies of Union soldiers from various locations such as Stones River battlefield, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Shelbyville, Tullahoma and Cowan, within approximately 90 miles of the cemetery.
Most of the work of reburying remains in the cemetery was completed by 1867. Located on Old Nashville Highway across from the battlefield’s museum, the cemetery is the last resting place for more than 6,000 soldiers from the Civil War, the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and other eras.
To search the cemetery online go to http://www.stonesrivernc.org/search1.php Next, Fortress Rosecrans