Gloria Shacklett Christy, The Murfreesboro Post, March 10, 2013
Robert Mitchell
Thursday marked an important date of history for Rutherford County. It was on this day 151 years ago that the strategic city of Murfreesboro would forever be changed.
As the springtime beauty of the redbuds blanketed the forests in crimson, a cloud of cool morning mist shrouded the tiny village of Murfreesboro like an enchanted mirage on March 7, 1862.
One citizen described Murfreesboro as a kind of beautiful red bird in full plumage. Nothing could disturb the peace of this tiny Southern community.
Folks spoke of the war, but most were confident that it would never arrive to this sleepy little town. Nevertheless, for the last several days, small parties of soldiers had been coming closer and closer up the Nashville Pike.
Rumors intimated that danger was brewing.
That winter, men would gather in small groups generally in some merchant’s store, sitting on nail kegs, whittling and smoking for long hours to discuss the war. Some would converse nervously about the panic in Nashville after the fall of Fort Donelson. Although many roads and bridges to Nashville had been destroyed, folks persisted relentlessly with this delusion, “War can rage all around us, but it’ll never come here, not in Murfreesboro.”
The morning silence was shattered by the strange sound of horses pounding and the roll of heavy artillery wagon trains. All at once, long lines of Union Army cavalry circled the Square. The men rode with their thumbs on their triggers, holding their breath, and looking wildly around at the buildings, expecting any moment a deadly shower of bullets from the windows.
“Halt,” the general ordered his troops, as a crowd of distraught Murfreesboro residents gathered curiously.
Greatly relieved that his arrival had occurred without incident, the general became a little more confident. He began flamboyantly straightening himself in his stirrups. Finally, he slowly began to address the frightened citizens.
“We are now in charge of your town,” he said. “We’re here to restore law and order. I know that the bridges and roads to Nashville have been destroyed. Were these bridges and roads destroyed by the consent of the people in this town?”
One Confederate soldier answered fearlessly, “Indeed, we knew about it, and it was done with our blessing.”
“Well, if that be the case, I know what kind of people we will have to deal with here,” the general replied in disgust.
This was the first incident of Yankees entering Murfreesboro.
Now, the war had become an undeniable reality.
Three days later on March 10, the citizens were greeted again with the sound of drum and fife, the rattle of more artillery wagons, columns of marching infantry, advancing with glittering bayonets, flags, ensigns, and banners.
All the pomp and display of prancing steeds bearing riders with drawn swords preceded another Union general, Robert Mitchell.
Mitchell ordered the Confederate flag to be taken down, and a Union flag was hoisted to the top of the Rutherford County Courthouse. The army began pitching tents in the courtyard around the Square, where it was convenient for watering the horses. Finally, the federal troops had taken formal possession of Murfreesboro.
According to Carlton Sims in his book the “History of Rutherford County”, Rutherford County became the, “Little Theater” of war for the Civil War.
No area of Tennessee, and probably no equal area of the entire South, can point to as many finger prints of the war as Rutherford County.
War came time and time again not only to the doors but to the very firesides and dining tables of Rutherford County families. Homes were used for hospitals, headquarters for officers, for fortresses and barracks.
Geographically, Rutherford County being the exact center of the state, good roads radiated in every direction, and of course, the railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga made Murfreesboro a strategic area.