Federal Troops on the Square

Federal Troops on the Square. . This view of the square looks to the west and depicts several wood and canvas "shebangs” that sheltered the Federal troops guarding the Provost Marshal's Office downtown., The soldiers constructed these makeshift shelters from all kinds of salvaged materials - random planks served as rough flooring, interior walls were covered with the illustrated pages of weekly papers, and crude chimneys were laid up from the bricks taken from the wall that surrounded the courthouse. Some type of shade, either from trees or cut woven branches, was highly desirable., At the top left of the photograph is the old City Hotel, then owned by D.H.C.Spence. Officers usually found quarters in boarding establishments or private houses. The upper story windows provided protected firing platforms for Union riflemen to defend themselves against Forrest's raid in the summer of 1862. After several hours of fierce fighting, gray-clad cavalrymen captured Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden, briefly the commander of the Murfreesboro post, at the Spence Hotel., When the battle was over, the prisoners were taken to McMinnville, where they were soon paroled. The task of caring for the wounded of both sides fell to the citizens of Murfreesboro. Federal casualties went to the field hospitals that had been established earlier, while the Confederates were taken into private houses and cared for by the townspeople. The dead of both sides were buried honorably in soldiers graves., (caption) , Washington Light Artillery