The Railroad & Fortress Rosecrans

The Railroad and Fortress Rosecrans. . After the Battle of Stones River, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans initiated construction of a substantial fortification at Murfreesboro., James St. Clair Morton, Chief of Engineers in the Army of the Cumberland, designed the earthen bastion, the largest built by the Federal Army during the war. Rosecrans envisioned that the completed fort would provide a base for future operations, serve as a forward supply depot, and provide a refuge for the army should it suffer defeat., Construction of Fortress Rosecrans began on January 23, 1863. Nearly five thousand soldiers and African American laborers worked on the fort twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, until its completion in April. A line of entrenchments almost three miles long formed the fort's outer perimeter, which enclosed an area of about 200 acres. The earthworks protected four sawmills located along the banks of the Stones River and two commissary depots astride the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad tracks. The stronghold was never seriously attacked., In 1866, the US Army abandoned the fort, and only a small portion is extant today. The wooden structures within the complex were disposed of and the earthen walls and redoubts were likely mined for fill dirt or allowed to erode. Although most of Fortress Rosecrans is now gone, the parts that remain are substantial enough to convey its massive size, as well as its purpose and significance., (captions) , Fortress Rosecrans map , Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans , Stockade on the L&N Railroad