Hell by the Acre: A Narrative of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862 - January 1863
Savas Beatie
copyright 2025
Hell by the Acre is simply a terrific book.
And when I say book, I mean book. It is over 600 pages, hardcover, with a wonderful dust jacket. It is thick and heavy. It reminds me of the scene in Crocodile Dundee, when Mick Dundee says "That is not a knife. This is a knife" and whips out a large, intimidating blade. I'm just waiting for someone to show me the book they just read, so I can say "that is not a book, this is a book" and drop it down with a loud thud on the table. That may make little sense from a true perspective of a review, but it was the first impression I got and maintained. It's just a different tactile sensation than I get from most books I read. No e-book can match it.
Despite its size, this book should not be intimidating to prospective readers. Not at all. The narrative is so well-written and flows so well, that this book is not a difficult read. It actually moves fairly quickly, though the sheer number of pages on which this writing lands does, of course, require some time to finish, so I won’t go so far as to label it a quick read - just an enjoyable, informative one.
From another perhaps selfish angle, this book let me see just how little I knew of this battle, and how bloody, tough, and downright nasty this contest was. I'm still no expert on it, but this volume gave me a much better appreciation of this fight. I expect to retain at least a more basic understanding than I had previously. In other words - it taught me something. Entertainment is good, but I suspect that most or all Civil War students read such works to gain knowledge and understanding, and this work hits a home run in that regard.
Additionally, the title reveals another important component of this work - it's not just about the actual battle from December 31 through January 2, but of the entire campaign. It starts with a terrific overview of the two army leaders, William Rosecrans, nearly arrived in what became the Army of the Cumberland, and Braxton Bragg of what he would redesignate the Army of Tennessee and how both arrived in their positions.
Masters then describes the campaign in the weeks before the actual fighting, setting the scene for the carnage that followed. The way each leader tried to improve their armies' discipline and the various skirmishes, marches, and weather-related challenges they faced before the actual all help address questions like "why at Murfreesboro" and "why at the end of December" This beginning is a logical, yet beautiful way to approach the battle and the bigger picture of the war in this region of the country in late 1862. It truly sets the scene for the end of December and beginning of January.
In a book focused on a battle, the description of the actual combat is an important, perhaps THE key part of the work, and Masters' ability to weave a sensible understanding out of the chaos of this engagement may be the strong point of this book. His writing makes it abundantly clear how tough, deadly, and fast-moving the fighting was all over the battlefield was, especially on December 31 when the Confederate attack began.
At some points, I did find myself wondering where Rosecrans was and what was he doing. Was he panicking as his right side was broken into shambles? What was Bragg thinking? I then recalled that the introduction indicated that the reason the author wrote this was to “ensure that the men who did the actual fighting get their just due in the history of the Stones River campaign.” (p. xi) With that back in my mind, I found that this book achieved that goal. Masters used a vast number of sources, from both sides, that do show what this whirlwind of chaos looked and felt like from the perspectives of the men around the battleground as time passed. Rosecrans and Bragg took a backseat during the book’s description of most of the fighting as they did during the actual battle. This was about the fighting men, and their strength, courage, and resiliency - as well as their humanity in recognizing when situations become hopeless, and retreat is necessary, even if in a panic - shine through on these pages. It's barely possible to imagine the conditions during the fight and even at night when the fighting napped, but the frigid air and the sounds of wounded and dying men in the darkness surrounded the survivors. For those able to drift off that night, what must their dreams have been like, still on the scene of such carnage?
Rosecrans and Bragg do show up again later in this narrative, at an appropriate time and place in both the battle's timeline and the book. This shows how well the book's organization was thought-out in meeting the dual plans of telling the story of the battle and of focusing on the combatants.
One cliche is that all stories have three sides. For Civil War studies, those might be the "Union side," the "Confederate side," and some mysterious "truth." The sources that Masters found and used tell the views of the Union and Confederate soldiers, and the author's analysis of the fighting, including decisions made, strategy and tactics employed, and overall performance of both leaders and the soldiers, try to determine that elusive truth, at least as much as it can be found 160+ years later. It is an important part of any study of a battle to discuss not only what happened, but why and how these events and decisions mattered or influenced other movements during it after the engagement. That comes through strongly in this volume.
I enjoyed the maps and photographs in this book. At times, I found myself looking back a few pages to look again at the most recent map to help me visualize the ongoing action I was reading about. These maps were very clear to read and helped my comprehension of the fight and where the combatants were in relation to each other.
The occasional photographs of battle participants spread throughout the text are also a nice addition. I think I like the pictures as placed in this book, where they fit in with the timeline of the narrative, sometimes near a quote from that soldier or where the text mentions his actions or even death, more than other works which often just include a "photographs" section in thru r middle sections, though maybe one or two photographs of parts of the remaining battlefield may have worked, especially in the last chapter with its focus on preservation.
One other nit to pick occurred in the latter part of the work, when both sides had units from Kentucky fighting on the same day, I sometimes had to stop and double check a bit to determine if it was a Union or Confederate Kentucky unit being mentioned. I wonder if that could have been made a bit clearer or if that was just my problem. (For instance, both sides had a 6th Kentucky Infantry present and fighting.)
As this story nears its end, a brief discussion of whether this was an actual Federal victory or not grabs the reader's attention. This section, including the comparison of the bloodshed at this battle to other large battles of the war, was a great addition, once again providing valuable context. Masters shows how the Union's viewpoint of this fight as a victory was a morale booster following recent bad defeats in Viriginia and Mississippi in the same month. Abraham Lincoln certainly appreciated the outcome of this fight as his final Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
This book also explores the unsurprising disagreements between Bragg and his subordinates after the commander had made the decision to retreat and then asked them for their thoughts on him as commander. This analysis was just what a book such as this needs, and, again, meets the desires of people wanting to read such a book.
I also appreciate the use of footnotes instead of endnotes and that the index includes mentions of the regiments involved under their state names. That makes it easier to look up a specific unit, although I can barely fathom how much extra work and effort that took. The order of battle was very helpful as well. Using it and the various maps made the action easier for me to follow, at least in understanding the units involved and their placement on the landscape.
I certainly recommend this book highly to anyone wanting a good Civil War work to read. It is a must add to Civil War bookshelves.
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