Artillery Protects The Supply Line: Stones River National Battlefield

From this ideal position, Loomis’ Battery (1^st Michigan Light Artillery – six 2.9” Parrott rifles and Guenther’s Battery Co. H 5^th U. S. Artillery – six 12pdr. Napoleons) smashed Confederate attempts to capture the Nashville Pike, the only supply line open to the Union Army, on the afternoon of December 31, 1862.  Repeated charges of case shot and canister from these guns saved the day for the Union Army.  About 6 p.m. on the 3^rd of January 1863, the supporting fire from these two batteries helped two infantry regiments from Beatty’s Brigade and two infantry regiments from Spears’ Brigade drive the Confederates from the field, thus securing the battlefield of Stones River for the Union Army.

SOURCE:  Interpretive marker to the right of the cannon.