In the book, "Three Years and Three Months A Soldier", by Sergeant C.H. Todd, of the 15th Indiana (Company A), it states:

"On December 30th, we formed in line of battle and drove the enemy to within one mile of Murfreesboro to Stone River. My company (Co. A) was on the skirmish line and just at sundown, I received a wound in my right middle finger, which broke the bone, splitting it and making a very painful wound. We went into camp where we were, on the front line.

On the morning of December 31st, at four o'clock, our whole army corps was in line of battle and there we stood until 6 A.M., when all at once, terrific firing commenced on our extreme right, which soon reached the roar of battle of small arms and over fifty cannon.

We looked to the right and an appalling sight met our gaze. One-half mile away was a dense cedar thicket, out of which our men, horses, ambulances, wagons, and cannon were pouring in retreat, frightenend and surprised, and kept up the retreat for two miles, and turned like a gate to the west, which told us that our time would soon come.

At that time, Breckenridge's division swung around our left and rear, out of the thick woods, and we were moved forward to meet them. We hastily crossed an open cotton field to the bank of Stone river and were ordered to lie down under the fire of two batteries -- twelve guns of the enemy, but soon had to face to the side and rear to meet the enemy.

A large number in that short hour had been killed and wounded in our brigade, one of whom was Will Hegler. The Rebels continued to close in on us from the front and rear, determined to turn our left, so we charged them with bayonet and a yell and double quick, bringing back more prisoners than we numbered.

It was then 11 A.M. and general firing, by the division and the army, was universal until 4 P.M. Then soon after that all became quiet, except some picket firing, and so ended the first day's general engagement.

January 1st, both armies reorganized and growled at each other. Only at times there would be a very spirited fight in different places along the line, both by artillery and musketry, both sides holding their own. On January 2, both sides began to manueuver and had several severe fights.

The Rebels shifted a large part of their forces from their left to their right, around behind a thick woods, and about 3:30 P.M. attacked our left with over thirty thousand men. Our outposts and pickets came rushing in to the main line. Along the west bank of Stone river and in line of battle over two miles long, in three columns, more than twenty-five thousand men were coming in a turkey trot, but we were ready to receive them.

Our chief of artillery, General Mendenhall, gave the signal and seventy cannon, forming a line a half mile long with shot, shell, grape, and cannister, belched forth a storm of iron and lead, and fifteen thousand rifles in the hands of the best soldiers in the world helped to make another page in history, brillant with Union men's valor and courage.

I was lying on the ground with our company and regiment, supporting and defending our artillery, which fired so rapidly that they sent forth a continuous sheet of flame that whole length of the line. The earth seemed to expand and contract and shake as a leaf; we could feel ourselves rise and fall with the awful power of concussion which continued for forty minutes.

The timber in our front, where the Confederates were, was literally mowed down, hundreds of the enemy being killed and wounded by falling limbs and parts of trees. The survivors said that in that short time, they lost in killed and wounded twenty-five hundred men besides over one thousand prisoners.

It was the grandest and most magnificent sight I saw during my three years' of service; thus ended the great battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro. On January 3rd, Saturday, the enemy left and we took possession of the town with its four thousand wounded Confederate soldiers, and camped there until July; then we took up our march for Tullahoma where the Rebel army was.

No set of men could have done more than the 15th Indiana did in holding the key of the battle field of Stone River, that hazardous point between the river and the railroad. Never did men make more stubborn resistance against an attacking charge than did the 15th Indiana Volunteers.

As evidence of their heroism and power, look at their dead and wounded who lay two hundred yards in advance of the line of battle where the attacks of Bragg's best men were made and driven back in three distinct bayoney charges.

The enemy, though numbering three to our one, was hurled back and at the same time we brought back more prisoners than we numbered; only one regiment, unsupported part of the time, to charge a brigade and then a division -- an unparalled feat in the face of an army! We were ordered to hold the key to the battlefield of Stone River and we did it and saved our army from utter retreat and rout, though the toll of blood and life was fearful.

Fifty-two of our best lay dead and two hundred wounded; a loss of sixty per cent. Five of my company (Co. A) were among those who gave their all for their country and liberty. The night of December 31st, I went to the field hospital to see and do what I could for our wounded boys, and the horrors of the scenes of that night's work are before me now; cries, groans, screams, agony, begging for some one to kill them and put them out of their awful misery, calling for loved ones to see them once more before they died; doctors cutting off legs, arms and hands; blood flowing; men dying. I could never be induced to go to another field hospital.