Army of the Cumberland, June 24-26, 1863 (Christiana)

Liberty Gap was a fight over a pass, and it tested new ways of fighting. Colonel Thomas Harrison's mounted infantry, armed with Spencer repeating rifles, took the crossroads at the cost of one wounded man. Then August Willich, who had worked the idea out as a prisoner of war, drilled the 49th Ohio in four ranks so that fire never stopped as the line advanced, and Colonel John F. Miller of the 29th Indiana lost an eye. By nightfall on June 25 the Federals held the gap, and Liddell's Arkansans had given it up.

What the plaque says

Army of the Cumberland June 24-26, 1863 Moving south about 3 mi. E., the XX Federal Corps (McCook) was stopped at Liberty Gap, 6 mi. S.E., by the 5th & 15th Arkansas Inf., of Liddell's Brigade, later reinforced by Cleburne's Division. With its 1st (Jeff C. Davis) & 2nd (R.W. Johnson) Divisions heavily engaged, the XXth Corps sideslipped east to Hoover's Gap, marching thence to Manchester.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 10 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 17 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 19 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 24 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• Rutherford County — 3.3 mi
• Governor John Price Buchanan — 4.7 mi
• George Smith Patton, Jr. — 5.1 mi
• Black Fox Camp Spring — 5.6 mi