Chalmers' Brigade at Murfreesboro

James R. Chalmers, who led the Mississippi brigade that broke against the Round Forest, was a Holly Springs lawyer who enslaved forty-four people in 1860 and voted at his state's convention to leave the Union. Later he commanded a cavalry division under Forrest, and on April 12, 1864, his troops overran Fort Pillow, held mostly by Black Union soldiers. Historians call what followed a massacre of men trying to surrender. After the war he won election to Congress, but when his 1880 victory was contested, the House seated his Black Republican opponent, John R. Lynch.

What the plaque says

Chalmers' Brigade at Murfreesboro General James R. Chalmers Mississippi Brigade (CSA) advanced across these fields at 10 a.m. on December 31, 1862, to attack the Union center at the Round Forest. Their advance was part of General Braxton Bragg's plan to crush the Union right flank early in the morning and then turn on the center. After holding for 48 hours, Chalmers' men left muddy rifle pits on a hill 200 yards southeast and advanced past the Cowan House ruins 100 yards to the southeast. The Cowan House, which burned before the battle, obstructed their advance and forced the brigade to break and re-form in the area under a murderous crossfire of Union artillery and infantry fire from the Round Forest, 200 yards to the northwest. After Chalmers was knocked senseless by an exploding shell, the unit retreated. Later in the afternoon, it re-formed under Colonel T. W. White of the Ninth Mississippi Regiment.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 0.3 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.
• Carnton — 24 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Henry Horton State Park — 25 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.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 26 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.

More markers nearby

• Donelson's Brigade at Murfreesboro — steps away
• Murfreesboro/Rutherford County — 0.2 mi
• Battle of Murfreesboro, January 2, 1863 — 0.6 mi
• Army of the Cumberland, June 24, 1863 — 0.9 mi