James Daniel Richardson

Richardson used his seat in Congress to help save the Stones River battlefield. He introduced the bill that appropriated $125,000 for a military park and national cemetery there. In 1894 Congress asked the scholarly Murfreesboro lawyer to compile Messages and Papers of the Presidents, and later a companion volume of Confederate papers. He chaired the 1900 Democratic National Convention at Kansas City. As Sovereign Grand Commander of Scottish Rite Masonry from 1901, he bought the land in Washington for the order's new temple, which he did not live to see finished.

What the plaque says

James Daniel Richardson Side 1: From 1868 to 1914, the residence of James Daniel Richardson stood on this corner. He served as an officer in the 45th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA, and was wounded at Resaca, Georgia. At age 22 he returned to Murfreesboro, became an attorney, and later won election to the Tennessee General Assembly, where he served from 1870 to 1876. He also served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1885 to 1905. Side 2: In 1901 Richardson attained the rank of Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite Masonry, Southern Jurisdiction, and served until his death on July 25, 1914. A rare midnight Knights Kadosh funeral service was held for him at the Central Christian Church in Murfreesboro.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 3.2 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 — 25 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 — 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.
• Fort Negley — 30 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• State Capitol — steps away
• Grantland Rice — steps away
• Morgan's Wedding — steps away
• Forrest's Murfreesboro Raid, July 13, 1862 — steps away