Wheeler's Raid around Rosecrans, December 30, 1862

Rosecrans's army depended on one turnpike and one railroad back to Nashville, and Wheeler's cavalry spent the campaign harassing both. Wagons burned, and later convoys of wounded had to travel under heavy escort. Wheeler read those escorts as the start of a Union retreat and reported it, and Bragg, buoyed by the feeling that he had won, waited for Rosecrans to leave. Instead the Union army held its lines on the Nashville Pike, and on January 3 it was Bragg who withdrew toward Tullahoma.

What the plaque says

Wheeler's Raid around Rosecrans December 30, 1862 Attacking the wagon train of Starkweather's Brigade near here about 10:00 A.M., Wheeler's Brigade destroyed 20 wagons, took some 50 prisoners and a number of horses and mules. Action by the 1st and 21st Wisc., 4th Ill., 79th Pa., inf. and Btry. "A", 1st Ky. Lt. Art., under Starkweather, forced Wheeler to break off the action and withdraw toward Lavergne. The Federal brigade was immobilized in this area.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 8.9 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.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 17 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.
• Fort Negley — 19 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.
• National Museum of African American Music — 20 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Old Jefferson — steps away
• Sam Davis — 1.7 mi
• Smyrna Railroad Depot — 1.7 mi
• Sewart Air Force Base — 2.5 mi