WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 I want to start today with a little mental exercise 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.780 for you. When I say the words Civil War monument, 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:09.240 what is the immediate image that pops into your 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.220 head? It is a pretty distinct image for most 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:17.399 people, isn't it? I usually picture a town square, 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:21.480 maybe a courthouse lawn in Ohio or Georgia. There's 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.960 a pristine bronze statue of a general on a high 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:28.339 horse. Or maybe a solitary soldier standing at 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:30.719 parade rest looking very noble. Exactly. And 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:32.460 usually, if you walk up and look at the date 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:35.740 on the plaque, it was erected in, say, 1910 or 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:38.979 1920. Maybe even the 1950s. Yeah, decades later. 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:41.320 Yeah. Put up by aging veterans or their children. 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:43.479 Or sometimes even their grandchildren to remember 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:45.600 the glory days. Right. It is memory filtered 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:47.939 through time. But today, for this deep dive, 00:00:47.979 --> 00:00:49.759 we are doing something completely different. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:53.479 looking at an anomaly. A massive anomaly. A structure 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:56.119 that by all conventional logic shouldn't really 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:58.420 exist. We are heading to the Stones River National 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:01.039 Battlefield in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We are 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:02.920 talking about the Hazen Brigade Monument. And 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.000 this does not look like a statue. No, it looks 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.400 like a small angry fortress. And here is the 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:13.040 kicker. It is the oldest American Civil War monument 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.819 remaining in its original battlefield location. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.989 And that original location part is key. but the 00:01:18.989 --> 00:01:21.489 win is even more important. Right. This isn't 00:01:21.489 --> 00:01:23.730 a memorial place where it looked nice 50 years 00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:26.510 later. Right. This stands on the actual ground 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:28.750 where the fighting happened. Built by the guys 00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:30.769 who did the fighting. Exactly. And the mission 00:01:30.769 --> 00:01:33.750 for this deep dive is to unpack why that matters. 00:01:34.250 --> 00:01:36.370 We are going to look at the hell's half acre 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.709 that birthed this thing. The soldiers who built 00:01:38.709 --> 00:01:40.609 it with their own hands during the war. Which 00:01:40.609 --> 00:01:43.670 is just a wild concept to me. It is. And the 00:01:43.670 --> 00:01:45.709 stream's secrets, including a potential time 00:01:45.709 --> 00:01:48.709 capsule that they hid inside the stone. It really 00:01:48.709 --> 00:01:51.049 is a fascinating story because it completely 00:01:51.049 --> 00:01:53.989 changes how we view historical memory. This wasn't 00:01:53.989 --> 00:01:56.549 a reflection on the past. It was a reaction to 00:01:56.549 --> 00:01:59.469 immediate visceral trauma. Exactly. It is about 00:01:59.469 --> 00:02:03.489 grief, engineering, and a very famous, very cynical 00:02:03.489 --> 00:02:06.769 author who has a surprise role in all this. So 00:02:06.769 --> 00:02:09.270 let's set the stage. We need to go back to the 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:13.759 winter of 1862, December 31st. The Battle of 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:16.639 Stones River. Where are we and what is happening? 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:19.560 Context is king here. This is New Year's Eve, 00:02:19.659 --> 00:02:23.419 1862. The tactical situation is incredibly tense. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.500 Right. You have the Confederate General Braxton 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:28.300 Bragg facing off against Union Major General 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:31.400 William S. Rosecrum. They are just outside Murfreesboro, 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:34.000 Tennessee. Now, this isn't just a skirmish. This 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.919 is a massive battle for control of Middle Tennessee. 00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:39.919 Because if the Union loses here, Nashville probably 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.819 falls. Exactly. The stakes are maximum. And Bragg 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:44.740 decides he isn't going to wait around for the 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:47.659 new year to start. No, he does not. At the crack 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:49.979 of dawn, while Union soldiers are literally making 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:51.939 their coffee and frying bacon. It's just totally 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.979 unready. Bragg launches a massive surprise attack 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:57.300 on the Union right flank. When you say surprise 00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:59.419 in the sources, we are talking about a complete 00:02:59.419 --> 00:03:01.479 collapse. This wasn't an orderly retreat. It 00:03:01.479 --> 00:03:04.460 was devastating. It was an absolute rout. Bragg's 00:03:04.460 --> 00:03:06.819 forces drove the Union right wing back three 00:03:06.819 --> 00:03:10.110 mile. Three mile. Yes. If you look at a map of 00:03:10.110 --> 00:03:13.270 the battle at that moment, the Union line isn't 00:03:13.270 --> 00:03:16.689 a line anymore. It has been bent nearly at right 00:03:16.689 --> 00:03:19.310 angles. I read it described like a pocket knife 00:03:19.310 --> 00:03:22.250 closing. A jackknife closing halfway, yes. That 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:24.789 is the Union army. They're being rolled up like 00:03:24.789 --> 00:03:27.270 a carpet. It sounds like the entire army is about 00:03:27.270 --> 00:03:29.469 to be annihilated. They were on the verge of 00:03:29.469 --> 00:03:32.949 total disaster. But there was one spot that held. 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:36.569 The hinge of that jackknife. The Round Forest. 00:03:36.610 --> 00:03:39.400 The Round Forest. It was a four -acre clump of 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.439 cedar trees. Crucial terrain. And it was located 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:44.719 right at the salient, the corner of that bent 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:46.860 line. Right. Sitting just east of the Nashville 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:49.699 Pike and straddling the railroad. If the Confederates 00:03:49.699 --> 00:03:51.800 punch through here, they cut off the Union retreat 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.259 to Nashville. Game over. Game over. And the man 00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:56.360 in charge of defending this little patch of trees 00:03:56.360 --> 00:03:59.759 was Colonel William Babcock Hazen. That is right. 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.879 Hazen and his brigade. We were talking about 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:05.500 roughly 1 ,300 men. They weren't just standing 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:07.949 there watching the line fold. No, they were the 00:04:07.949 --> 00:04:10.990 wall. They, along with some other union support 00:04:10.990 --> 00:04:13.729 and a lot of massed artillery behind them, had 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:16.990 to hold that position at all costs. And the fighting 00:04:16.990 --> 00:04:20.230 there, I mean, the sources describe it as an 00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:22.649 absolute meat grinder. This wasn't long range 00:04:22.649 --> 00:04:25.730 musketry. It was horrific. The Confederates launched 00:04:25.730 --> 00:04:28.689 four separate assaults against this position. 00:04:28.709 --> 00:04:32.750 Four waves. Four waves of men crashing into these 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:35.310 cedars. You have to imagine the noise. Thousands 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:39.199 of muskets. cannons firing canister shot. Which 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:42.560 basically turns artillery into giant shotguns. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.079 Exactly. The trees were just being shredded. 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:47.259 The soldiers didn't call it the Round Forest 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:49.459 anymore. They gave it a new nickname almost immediately. 00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:51.959 Hell's Half Acre. Hell's Half Acre. That name 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:53.500 alone gives you chills. It sounds like something 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:55.240 out of a horror movie, not a history book. Well, 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:58.839 it was earned. Hazen's regiments took 409 casualties 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:01.740 in that stand. Which was what, 29 % of the entire 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:05.889 brigade? Yes. 29%. 45 men were killed outright 00:05:05.889 --> 00:05:08.870 in that small patch of woods. But, and this is 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:12.149 the real so what of the battle they held, Hazen's 00:05:12.149 --> 00:05:14.949 resistance arguably saved the Union line from 00:05:14.949 --> 00:05:17.730 breaking completely. They bought Rosecrans enough 00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:20.370 time to reform his lines and survive the day. 00:05:20.949 --> 00:05:23.810 Precisely. So you have this incredibly traumatic, 00:05:24.110 --> 00:05:27.269 high -stakes event. Usually in war, you fight, 00:05:27.689 --> 00:05:29.970 you bury the dead, and you move on. You march 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:31.970 to the next town. Right. Maybe you come back 00:05:31.970 --> 00:05:34.350 20 years later to put up a plaque when you are 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:36.629 an old man. But that is not what happened here. 00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:39.569 No. And this is where the story gets really unique. 00:05:40.389 --> 00:05:44.399 We move to the summer of 1863. The war is still 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.660 raging. Right. In fact, the Union Army of the 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:48.720 Cumberland is in the middle of the Tullahoma 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.379 campaign maneuvering against Bragg again. But 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:54.040 amidst all that active campaigning, members of 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:56.259 Hazen's brigade are detailed ordered essentially 00:05:56.259 --> 00:05:58.560 to go back to Stones River. They went back to 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.699 the scene of the crime, so to speak, while the 00:06:00.699 --> 00:06:02.500 war was still happening around them. They went 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:04.399 back to the cemetery where they had buried their 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:06.500 friends. Their goal was to build a monument. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:08.720 Not after the peace treaty, but while the guns 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:10.879 were literally still hot in the distance. They 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:13.160 wanted to commemorate the heroism of the brigade 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:16.360 and memorialize the comrades they had lost just 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:19.819 six months prior. That is such a different mindset 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:22.439 from the usual monuments. It is not nostalgia. 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:25.959 It is grief. It is raw. It feels possessive almost, 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.259 like they were staking a claim to the land and 00:06:28.259 --> 00:06:31.139 saying, we paid for this ground. I think that 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.040 is a great way to put it. It was a statement 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:35.259 of fact. So they didn't hire a contractor. This 00:06:35.259 --> 00:06:37.600 was built by the soldiers themselves. A construction 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.420 detail led by a Lieutenant Edward Crebin. They 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:42.399 were Hazen's men. They were building this for 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.519 their friends. Let's talk about what it looks 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:47.120 like. Because, as we mentioned, this isn't a 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:49.500 statue of a guy on a horse. If you stumble upon 00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:53.759 it today, it looks ancient. It is stark. A Union 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:56.959 Army captain at the time described it as a quadrangular 00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:59.660 pyramidal shaft. Quadrangular pyramidal shaft? 00:06:59.699 --> 00:07:01.899 That is a mouthful. It is very technical. Think 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:04.800 of a shorter Squatter Washington monument, but 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.410 made of rough Hand -hewn limestone blocks. It 00:07:08.410 --> 00:07:11.310 has a 10 -foot square base and rises about 11 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:14.649 feet high. It is not polished. It is heavy. It 00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:16.709 has real weight to it. And it is surrounded by 00:07:16.709 --> 00:07:20.990 a wall, right? Yes, a dry stack stone wall, meaning 00:07:20.990 --> 00:07:24.389 they didn't use mortar, just carefully fitted 00:07:24.389 --> 00:07:26.990 stones. It is about four feet high and two feet 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:29.189 thick. It encloses both the monument and the 00:07:29.189 --> 00:07:32.079 brigade cemetery. Honestly, it looks like a fortification. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:34.259 It looks like it was built by men who were used 00:07:34.259 --> 00:07:36.279 to building defensive works to stop bullets. 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:38.819 Exactly. I can just picture them hauling those 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:40.959 massive stones in the Tennessee summer heat. 00:07:41.259 --> 00:07:43.759 That is brutal work. Oh, there are the inscriptions. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:48.620 These weren't machine cut. No, in 1864, two experienced 00:07:48.620 --> 00:07:51.300 stonecutters from the regiment guys who probably 00:07:51.300 --> 00:07:53.800 cut gravestones back home before the war carved 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:56.160 the inscriptions by hand. They listed the names 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:58.759 of the officers killed at Stones River, and they 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:00.879 even included officers from the earlier Battle 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.259 of Shiloh. There is a quote inscribed on the 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:05.060 South Face that I think is one of the most powerful 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.079 things I have read in these sources. It really 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.240 captures the spirit of that stand in the Round 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.949 Forest. It does. It reads, to the memory of his 00:08:13.949 --> 00:08:16.670 soldiers who fell at Stombs River, December 31st, 00:08:16.709 --> 00:08:20.129 1862. Their faces towards heaven, their feet 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:23.129 to the foe. Their feet to the foe. That is such 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:25.769 a vivid image of defiance. They didn't run, they 00:08:25.769 --> 00:08:28.149 died facing the enemy. It sends a message, doesn't 00:08:28.149 --> 00:08:30.810 it? It is a declaration of pure stubbornness. 00:08:31.310 --> 00:08:34.009 We stood here, we didn't back down. It is not 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:36.590 rest in peace. It is we did our job. Absolutely. 00:08:36.850 --> 00:08:38.590 Now here is where it gets really interesting 00:08:38.590 --> 00:08:42.029 for the bookworms out there. Because this monument 00:08:42.029 --> 00:08:45.350 isn't just connected to military history. Right. 00:08:45.769 --> 00:08:49.529 It has a connection to a very famous name in 00:08:49.529 --> 00:08:51.450 American literature, someone who was actually 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:54.289 there. This is one of those small world historical 00:08:54.289 --> 00:08:56.809 moments that just blows your mind. We are talking 00:08:56.809 --> 00:08:59.490 about Ambrose Bierce. The author of the Devil's 00:08:59.490 --> 00:09:02.490 Dictionary and an occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:04.840 The master of the macabre, the guy who wrote 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:07.179 some of the darkest, most cynical stuff in American 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:09.580 history. But before he was a famous cynic and 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:12.419 writer, he was a young staff officer. Specifically, 00:09:12.620 --> 00:09:15.700 a topographic engineer in the 9th Indiana Volunteers, 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.600 which was part of Hazen's brigade. So he knew 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:20.600 Hazen. He was part of this unit. He knew Hazen 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:23.179 very well. And because he was a topographic engineer, 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:26.120 his job was to understand the landscape. He had 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.759 to map it. He survived the fighting at Stones 00:09:28.759 --> 00:09:32.159 River unscathed, but he saw the carnage at Hell's 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:34.659 Halfacre firsthand. And he certainly saw the 00:09:34.659 --> 00:09:37.240 monument when it was completed in 1863. And he 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:39.220 didn't just forget about it. He came back, didn't 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:42.740 he? He did. Years later in 1907, so we're talking 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:45.600 more than 40 years later, Beers visited the monument 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:48.440 for a second time. And that visit actually sparked 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.779 a story. Right. In 1908, he published a story 00:09:51.779 --> 00:09:55.840 called A Resumed Identity. It is an eerie psychological 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:59.159 tale. The main character is a veteran who is 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:01.799 disoriented, wandering the battlefield, thinking 00:10:01.799 --> 00:10:04.340 he is still young and the war is still going 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:06.940 on. Without spoiling the story too much for anyone 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:08.639 who hasn't read it, though it has been over 100 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:11.820 years, the monument is the reality check. The 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:14.399 twist ending relies on it. Bierce describes the 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.720 monument in the story as brown with age, weather 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:21.159 -worn at the angles, spotted with moss and lichen. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:23.799 Between the massive blocks were strips of grass. 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:25.820 You can really see the passage of time in his 00:10:25.820 --> 00:10:27.759 description. It had become part of the landscape. 00:10:28.019 --> 00:10:29.820 And the character sees the monument and finally 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:32.500 realizes how much time has passed. There is also 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:34.419 a little detail about Bierce's sense of humor 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:36.659 that came up in the research. It is a bit dark, 00:10:36.860 --> 00:10:39.960 but it fits him perfectly. It is very dark. Some 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:41.860 scholars suggest that during the construction, 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.580 or perhaps during a visit, his macabre sense 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:47.500 of humor led him to create a fake gravestone 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:50.659 in the Brigade Cemetery. A fake grave. For a 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:53.720 soldier named A. Louse. A. Louse. Like the bug. 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:56.460 Exactly. Like the body lies that tormented literally 00:10:56.460 --> 00:10:59.159 every soldier in that war. That is fantastic. 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:01.320 Amidst all this death and solemnity, you have 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:04.960 this bit of dark soldier's humor. A gravestone 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.620 for a louse. It reminds you that these were real 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:10.440 people coping with terrible conditions in very 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:12.820 human ways. It wasn't all marble and glory. It 00:11:12.820 --> 00:11:15.659 was bugs, dirt, and trying to stay sane. It adds 00:11:15.659 --> 00:11:18.159 such a layer of humanity to those stone blocks. 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:20.059 OK, so we have the battle. We have the construction. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.940 We have the literary connection. But the monument 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:26.059 had one more surprise waiting for us. Fast forward 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:30.879 to 1985. 1985. The monument is over 120 years 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.779 old. It needs repairs. The National Park Service 00:11:33.779 --> 00:11:36.320 is doing some much needed restoration work. And 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:39.220 as they are carefully dismantling parts of the 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:42.220 core to stabilize it, they start finding things 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:45.399 inside the fill of the monument. Inside the limestone 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:47.639 and soil packed between the outer walls. At first 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:50.299 it just seemed like trash, right? Just battlefield 00:11:50.299 --> 00:11:53.110 debris? Basically. In the general fill, they 00:11:53.110 --> 00:11:55.269 found debris that you would expect from a battlefield 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.850 or a construction site. Two bullets, some buck 00:11:57.850 --> 00:12:00.549 and ball shot, a lead disc. They even found a 00:12:00.549 --> 00:12:03.190 freshwater mussel shell, some bone fragments, 00:12:03.629 --> 00:12:07.070 and six horse teeth. Horse teeth! Just mixed 00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:09.870 in with the dirt. Likely just scooped up with 00:12:09.870 --> 00:12:11.730 the soil when they were filling the core of the 00:12:11.730 --> 00:12:15.029 monument. The battlefield was littered with carcasses, 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:17.769 unfortunately. Archaeologists think that stuff 00:12:17.769 --> 00:12:20.269 was purely accidental. Just the detritus of war. 00:12:20.429 --> 00:12:22.929 But then they looked higher up, and the story 00:12:22.929 --> 00:12:25.809 changed. About five feet above the ground, the 00:12:25.809 --> 00:12:28.070 nature of the artifacts changed completely. What 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:30.149 did they find? They found a collection of items 00:12:30.149 --> 00:12:33.669 all placed at a single level. Two 12 -pound cannonballs. 00:12:33.830 --> 00:12:36.789 One 6 -pound cannonball. Three rifled artillery 00:12:36.789 --> 00:12:39.350 shells. Two rifled musket barrels. And a cedar 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:42.429 staff. Okay, hold on. You don't accidentally 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:46.269 shovel a 12 -pound cannonball five feet up into 00:12:46.269 --> 00:12:49.379 a wall you were building. Precisely. That takes 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:51.899 effort. That takes intention. The National Park 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:53.759 Service believes this was purposeful. It was 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:56.740 a time capsule, or perhaps a votive offering. 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:00.240 A time capsule from 1863. Think about that. While 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.620 the war is still undecided, while they are actively 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:05.399 campaigning, they took the tools of their trade, 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:08.440 the cannonballs, the muskets, and sealed them 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:10.940 inside this stone pyramid. It is fascinating 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:13.580 because there is no note, right? No letter saying, 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.179 dear future people, here is what happened. Just 00:13:16.179 --> 00:13:19.090 the weapons. It is ambiguous. Were they burying 00:13:19.090 --> 00:13:20.750 the weapons of war? Were they preserving them? 00:13:20.870 --> 00:13:23.110 We don't know the exact meaning, but the intent 00:13:23.110 --> 00:13:25.570 is undeniable. They wanted something of their 00:13:25.570 --> 00:13:28.210 reality to survive inside that stone. It feels 00:13:28.210 --> 00:13:30.549 almost ritualistic to me. Like they were building 00:13:30.549 --> 00:13:32.690 a reliquary for the violence they survived. It 00:13:32.690 --> 00:13:35.210 adds such a mystery to the structure. It is not 00:13:35.210 --> 00:13:38.330 just a marker. It is a container. A container 00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:40.769 for their memories and their tools. Exactly. 00:13:40.990 --> 00:13:43.389 So what happened to the monument after the war? 00:13:43.690 --> 00:13:46.009 Did it just sit there in the woods? For a while, 00:13:46.149 --> 00:13:50.559 yes. The site, which is about 0 .84 acres, was 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.360 acquired by the War Department in 1875. For a 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:55.440 long time it was managed by the superintendent 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:58.919 of the Stones River National Cemetery. But, like 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:01.580 many things, it went through periods of neglect. 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:04.379 It suffered some deterioration prior to 1930. 00:14:04.649 --> 00:14:07.450 The walls started to crumble a bit. Nature started 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:10.090 taking it back. But in 1930, the administration 00:14:10.090 --> 00:14:12.490 of the Hazen Memorial and the National Cemetery 00:14:12.490 --> 00:14:15.070 was consolidated into the Stones River National 00:14:15.070 --> 00:14:17.990 Military Park. Then in 1933, the whole thing 00:14:17.990 --> 00:14:20.090 was transferred from the War Department to the 00:14:20.090 --> 00:14:22.049 National Park Service. And that is who takes 00:14:22.049 --> 00:14:24.450 care of it today. Correct. And thanks to that 00:14:24.450 --> 00:14:27.330 stewardship and that 1985 restoration we talked 00:14:27.330 --> 00:14:30.370 about, it remains standing as the oldest surviving 00:14:30.370 --> 00:14:32.889 Civil War monument in its original location. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.460 So let's unpack this. We have gone through the 00:14:35.460 --> 00:14:37.899 history, the literature, the archaeology, but 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:41.259 why does this specific pile of rocks matter so 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:43.440 much? Why are we spending this time talking about 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:45.440 it? If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.600 it is all about authenticity. Most monuments 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:50.679 tell us what people wanted to believe about the 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:53.919 war 50 years later. They are polished, heroic, 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.759 idealized. They are about myth making. They smooth 00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:59.940 over the rough edges. Right. The marble acts 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:02.539 like a filter. It makes it look noble. Exactly. 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.100 But the Hazen Brigade monument, this is raw. 00:15:05.659 --> 00:15:08.240 It is a coarse, immediate reaction to a near 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:10.659 -death experience. It was built by the survivors 00:15:10.659 --> 00:15:12.659 for the friends they had just dragged off the 00:15:12.659 --> 00:15:15.500 field. It is not about glory in the abstract 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:19.320 sense. It is about specific men, a specific piece 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:21.879 of ground, and the fact that they survive when 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.259 others didn't. It feels much more personal. It 00:15:24.259 --> 00:15:27.669 is. It is a tombstone. a fortress, and a shout 00:15:27.669 --> 00:15:30.649 into the void all at once. It captures the trauma 00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:33.230 of the Civil War in a way that a statue in a 00:15:33.230 --> 00:15:35.649 town square never could. I cannot get the image 00:15:35.649 --> 00:15:38.370 out of my head. Soldiers stacking those stones, 00:15:38.750 --> 00:15:40.409 sweating in the Tennessee summer heat knowing 00:15:40.409 --> 00:15:42.169 that the war wasn't over. They were building 00:15:42.169 --> 00:15:44.879 a memorial. but they knew they might be the next 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.120 ones to die. That is the haunting part. Their 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.159 faces towards heaven, their feet to the foe. 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.360 They were writing their own epitaphs just in 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.620 case, they were saying. If we die tomorrow, at 00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:56.379 least we left this. That is the difference between 00:15:56.379 --> 00:15:59.639 a polished marble statue in a town square and 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.240 a rough stone pyramid built in a cedar forest. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.919 One is a story we tell ourselves. The other is 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.139 the scar left behind. And that brings me to a 00:16:08.139 --> 00:16:10.820 final thought for you to chew on today. We talked 00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:13.860 about how those soldiers hid their literal tools 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:16.820 of war, their muskets and cannonballs, inside 00:16:16.820 --> 00:16:20.179 that stone fortress as a raw, unfiltered message 00:16:20.179 --> 00:16:22.779 to the future. A time capsule of trauma. Exactly. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:25.159 So I want you to think about this. If you were 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:27.279 forced to build a monument to your own survival 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:29.879 today, not decades from now when the memory is 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:31.779 soft, but right in the messy middle of it all, 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:34.740 what rough stones would you stack? And more importantly, 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.419 what unseen truth would you seal up inside the 00:16:37.419 --> 00:16:39.440 walls for someone else to find a century later? 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:41.860 There's always more to the story if you look 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.120 inside the walls. That is it for this deep dive 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:47.860 into the Hazen Brigade Monument. Next time you 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:50.860 see a memorial, take a closer look. Check the 00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:53.500 date and ask yourself, was it built to remember 00:16:53.500 --> 00:16:55.779 or was it built to cope? Thanks for joining us. 00:16:55.899 --> 00:16:57.419 See you on the next deep dive.