Of the major battles in the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides

It is a fact that of the major battles in the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. On January 3, Bragg surrendered the field and withdraws his soldiers south to Tullahoma. The North has taken control of central Tennessee, and the Union triumph gives much-needed psychological support, particularly after the recent defeat at Fredericksburg in December 1862. However, the Battle of Stones River resulted in some of the war's highest casualties.

The total number of casualties in the battle was 24,645: 12,906 on the Union side and 11,739 on the Confederate side, representing 31.4% of all troops. Given that only about 78,400 men were involved, this was the battle with the highest percentage of casualties (3.8% killed, 19.8% wounded, and 7.9% missing/captured) of any major battle in the Civil War. It had more casualties in absolute numbers than the infamous bloodbaths at Shiloh and Antietam earlier that year. Confederate James E. Rains and Roger W. Hanson were killed or badly wounded, as were Union Edward N. Kirk and Joshua W. Sill. Union soldier Frances Elizabeth Quinn, one of several women who disguised themselves as males to fight in the Civil War, was also among the wounded. "You gave us a hard victory which, had there been a defeat instead, the nation could scarcely have lived over", President Lincoln subsequently wrote to Rosecrans.