Fortress Tullahoma, Strategic Rail Center

In January 1863, after the Battle of Stones River, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee fortified Tullahoma to protect the supply depot and Bragg's headquarters. Tullahoma also served as the army's medical center, with divisional and general hospitals. The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad was one of the most strategically important transportation corridors in the Western Theater. Tullahoma, the mid-point of the line, served both Confederate and Union armies as a logistics center. Federal troops arrived here in the spring of 1862, but the Confederates took back the town in the fall and supplied their army at Murfreesboro by rail. In June 1863, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans made Tullahoma a major objective for his Army of the Cumberland.