STONES. 



601 



fighting he "had driven the enemy from every po- 

 sition but his extreme left, held by Hazen, and had 

 as trophies 4000 prisoners, 2 brigadier-generals, 31 

 guns, and 200 wagons and teams." What, then, 

 must have been his astonishment to see his antag- 

 onist standing next morning, on advantageous 

 ground and with nndimiuished confidence, in order 

 of battle? This day (Jan. 1) little was attempted 

 by either of the exhausted armies beyond skirmish- 

 ing and artillery firing, and preparing for a renewal 

 of the struggle. Van Cleve's division had during 

 the night been thrown across Stone Biver and taken 

 possession of a height commanding the upper ford. 

 Nor had Bragg been idle during the same time, but 

 had planted four batteries to sweep the Union lines, 

 and wiih these he opened a terrific fire at 8 A. M. 

 This was, however, quickly silenced by Bradley's 

 guns and those of Walker's and Sheridan's divisions. 

 There was now a lull till 3 p. M., but the Confederates 

 were massing along Beatty's front and threatening 

 danger there. 



Bosecrans, adhering to his original plan of turn- 

 ing Bragg' s right and capturing Murfreesboro', had 

 strengthened Van Cleve's division by one of Pal- 

 mer's brigades. While he was engaged in examining 

 the line it was suddenly assailed by Breckenridge's 

 entire corps with cavalry and artillery, aided by 

 heavy enfilading fire from Gen. Leonidas Folk's 

 artillery in the centre. The Union troops were rap- 

 idly driven in confusion across the river, closely 

 followed by Bragg's entire right wing in three lines 

 of battle, which came sweeping down the slopes to 

 the edge of the stream. 



But in the meantime Crittenden's artillery had 

 been massed on the rising ground on the opposite 

 side, to enfilade the enemy with 58 heavy guns, and 

 these opened with fatal effect, mowing down the pur- 

 suers in lanes. A fierce battle ensued. Both sides 

 massed their batteries ; both felt that the decisive 

 moment had come. " For a time," says an eloquent 

 writer to whom we acknowledge our obligations, 

 ' ' it seemed as if mutual annihilation were to be the 

 result." Finally Miller, and Stanley with his cav- 

 alry, charged simultaneously and drove the Confed- 

 erates rapidly before them. This charge decided 

 the day. "In 40 minutes," says Bosecraus, "the 

 Confederates lost 2000 men, and their entire lino 

 fell back leaving 400 captive." The Battle of Mur- 

 freesboro' was over. 



The 3d was occupied by Bosecrans in making 

 preparations to follow up his victory. During the 

 night Bragg retreated through the village in the 

 direction of Chattanooga, leaving 2000 sick and 

 wounded in his hospitals. The next day was Sun- 

 day, and all remained quiet. On the morning of 

 Monday (Jan. 5th) the Confederate rear-guard was 

 driven by Thomas 6 or 7 miles on the Manchester 

 road and the village definitely occupied. 



The loss on both sides had been heavy. That of 

 the Union army was 1533 killed, 7245 wounded, and 

 3000 prisoners. Bragg claimed to have taken 6273 

 prisoners. His own loss lie acknowledged to be 

 10,000, of whom 9000 were killed and wounded. 



(J. H.) 



STONES, BDTLDINO. The ordinary building mate- 

 rials may be divided into two classes, natural and 

 artificial, the former comprising wood and stone, the 

 Litter brick, iron, artificial stone, etc. Of these 

 stone is ordinarily the most expensive, but is pre- 

 ferred for all buildings intended to be handsome and 

 imposing, from its beauty of texture and color and 

 the appearance of massive solidity which it is ca- 

 pablo of giving. ' It has its defects, however, many 

 building stones being deficient in durability when 

 exposed to the atmosphere. Some rapidly decay 

 under the influence of the weather, particularly in 

 damp, frosty climates, while some are seriously af- 



VOL. IV. 2 N 



1 fected by the sulphurous and other acid emanations 

 of large cities. London is particularly destructive 

 to building stones from these causes materials rap- 

 idly disintegrating there which are very durable in 

 drier and purer atmospheres. The building stones 

 of the United States yet await thorough exploration. 

 The first effort to collect and display the wealth and 

 variety of these products in the several States was 



' made at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, on which 

 occasion a highly useful and instructive collection 

 was displayed. More recently the National Mtiseum 

 at Washington has engaged in this desirable enter- 

 prise, and has now a large and handsome cabinet of 

 the various building stones of the country, cut into 

 4-inch cubes. 



Building stones may be broadly divided into threo 

 classes : First, the diversified series known under 

 the general name of granite (named in government 



1 publications crystalline silicious rocks) ; second, the 

 limestones and marbles ; third, the sandstones. A 

 fourth division, of minor importance in building, in- 



' eludes the slates. These various rocks are obtained 

 and prepared for market by several processes, 

 adapted to their special characters. For the harder 

 rocks explosives are generally used, the rough masses 

 obtained by blasting being afterward chiselled, 



, sawed, or otherwise worked into shape. In other 

 cases the rocks are got out by channelling and wedg- 



, ing, where natural lines of cleavage render this 

 available, while the more fragile and valuable mar- 



i bles are sawn out in the quarries, so as to avoid 

 splitting the brittle rock by the use of the blast. 



Granite may be defined as a crystalline, unstrati- 

 fied rock, composed usually of various combinations 

 of mica, quartz, and felspar, and, as used in build- 

 ing, ordinarily susceptible of a fine polish. It is 



j whitish or grayish in hue, or mottled with a flesh-red, 



' but is sometimes quite dark. Its expensiveness pre- 

 vents its being often used for private edifices, though 

 it is generally used in large public buildings, and is 



I coming more and more into employment for banks 

 and other large commercial edifices. The employ- 



i ment of polished granite is rapidly extending, both 



, for columns and other ornamental additions to build- 

 ings, and for cemetery purposes, where its durability 

 makes it much superior to marble. The coarser 

 kinds of granite are often used for street pavements 

 where the traffic is heavy. 



Granitic building stones are very widely distrib- 

 uted throughout the United States, though up to the 

 present time New England has been the most im- 

 portant centre of the granite-quarrying industry. 

 The granites of that region are, taken as a whole, 

 the finest yet developed in the country, yielding sev- 

 eral varieties of hardness, texture, and color, many 

 of them being very beautiful and of unusual solidity. 

 Nearly all the massive government buildings on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, and many of the great public build- 

 ings in Washington are constructed of New England 

 granite, from the Quincy and other quarries. 



Good building granite occurs in Virginia, North 

 and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, while 



| in the valley of the Colorado, Texas, is an extensive 

 deposit closely similar to the red sienite of Egypt. 

 The State capitol at Austin is built of this stone. In 

 the Bocky Mountain region granite suitable for build- 

 ing purposes occurs abundantly, existing in great 



' quantities in Montana and Wyoming, and less exteu- 



! sively in Dakota. In Colorado extensive deposits 

 have been opened, some containing a red crystalline 

 rock susceptible of high polish, and suitable for fine 

 ornamental work. Other quarries yield a cream-col- 

 ored stone that polishes well. In addition to the 

 granites may be named a fine pink-colored lava, which 

 has been largely used as a building stone in Denver. 

 Granitic rocks are abundant on the Pacific slope, 

 the Sierra Nevada being composed of this material 



