Register of Historic Places (October 15, 1966). On April 10, 2009, the Good Friday tornado damaged the battlefield park. Since 1997 the American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved of the battlefield in five acquisitions. Some of the land was sold to the National Park Service and incorporated into the national battlefield. Cemetery Within park boundaries is Stones River National Cemetery, 20.09 acres (81,300 m2) with 6,850 interments (2562 unidentified). Just outside the cemetery proper is the Hazen Brigade Monument (1863), the oldest surviving American Civil War monument standing in its original location. The 32nd Indiana Monument at Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky is a year older. An earlier monument was erected after the First Battle of Manassas in Virginia but is no longer extant. Also, veterans from Army of the Cumberland erected the U.S. Regular Brigade Civil War Monument. The cemetery was established on March 29, 1864, by the order of Major General George H. Thomas. Under the supervision of Chaplain William Earnshaw, the 111th Regiment United States Colored Troops disinterred bodies from the battlefields of Stones River, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Shelbyville, Tullahoma and Cowan. Reburials began in 1865 and were completed by 1867. At the time, most of the Confederate dead were taken to their home towns or to the nearest southern community. Some, however, were buried in a mass grave south of town. They were later reinterred in another mass grave, Confederate Circle in Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro. In November 1867, the bodies of 1,360 Union soldiers were removed to Stones River from Rose Hill Cemetery in Columbia, Tennessee, where a national cemetery had earlier been planned. The cemetery was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. References External links Stones River National Battlefield The Battle of Stones River: The Soldiers' Story, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan Stones River National Cemetery McGavock Confederate Cemetery Civil War Trails Tornado Strikes Stones River National Battlefield Park – A photo article illustrating damage to the park from the 2009 tornado. Battlefields of the Western Theater of the American Civil War American Civil War museums in Tennessee Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Murfreesboro, Tennessee Museums in Rutherford County, Tennessee National Battlefields and Military Parks of the United States Protected areas established in 1927 National Park Service areas in Tennessee