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Top Spots · Day-Trip Loops · Loop 03

Stones River and Arrington

Murfreesboro's battlefield in the morning, while the Park Service's gates are open and the field is quiet, and Arrington Vineyards' hillside at lunch, when the winery has just opened.

East of Franklin4 hoursEvery Saturday of the yearHours checked October 20, 2026

The Hazen Brigade Monument, a squat block of grey limestone carved with an inscription, behind a low stone wall with an iron gate, under a tree turning red
The Hazen Brigade Monument, October 2009. Photo: National Park Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
9 a.m.
Leave the Public Square
12:55 p.m.
Back on the Square
1 hr 40 min
In the car, 63 miles
The route of Stones River and ArringtonA map of the loop from Franklin's Public Square through Stones River National Battlefield, Hazen Brigade Monument, Arrington Vineyards and back, 63 miles.1. Stones River National Battlefield12. Hazen Brigade Monument23. Arrington Vineyards3FRANKLIN
The route as the router draws it on OpenStreetMap's roads, with the stops numbered in the order the day reaches them. The square is Franklin's Public Square. Counties: U.S. Census Bureau, TIGERweb.

The day

9 a.m.
Leave the Public Square.
9:45 a.m.
45 min drive, 31 mi1. Stones River National Battlefield, 1 hour. Leave at 10:45 a.m.
10:50 a.m.
5 min drive, 1 mi2. Hazen Brigade Monument, 15 minutes. Leave at 11:05 a.m.
11:30 a.m.
25 min drive, 19 mi3. Arrington Vineyards, 1 hour. Leave at 12:30 p.m.
12:55 p.m.
25 min drive, 13 miBack on the Square.

Each drive is the router's time on OpenStreetMap's roads, with no traffic, rounded up to the next five minutes. The time at each stop is ours, set from what the stop says a visit or a tour takes.

The stops

1Stones River National Battlefield

Murfreesboro, Rutherford County

The Battle of Stones River opened on the last day of 1862 and was one of the bloodiest of the war; the park keeps about 670 acres of the field and more than seven miles of trail. The visitor center has the museum and the film, and the national cemetery beside it holds more than 6,100 Union soldiers, 2,562 of them unknown.

Start inside: the museum and the film, then the national cemetery across the lot, where the Park Service's own walking tour takes 20 to 45 minutes. The tour road's nine stops take an hour and a half at the least, more than this loop has; it is the reason to come back.

Saturday
Visitor center 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 9 to 4 from November through February. The tour road and the cemetery gates open at 8 and close at 5, or 4:30 in winter.
Admission
Free.
Booking
No booking

Official site615-893-9501

2Hazen Brigade Monument

Murfreesboro, Rutherford County

Lt. Edward Crebbin's detail from the 9th Indiana built it between June and October 1863, among the graves of 55 men of Hazen's brigade, on the ground where the brigade held the Round Forest through four attacks on December 31, 1862. The Park Service calls it the oldest Civil War monument still standing where it was put up.

The monument is half a mile from the visitor center, behind its own stone wall, with five parking spaces. Read the inscriptions the 115th Ohio carved in 1864.

Saturday
The park's gates open at 8 a.m. and close at 5, or 4:30 from November through February; on foot, sunrise to sunset.
Admission
Free.
Booking
No booking

Official site

3Arrington Vineyards

Arrington, Williamson County

Arrington Vineyards, which Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn co-owns, lets you bring your own picnic but not your own wine, and most of its seating is picnic tables on the hillside. Its free Saturday music, Music in the Vines, runs from April into the late fall and starts at 3.

The winery opens at 11, so it comes last. Bring lunch: the grounds allow a picnic but no outside alcohol and no pets, and Tennessee will not take a digital license, or a photo of one, as ID.

Saturday
Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and to 6 in January and February.
Admission
A walk-in flight of four wines is $16; the 45-minute tasting at the bar, five wines, is $40. No wine by the glass: a bottle is sold to drink on the grounds.
Booking
The flight is first come, first served. The tasting bar takes reservations, and the winery recommends one.

Official siteOn our places page615-395-0102

Before you go

The battlefield keeps winter hours from November through February, when the visitor center closes at 4 and the gates at 4:30; the loop is gone long before either. It is free, and it closes only on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Arrington's free Saturday music starts at 3, two and a half hours after this loop leaves the winery.

The last stop outdoors, Hazen Brigade Monument, ends at 11:05 a.m.. The earliest sunset there on a Saturday this loop runs is 4:32 p.m., on November 28, so the day's walking is done in daylight every week of the year it runs.

The other loops

How we know

The timetable is worked out from the route and the time at each stop, and checked against every stop's Saturday hours and the sunset for every Saturday in the twelve months after the hours were read. The drive times are a router's, with no traffic: leave room.

  1. Stones River National Battlefield. National Park Service, Stones River; National Park Service, getting around; National Park Service, Stones River National Cemetery. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
  2. Hazen Brigade Monument. National Park Service, Hazen Brigade Monument. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
  3. Arrington Vineyards. Arrington Vineyards, visiting FAQs; Arrington Vineyards, the music calendar. Hours: as posted, read October 20, 2026.
  4. Before you go. National Park Service, Stones River hours; National Park Service, Stones River tour; Arrington Vineyards, October 24.
  5. The drive. Valhalla (valhalla1.openstreetmap.de) on OpenStreetMap, routed October 21, 2026.
  6. The photograph. The Hazen Brigade Monument, October 2009. Photo: National Park Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

All 8 loops