On December 26, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland marched out of Nashville to confront Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee outside Murfreesboro. The armies clashed along Stones River beginning on New Year's Eve and the ensuing battle eventually prompted Bragg to withdraw to Tullahoma. Rosecrans's victory gave President Abraham Lincoln a critical victory in support of the recently issued Emancipation Proclamation.