The Great Republic by the Master Historians Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge byBancroft, Hubert H.
[After the fall of Vicksburg the center of military operations was shifted to
Chattanooga, which became the scene of the most peculiar and dramatically
interesting conflict of the war. Before describing this "battle above the
clouds," a review of the events succeeding the battle of Murfreesborough is
necessary. After that conflict no active measures were taken for six months,
Rosecrans awaiting the reduction of Vicksburg. He moved at length, on the 16th
of June, with an army of sixty thousand men. Bragg had forty-six thousand, who
were strongly intrenched at Tullahoma and points in its vicinity, guarding the
railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga. Rosecrans made a flank movement on this
army, threatening to turn its right, upon which Bragg hastily abandoned his
intrenchments and fell back to Bridgeport, Alabama. A nine days' march, over
roads, rendered almost impassable by excessive rains, had gained this important
advantage. Bragg continued his retreat to Chattanooga, destroying the railroad
as he went. He lost six thousand men, mainly by desertion and straggling.
Rosecrans followed, rebuilding the railroad'as he advanced, and on August 16
began to cross the Cumberland Mountains. Two other events of importance
accompanied these. On June 27, John H. Morgan was sent North on a cavalry raid.
He crossed the Ohio into Indiana, rode through this State and Ohio, and circled
around Cincinnati, doing great damage along his route. He was unable to recross
the river, however, and was obliged to surrender, with his men, on July 26. The
other event was the expedition of Burnside to East Tennessee. This general, then
in command of the Department of the Ohio, with twenty thousand men, marched
towards Knoxville on August 16. After a very difficult journey over the
Cumberland Mountains, he reached Knoxville on September 9, and compelled it to
surrender. This gave him control of East Tennessee, and completed the conquest
of that State. Buckner, who was at Knoxville with ten thousand men, marched to
reinforce Bragg.
Before describing the subsequent events, the situation of Chattanooga needs to
be outlined. At this point are several parallel ranges of the Appalachian
mountain-system, with intermediate valleys, in one of which the town is
situated, on the south bank of the Tennessee River. Southwestwardly from the
town run several ranges, known, from west to east, as Raccoon Mountain, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Pigeon Mountain, and Chickamauga Hills. The town
lies in the mouth of the valley between Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
The former is a lofty and rugged elevation, about two thousand four hundred feet
high, ending abruptly near the town.
Rosecrans again made a flank movement, crossing the ridges to the south of
Chattanooga, and occupying the several valleys. On the 20th of August his left
wing reached the north bank of the Tennessee, from which he shelled Chattanooga
on the 21st. Bragg, finding that his communications were threatened by the
advance of Thomas and McCook into the mountain-gaps, abandoned Chattanooga on
September 8, and moved southward. He had no intention of definitely retreating,
however. He had been heavily reinforced, and concentrated his army at Lafayette,
while the three corps of Rosecrans's army were widely separated by mountain-
ridges. Had Bragg assumed the offensive when he first wished to, a serious Union
disaster might have resulted. But he was delayed by the insubordination of his
officers, and meanwhile Rosecrans, realizing the true situation, began to
concentrate his army. Before this was fully accomplished Bragg fell upon him
with his whole force. The advance of a strong reinforcement, under Longstreet,
reached him from Virginia on the 18th. On the morning of the 19th the two armies
stood face to face, and the battle of Chickamauga began with a vigorous
Confederate assault. The battle continued during the day, and ended
indecisively, neither side having lost ground. During the night the remainder of
Longstreet's men came up.
The assault was renewed on the morning of the 20th, Rosecrans having in the mean
time covered his front with breastworks. It continued till mid-day without
decisive result. Shortly afterwards, however, by an unfortunate misapprehension
of orders, a gap was opened in the Union lines, of which the Confederates took
instant advantage,' pushing into the opening and rolling back the broken flanks.
The charge was urged by Longstreet's men with such fierce energy that the error
could not be rectified. The centre and right were broken and dispersed, and
driven back in rout towards Chattanooga. A terrible defeat would have supervened
but for the gallant behavior of the left wing, under Thomas. Sheridan managed to
join him with a portion of his division, and with less than half the original
army he held his ground unflinchingly against the whole Confederate force until
darkness put a close to the contest,--after which he retired in good order to
Rossville. On the 21st he offered battle again, and that night withdrew into the
defences of Chattanooga. Bragg had won a victory, but had not recovered the
town. His loss was about eighteen thousand men. Rosecrans lost about sixteen
thousand three hundred and fifty men, and fifty-one guns. On the 24th, Bragg
advanced on Chattanooga, expecting to take it easily. He found it too strongly
defended, however, for any hope of success in an assault, and during a
considerable period no further hostilities occurred.
The most vigorous preparations were now made for the attack and defence of this
important post, which had become the centre of operations for the Western
armies. Bragg began a siege of the town that threatened to reduce it by
starvation. He seized the passes of Lookout Mountain, destroyed the railroad-
bridge at Bridgeport, and thus broke the railroad-communication with Nashville.
The supply-trains of Rosecrans's army were obliged to make their way over a
difficult ridge by steep and rough roads, since Bragg commanded all the low
grounds along the Tennessee. In October heavy rains fell. The roads became
almost impassable. The Confederate cavalry attacked the trains. In one day they
destroyed three hundred wagons and killed or captured eighteen hundred mules. As
one soldier said, "The mud was so deep that we could not travel by the road, but
we got along pretty well by stepping from mule to mule as they lay dead by the
way." Starvation threatened the camp. The army must be relieved or must retreat,
and a retreat might have ended in a great disaster.
Vigorous measures were now taken. Grant was made commander of the Western
armies. He had about eighty thousand men, in addition to Burnside's force;
Bragg, about sixty thousand. Sherman was directed to march from Vicksburg to
Chattanooga, his troops being first transported by steamboat to Memphis. He left
Memphis on October 2, repairing the railroads as he went. It was also determined
to reinforce Rosecrans from the Army of the Potomac, and two corps, numbering
twenty-three thousand men, under Hooker, were transported, with their artillery,
baggage, and animals, from the Rapidan in Virginia to Stevenson in Alabama, a
distance of eleven hundred and ninety-two miles, in seven days; an unprecedented
performance.
Grant telegraphed to Thomas, then in command at Chattanooga, to hold the place
at all hazards. "I will do so till we starve," was the answer. Grant reached the
town on October 21, and found that all the heights surrounding it were in the
hands of the enemy, who controlled both the river and the railroad. Ten thousand
animals had perished by famine. The roads must be opened, or the army must
retreat, and that meant destruction, as they would have had to march without
supplies. Within a few days, however, the state of affairs remarkably changed. A
secret expedition drove the enemy from the range of hills which commanded the
river road. Immediately afterwards Hooker reached the same point and strongly
guarded it. Good roads for supplies were now secured, and the problem of holding
Chattanooga was solved. Bragg had lost his advantage by a surprise. He sought to
recover it by a night assault on Geary's command at Wauhatchie, but was repulsed
with great loss.
A new Confederate scheme was now devised, which fatally weakened Bragg's army.
Longstreet was sent with fifteen thousand men to attack Burnside at Knoxville.
Sherman's men arrived late in November, and an assault on Bragg's position was
arranged for the 24th. Meanwhile, Bragg was so confident of the strength of his
position that he sent a division to reinforce Longstreet. A second division had
started, but was recalled when Grant's attack began. From Van Horne's "Army of
the Cumberland" we select a description of the remarkable action that
succeeded.]
The Confederate leaders and the army commanders were sanguine of the success of
the siege of Chattanooga up to the very moment of its failure. General Bragg
had, for a time, just ground for sanguine expectations, as the elements were his
allies. At the time of greatest promise, the oracular Confederate President
appeared on Lookout Mountain, and from "Pulpit Rock," as he looked down
exultingly upon the beleaguered army, predicted its total ruin. But the loss of
Lookout Valley, the river, and the direct roads to Bridgeport virtually threw
Bragg upon the defensive. It is true that he maintained his lines on Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and through the intervening valley, in semblance
of besieging effort, until the army with which he had so often battled leaped
from its intrenchments and hurled him and his oft-defeated army from their lofty
battlements. But he made no movement of actual offence against Chattanooga
during the time the Army of the Cumberland was preparing to assume the boldest
aggression. ..
The town is surrounded with almost all the types of the grand and beautiful in
nature. Mountains far and near, rising from water and plain, sharply defined by
low valleys and the river curving at their feet; subordinate hills with rounded
summits and undulating slopes, and broad plains delicately pencilled here and
there by winding creeks and rivulets, are the prominent features of nature's
amphitheatre, in the centre of which is Chattanooga.
Looking to the southwest, Lookout Mountain, with bold front and craggy crest, is
seen rising abruptly from the river and the valleys on either side; to the west,
Raccoon Mountain appears, trending from its river-front far to the southwest,
parallel with Lookout; to the north, Waldron's Ridge forms the sky-line far to
right and left; to the east, Missionary Ridge, with indented summit, more humbly
takes position, hiding the lofty ranges far beyond; to the south, the east, and
to the northeast, stretches the plain where the armies were marshalled for the
assault of Bragg's army on Missionary Ridge; and to the south-west, twice across
the river, lies the valley from which Hooker crept slyly up the mountain-steeps,
covered with trees and shrubs, standing and fallen, and with huge fragments of
stone, which during the ages have dropped from the ledges overhanging the crest,
to give battle on a field suited to the stealthy belligerence of the Indian, but
adverse in every phase to the repetition of all the precedents of modern
warfare. But this battle-field defies description, and he who would fully
appreciate either battle or field must read the story of the one as he looks
down from Lookout Mountain upon the magnificence of the other.
[On November 7, Grant had ordered General Thomas to attack the north end of
Missionary Ridge, but this order was recalled, as the army was not ready for
battle. Later in the month Sherman reached the town, and on the 23d an assault
was made on Orchard Knob, an isolated hill between the town and the ridge. This
movement was intended as a reconnoissance, but unexpectedly the hill was carried
and a highly-important advantage gained. On the 24th, General Hooker, who was in
position for an assault upon Look-out Mountain, moved upon this seemingly
impregnable height.]
On the front of Lookout Mountain, intermediate between base and summit, there is
a wide open space, cultivated as a farm, in vivid contrast with the natural
surroundings of wildest types. The farm-house, known as Craven's or "the white
house," was situated upon the upper margin of the farm. From the house to the
foundation of the perpendicular cliff or palisade which crops out from the rock-
ribbed frame of the mountain, the ascent is exceedingly steep and thickly
wooded. Below the farm the surface is rough and craggy. The base of the
mountain, next the river, has a perpendicular front of solid rock, rising
grandly from the railroad-track, which, though in part cut through the deep
ledges, does not perceptibly mar nature's magnificent architecture. Over the top
of this foundation-front the narrow road passes, which in the western valley
throws off various branches, leading west and south. East and west from Craven's
farm the surface is broken by furrows and covered with shrubs, trees, and
fragments of stone. On the open space the enemy had constructed his defences,
consisting of intrenchments, pits, and redoubts, which, extending over the front
of the mountain, bade defiance to a foe advancing from the river. At the
extremities of the main intrechments there were rifle-pits, epaulements for
batteries, barricades of stone and abatis, looking to resistance against
aggression from Chattanooga or Lookout Valley. The road from Chattanooga to
Summertown, an elegant village for summer resort, winding up the eastern side of
the mountain, is the only one practicable for ordinary military movements within
a range of many miles. So that, except by this road, there could be no transfer
of troops from the summit to the northern slope, or to the valley, east or west,
to meet the emergencies of battle, and this road was too long to allow provision
from the top for sudden contingencies below.
At 8 A. M. Geary crossed the creek, captured the pickets of the enemy, and then
crept up the mountain-side until his right, which was his front in the ascent,
touched the base of the palisaded summit. The fog which overhung the mountain-
top and upper steeps, and the dense woods, concealed the movement. Then, with
his right clinging to the palisades, he swept round towards the mountain's
front. Simultaneously with Geary's first movement Grose attached the enemy at
the bridge, and, having driven him back, commenced its repair. The noise of this
conflict called the enemy's nearest forces from their camps. They formed in
front of their intrenchments and rifle-pits; and one detachment advanced to the
railroad-embankment, which formed a good parapet and admitted a sweeping fire
upon the national troops advancing from the bridge. To avoid the loss of life
inevitable in a direct advance, General Hooker directed Osterhaus, now
commanding his division, to send a brigade to prepare a crossing a half mile
farther up the creek, under cover of the woods. A portion of Grose's brigade
having been left at the bridge to attract the attention of the enemy, the
remainder followed Woods' brigade to assist in the construction of the bridge.
In the mean time, additional artillery had been posted, which, with the
batteries first planted on the hills west of the creek, enfiladed all the
proximate positions of the enemy. A section of twenty-pounder Parrotts had also
the range of the enemy's camp on the mountain-side; and on Moccasin Point,
Brannan's guns were in position to open a direct fire upon the front of the
mountain.
At 11 A. M. Woods completed the bridge, and soon after Geary's division and
Whittaker's brigade, in line, sweeping the mountain from base to palisade, came
abreast. The batteries then opened fire, and Woods and Grose crossed the creek
and aligned their troops on Geary's left as it swept down the valley. The troops
of the enemy, in the first positions, that escaped the artillery fire, ran into
the infantry lines, so that quick overthrow occurred to all the troops that had
taken position in the valley and near the western base of the mountain. Many
were killed, more were wounded, and the remainder were captured, and then the
line moved onward towards the mountain's front.
The booming of the heavy guns, with interludes of light artillery and musketry
fire, announced to friend and foe in the distant lines that an action was in
progress where battle had not been expected. Quietness reigning throughout the
other hills and valleys compassed by the long lines of the contending armies,
the contest on the mountain-side, revealed by its noise, but as yet hidden from
sight, commanded the profoundest attention and interest of far more than one
hundred thousand men. Those not held by duty' or the constraint of orders, in
crowds sought the elevated lookouts, and, with glasses and strained vision,
turned their gaze to the woods, fog, and battle-smoke which concealed the
anomalous contest. As the increasing roar of musketry indicated the sweep of the
battle to the east, the anxiety for its revelation on the open ground became
intense. Soon through the clefts of the fog could be seen the routed enemy in
rapid motion, followed by Hooker's line, with its right under the palisade and
its continuity lost to view far down the mountain. Whittaker held the right,
under the cliffs, and below were the brigades of Cobham, Ireland, and Creighton;
and this line hurled the enemy from position after position, climbing over crags
and boulders for attack and pursuit, and reached at noon the point where orders
required a halt for readjustment of lines and a more cautious approach towards
the Summertown road. But as on the following day, in the assault made by other
portions of the Army of the Cumberland, the restraint of orders did not arrest
the pursuit of the flying foe, so now these victorious troops swept on. With a
plunging fire from above and behind they rolled up the enemy's line, and,
lifting it from its intrenchments, made no half until the middle of the open
ground was gained. Here the enemy met reinforcements and made a more determined
stand. Soon, however, Grose's brigade of Cruft's division, and Osterhaus'
command, having gathered up the captured on the lower ground, closed on the
left, and then the enemy was driven from all his defences on the open ground,
and with broken ranks retreated down the eastern descent of the mountain.
The heavy Parrotts and the Tenth and Eighteenth Ohio batteries, under Captain
Naylor, on Moccasin Point, rendered important aid to the assaulting forces, by
preventing the concentration of the enemy's troops. But the potent cause of the
victory was the fact that brave men reached the flank and rear of the enemy's
defences.
The heavy fighting ceased at 2 P. M. General Hooker's troops had exhausted their
ammunition, as no trains could reach them. Besides this want of ammunition, as a
bar to further fighting, the fog which had overhung the mountain during the day
settled down densely over the enemy. But for these obstacles, and the fact that
the enemy could now concentrate heavily to prevent the insulation of his troops
on the mountain-top, an effort would have been made to seize the Summertown
road. Hooker, therefore, waited for ammunition and reinforcements. At 5 P. M.
Carlin's brigade of the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps crossed the
Chattanooga Creek, near its mouth, and ascended the mountain to Hooker's right.
The troops of this brigade carried on their persons ammunition for Hooker's
skirmishers, in addition to the ordinary supply for themselves. Servere
skirmishing was then maintained until nearly midnight.
[On the 24th, General Sherman occupied the two northernmost summits of
Missionary Ridge, which had been abandoned by the enemy. Between this point and
Bragg's lines was a deep depression, which must be crossed before the
Confederate lines could be reached. The battle of the 25th began early in the
day, but, though persistent fighting continued till nearly evening, no important
progress was made. General Hooker had been directed, early in the day, to move
against Bragg's left, across the valley between the two ridges. General Thomas,
who had been held to move in co-operation with Sherman, was ordered to make an
independent attack upon the enemy's centre. Four divisions were in line, in
readiness for this assault, but night was near at hand when the order came.]
Between 3 and 4 P. M. six successive cannon-shots from the battery on Orchard
Knob gave the signal for the advance. General Grant's order required that the
enemy should be dislodged from the rifle-pits and intrenchments at the base of
Missionary Ridge. The statement is made in his official report that it was his
design that the lines should be readjusted at the base for the assault of the
summit; but no such instructions were given to corps or division generals.
Neither does it appear from his report whether he meditated an independent
assault of the summit from his centre, or one co-operative with Sherman on the
left, or Hooker on the right, as the original plan prescribed for the former or
as the issues of the day suggested for the latter.
As soon as the magnificent lines moved forward, the batteries of the enemy on
the ridge opened upon them with great activity. General Brannan's large guns in
Fort Wood, Fort Cheatham, Battery Rousseau, and Fort Sheridan, and four light
batteries on the intermediate hills, which had not been silent hitherto, gave
emphatic response. Their fire was first directed to the enemy's inferior
intrenchments, and when this endangered the advancing lines their missiles were
thrown upon the summit. This change of direction was soon necessary, as, leaping
forward at the signal, the eager troops in rapid movement first met the enemy's
pickets and their reserves, then his troops occupying the intervening woods, and
finally his stronger line in his lower intrenchments, and drove all in confusion
to the crest of the ridge. In vain had General Bragg made effort to strengthen
his lower line. The advance of the national troops had been so rapid, and their
movement had expressed such purpose and power, that the very forces that had so
often repeated their furious assaults at Chickamauga lost courage and made no
soldierly effort to maintain their position, though supported by at least fifty
guns, which, at short range, were fast decimating the assaulting columns.
Having executed their orders to the utmost requirement, holding the enemy's
lower defences, the four divisions stood under his batteries, while the troops
they had routed threw themselves behind the stronger intrenchments on the
summit. General Bragg's right flank had not been turned, as first proposed, and
General Hooker's attack on his left, though successful, was too remote to affect
immediately the central contest. To stand still was death; to fall back was not
compassed by orders, and was forbidden by every impulse of the brave men who,
with no stragglers to mar the symmetry of their line or make scarcely a single
exception to universal gallantry, had moved so boldly and so successfully upon
the foe. There are occasional moments in battle when brave men do not need
commanders, and this was one. The enemy held a position of wonderful strength
several hundred feet above them. He had two lines in one behind earthworks,
where nature had provided a fortress. These men, however, did not stop to
consider the enemy's position or strength, but, from a common impulse of
patriotism and the inspiration of partial success, leaped forward and dashed up
the hill. The color-bearers sprang to the front, and as one fell another bore
the flag aloft and onward, followed by their gallant comrades, not in line, but
in such masses as enabled them to avail themselves of easier ascent or partial
cover. They advanced without firing, though receiving a most destructive fire of
artillery and musketry, from base to summit. The officers of all grades caught
the spirit of the men, and so eager were men and officers throughout the line
that the crest was reached and carried at six different points almost at the
same moment. The enemy was hurled from position with wonderful quickness; his
artillery was captured, and in some cases turned against him as he fled. General
Hooker soon swept northward from Rossville, and then the Army of the Cumberland
held Missionary Ridge the whole length of its front. General Hardee's forces,
opposite General Sherman, alone maintained position.
To this general result each of the four central divisions and those with General
Hooker contributed, in co-ordination and harmony unprecedented in an improvised
attack. Each one was successful, though each was not equally prominent in
success. From General Bragg's declaration that his line was first pierced on his
right,--that is, to the north of the house which he occupied as his head-
quarters,--and from the observation of those occupying elevated positions, there
is no room to doubt that General Woods' division first reached the summit.
Sheridan's and Baird's, on the right and left, almost simultaneously gained the
crest. General Woods' troops enfiladed the enemy's line to the right and left as
soon as they broke through it, and the other divisions pressed against other
points so quickly that General Bragg's effort to dislodge the troops who first
gained his intrenchments, by sending General Bate to the right, miscarried at
its very inception. After portions of the several divisions had gained the
crest, many isolated contests were conducted with spirit by the enemy, but the
fragments of his line were speedily brushed away.
The impulse to carry the summit of the ridge was seemingly spontaneous, though
not entirely simultaneous, throughout the four divisions, and from different
points several brigades passed beyond the limit fixed by General Grant's order
before there was any concerted action towards a general assault. The division
commanders did not arrest their troops, and for a time the corps generals did
not give official sanction to their advance. The impression, indeed, so far
prevailed that the movement would not be authorized, that Turchin's brigade, on
the right of Baird's division, was halted when far up the ascent, and Wagner's
brigade, on the left of Sheridan's division, was recalled from an advanced
position by a staff-officer who was returning to General Sheridan from General
Granger with the information that General Grant's order required only that the
enemy's intrenched line at the base of the ridge should be carried. Soon,
however, it was apparent to all that the eagerness of the troops had created a
necessity superior to the limitations of orders, and this conviction gave unity
and energy to an assault whose transcendent issue justified its otherwise
unauthorized execution.
To prevent defeat, Generals Bragg, Hardee, Breckinridge, and others of inferior
rank exerted themselves to the utmost. General Bragg, in the centre, was nearly
surrounded before he entirely despaired and abandoned the field. General
Breckinridge resisted General Hooker as he ascended the ridge at Rossville,
availing himself of the fortifications which had been constructed by the
national army after the battle of Chickamauga. His first resistance was quickly
overcome by the Ninth and Thirty-Sixth Regiments of Grose's brigade. General
Cruft's division was then formed in four lines on the summit, and, with the
lateral divisions abreast, moved rapidly forward, driving the enemy in turn from
several positions. Many of his troops, that fled east or west, were captured by
Osterhaus or Geary, and those who tried to escape northward fell into Johnson's
hands. As soon as General Hardee heard the noise of battle to his left, he
hastened to join his troops under General Anderson, on the right of their
central line. But before he could cross the chasm corresponding to the interval
between General Sherman's right and General Thomas' left, Anderson's command was
thrown into a confused retreat. He then hurried Cheatham's division from the
vicinity of the tunnel, and formed it across the summit to resist Baird's
division, which had advanced northward, after carrying its entire front, in the
assault. In a severe contest, in which Colonel Phelps, a brigade commander,
fell, General Baird pressed this fresh division northward from several knolls,
but was finally compelled to abandon the conflict by the peculiar strength of a
new position and the approach of darkness.
The victory was gained too late in the day for a general pursuit. General
Sheridan's division and Willich's brigade of General Woods' division pursued the
enemy for a short distance down the eastern slope. Later, General Sheridan
advanced and drove the enemy from a strong position, captured two pieces of
artillery, numerous small-arms, and several wagons from a supply-train.
During the night General Hardee withdrew his forces from the position which he
had persistently held against General Sherman.
[Pursuit was made early the next day, and an engagement took place at Ringgold,
with skirmishes at other points. General Sherman was sent on a rapid march to
Knoxville, to relieve Burnside, whose army was in great danger. This important
duty was successfully performed, and Longstreet, who had been besieging
Knoxville, withdrew to Virginia.]
The official reports of the commanders-in-chief of the two armies do not give
their strength. It is probable that General Grant had sixty thousand men in
action, and General Bragg forty thousand. The former had thirteen divisions,
including two detached brigades, and the latter had eight, with perhaps a
corresponding diminution.
General Bragg's loss in killed and wounded is not known. He lost by capture six
thousand one hundred and forty-two men, forty-two guns, sixty-nine gun-
carriages, and seven thousand stand of small-arms. His loss in material was
immense, part of which he destroyed in his flight, but a large fraction, which
was uninjured, fell to the national army.
The aggregate losses of the Armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee were seven
hundred and fifty-seven killed, four thousand five hundred and twenty-nine
wounded, and three hundred and thirty missing. These losses were small compared
with those of other battles of similar proportions, and exceedingly small in
view of the fact that the enemy generally resisted behind intrenchments.
