SEPTEMBER 20—SECOND DAY.
General Bragg issued orders to his subordinates to resume the battle at daybreak. On the Confederate right Breckinridge’s Division was to begin the attack which would be taken up by successive divisions to the left. Sunday morning came. Daylight began to creep over the battlefield. The sun rose, but no attack came. Bragg waited impatiently. Finally, the orders reached Hill at 7:30 a.m. Further delay followed as the troops moved into position. About 9:30 a.m. Breckinridge advanced to attack, followed by Cleburne. The extreme left of the Union line fell back, but the fire from the Union breastworks halted further Confederate advance. Reinforcements hurried to Thomas. In further fighting at this part of the line neither side made any considerable gain, as Rosecrans sought to hold his left against Polk’s furious attacks. Almost equally matched, neither Thomas nor Polk could show any appreciable gains throughout the morning. About 11 o’clock a lull occurred as Longstreet’s wing prepared to move against the center in Bragg’s plan of attack.
THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA
SEPTEMBER 20, 1863
Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. Courtesy National Archives.
Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. Courtesy National Archives.
The Union center at which Longstreet pointed his attack was held by Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood’s Division which had replaced Negley’s Division in the line when the latter had reinforced Thomas early in the morning. To the immediate left of Wood were the troops of Brannan’s Division, and on Brannan’s left, Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds’ Division.
An hour before noon as the Confederate right wing poised to strike, an irreparable blunder occurred on the Union side. A staff officer riding from Thomas’ headquarters near Kelly Field reported to Rosecrans that he had noticed Brannan’s Division was out of line and believed “General Reynolds’ right was exposed.” Rosecrans, without further investigation, immediately ordered Wood to “close up on Reynolds as fast as possible and support him.” In order to do this, Wood had to pull his division out of line and march behind Brannan’s Division toward Reynolds. Wood’s division had left its place in the line, creating a true gap where none had actually existed before, and had started to march northward behind Brannan when Longstreet’s column of five divisions accidentally struck into the gap.
Longstreet’s attack hit Wood’s and Brannan’s Divisions on their exposed flank and drove them from the immediate field of battle. On the other side of the gap the Confederates struck Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis’ Division, which was marching up to take Wood’s place in the line, and Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s Division in flank. In a very short time the entire Union right flank was in disorder and driven from the field. Wilder’s brigade on the extreme right made a valiant stand for a while, employing to good effect the heavy fire power of the Spencer repeating carbine with which it was armed. Nothing, however, seemed to daunt the onrush of the Confederates, and Wilder withdrew for fear of being cut off from escape.
The routed divisions from the Union right withdrew northwestward through McFarland’s Gap to Rossville. Generals Rosecrans, Crittenden, and McCook were caught in the breakthrough and fled the field. General Thomas was now in command of the Union forces left there.
The altered conditions of the battlefield now dictated a change in Confederate strategy. The original plan of enveloping the Union left changed to a sweep from the Union right to the left. A pause in the fighting enabled Thomas to form a new line quickly to his rear on Snodgrass Hill, almost at a right angle with the Union left. From this vantage point he met the onslaught of Longstreet’s troops with such stubborn and determined resistance on that Sunday afternoon that he earned the name “Rock of Chickamauga.”
The Union line on Snodgrass Hill was composed of Brannan’s Division with fragments of Wood’s, Negley’s, and Van Cleve’s Divisions. Longstreet vigorously assaulted the line again and again and nearly succeeded in enveloping Brannan’s right. Confederate success seemed assured as Thomas’ troops were hard hit and were short of ammunition, but at this moment unexpected reinforcements reached General Thomas.
The Battle of Chickamauga. Scene from diorama in the Museum, Park Headquarters Building.
General Granger, without orders and following the sound of battle, had hastened to the aid of Thomas. He arrived at Snodgrass Hill at a very opportune moment and just in time to stop the Confederates from enveloping Brannan’s right. A fierce engagement took place as Brig. Gen. James B. Steedman’s Division of Granger’s Corps forced the southern troops from the crest of the hill.
Midafternoon found Longstreet once again attempting to wrest the hill from Thomas’ troops, using McLaw’s, Hindman’s, and Bushrod Johnson’s Divisions, and again he was repulsed. Later in the afternoon, Longstreet asked Bragg for reinforcements but was told none were available and that the right wing “had been beaten back so badly that they could be of no service” to him. Longstreet determined to make one more effort. He formed a column of such troops as were available and again assaulted the hill. The fight was desperate and lasted until nightfall. The Union troops repulsed some of the Confederate charges with the bayonet as their ammunition was nearly exhausted. Finally, Longstreet pushed Steedman back to the next ridge and occupied the ground to the right of Brannan.
The left of the Union line around Kelly Field spent a relatively quiet afternoon compared to their comrades on Snodgrass Hill. However, about 4 p.m., the divisions of Hill’s corps and part of Walker’s again assaulted the Union positions there. By 6 p.m., Cheatham’s Division had joined the attack. This attack succeeded in enveloping the Union left, and the road to Rossville, through Rossville Gap, was cut off for the moment.
Headquarters, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, Reserve Corps, Army of the Cumberland, at Rossville Gap. The house was built by John Ross, Cherokee Indian Chief, who lived in it until 1832. Ross gave his name to the village in the gap. From Elson, The Civil War Through the Camera.
In the meantime, Thomas received orders from Rosecrans to “Assume command of all the forces, and with Crittenden and McCook take a strong position and assume a threatening attitude at Rossville.” Although Thomas received these orders with little delay, it was late afternoon before he sent instructions to Reynolds to begin the withdrawal and move into position to cover the retirement of the other troops on the left. In executing this movement, Reynolds was forced to drive off the Confederate troops who had begun to envelop the Union left. The Union army withdrew in relatively good order. The troops holding Kelly Field moved out first, followed by those who had stubbornly resisted Longstreet’s attacks upon Snodgrass Hill.
While the retreat from the battlelines may have been in “good order,” General Beatty’s description of the march to Rossville amply describes the scene: “The march to Rossville was a melancholy one. All along the road, for miles, wounded men were lying. They had crawled or hobbled slowly away from the fury of the battle, become exhausted, and lain down by the roadside to die.” Beatty reached Rossville between “ten and eleven” and reported, “At this hour of the night (eleven to twelve o’clock) the army is simply a mob. There appears to be neither organization nor discipline. The various commands are mixed up in what seems to be inextricable confusion.”
Nevertheless, Thomas placed his forces at Rossville Gap and along Missionary Ridge in preparation against further attacks. The morning of the 21st found the Union Army of the Cumberland more or less reorganized. With the exception of some skirmishing, the Union forces were not molested.
The losses on both sides were appalling and the percentages surprisingly equal. The following tabulation of casualties at the Battle of Chickamauga is based on Thomas L. Livermore’s Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-65:
| Army | Total Strength | Total Casualties | Killed | Wounded | Missing | Percent Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union | 58,222 | 16,170 | 1,657 | 9,756 | 4,757 | 28 |
| Confederate | 66,326 | 18,454 | 2,312 | 14,674 | 1,468 | 28 |
The Siege of Chattanooga
Thomas remained in position at Rossville throughout the 21st, but it was evident that the Confederates could turn his right flank and cut him off from Chattanooga. He suggested to Rosecrans that the Union Army concentrate at Chattanooga. In anticipation of receiving an order to withdraw to the town, Thomas instructed his officers to prepare their commands for the movement. Rosecrans adopted the suggestion and that evening Thomas withdrew the Union forces to Chattanooga. All wagons, ambulances, and surplus artillery had already departed for Chattanooga during the day. By morning of September 22, all Union troops were in position in the town.
Wartime view. Lee and Gordon’s Mills, Chickamauga Battlefield. Courtesy National Archives.
The situation in which the men in blue found themselves in Chattanooga was not pleasant. The Tennessee River walled them in on the north, although a pontoon bridge and two ferries offered escape possibilities. Lookout Mountain blocked the way on the west, and Missionary Ridge to the east and south, now held by the Confederates, completed the circle.
Wartime view of Chattanooga in 1863—Lookout Mountain in distance. Courtesy National Archives.
Bragg issued orders for the pursuit of the Army of the Cumberland, then countermanded them. Instead, the Confederate troops began to take up siege positions around Chattanooga. In these positions the Confederates dominated the Union lines. Bragg’s men controlled all the railroads leading into the town; Confederate batteries and sharpshooters commanded the Tennessee River, and river traffic ceased; they controlled the roads on the south side of the river and kept under fire the one road north of the river leading to Bridgeport, the nearest Union supply base. Only the road over Walden’s Ridge and down through the Sequatchie Valley to Bridgeport was open to General Rosecrans.
Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Courtesy National Archives.
Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Courtesy National Archives.
Reinforcements for the Besieged Army
As early as September 13, General in Chief Halleck ordered reinforcements sent to Rosecrans. His dispatches on September 13, 14, and 15 to Major Generals Hurlbut at Memphis and Grant and Sherman at Vicksburg directed the troop movements. These dispatches, however, were delayed for several days en route from Cairo to Memphis and, in the meantime, the Battle of Chickamauga was fought. Grant received the orders on the 22nd and immediately instructed four divisions under Sherman to march to Chattanooga.
One division of the Seventeenth Corps, already in transit from Vicksburg to Helena, Ark., was ordered to proceed on to Memphis. General Sherman quickly brought three divisions of his Fifteenth Army Corps from the vicinity of the Big Black River into Vicksburg, where they embarked as fast as water transportation could be provided. By October 3, all of the movement of 17,000 men was under way.
The route of travel was by boat to Memphis, then by railroad and overland marches to Chattanooga. From Memphis the troops followed closely the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which Sherman was ordered to repair as he advanced. By November 15, the troops were at Bridgeport, Ala., having traveled a distance of 675 miles.
When the War Department in Washington received word that the Army of the Cumberland was besieged in Chattanooga, it considered the situation so critical that President Lincoln was called out of bed late at night to attend a council meeting. This meeting occurred on the night of September 23, and is described by Nicolay and Hay:
Immediately on receipt of Rosecrans’ dispatch, Mr. Stanton sent one of the President’s secretaries who was standing by to the Soldier’s Home, where the President was sleeping. A little startled by the unwonted summons,—for this was “the first time” he said, Stanton had ever sent for him,—the President mounted his horse and rode in through the moonlight to the War Department to preside over an improvised council to consider the subject of reinforcing Rosecrans.
There were present General Halleck, Stanton, Seward and Chase of the Cabinet; P. H. Watson and James A. Hardie of the War Department, and General D. C. McCallum, Superintendent of Military Transportation. After a brief debate, it was resolved to detach the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps from the Army of the Potomac, General Hooker to be placed in command of both....
ROUTE OF UNION REINFORCEMENTS
MOVEMENTS, SEPT. 22-OCT. 15, 1863
Chattanooga headquarters of General Rosecrans during the siege. Courtesy National Archives.
The movement of the Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps from the Army of the Potomac to Tennessee eclipsed all other such troop movements by rail up to that time. It represented a high degree of cooperation between the railroads and the government and was a singular triumph of skill and planning. It also shows the great importance the War Department attached to the Chattanooga campaign.
The troops began to entrain at Manassas Junction and Bealton Station, Va., on September 25, and 5 days later on September 30 the first trains arrived at Bridgeport, Ala. The route traveled was by way of Washington, D. C.; Baltimore, Md.; Bellaire and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Bridgeport, Ala. Several major railroad lines, including the Baltimore and Ohio, Central Ohio, Louisville and Nashville, and Nashville and Chattanooga were involved.
Not all of the troops, however, made such good time as the first trains, and for the majority of the infantry the trip consumed about 9 days. The movement of the artillery, horses, mules, baggage, and impedimenta was somewhat slower, but by the middle of October, all were in the vicinity of Bridgeport ready to help break the siege.
These two corps under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, comprising 20,000 troops and more than 3,000 horses and mules, traveled 1,157 miles. Differences in the railroad gauges hampered the movement, but most of the changes in gauge occurred at river crossings which had no bridges and the troops had to detrain at these points anyway.
Confederate cavalry raids, bent on destroying the railroad bridges and otherwise interfering with the reinforcing effort, imposed a more serious difficulty, but, except for delaying the latter part of the movement a few days, the raids were ineffective.
At the beginning of the siege, the Union Army had large supply trains in good condition and transporting supplies seemed feasible. But early in October rain began to fall and the roads became almost impassable. To make the situation more critical Bragg sent Wheeler to harass and destroy the Union supply trains as they moved over Walden’s Ridge on their trips to and from Bridgeport. Wheeler destroyed hundreds of wagons and animals and it was not long before the Union soldier received less and less food. Wagon horses and mules and artillery horses were on a starvation diet and many died each day.
Command of the two hostile armies had undergone a considerable change during the siege period. Grant received orders to meet “an officer of the War Department” at Louisville, Ky. He proceeded by rail to Indianapolis, Ind., and just as his train left the depot there, en route to Louisville, it was stopped. A message informed Grant that Secretary of War Stanton was coming into the station and wished to see him. This was the “officer” from the War Department who gave Grant command of the newly organized Military Division of the Mississippi. Thomas replaced Rosecrans. McCook and Crittenden had previously been relieved of their commands and their corps consolidated into the Fourth Corps under command of Granger. Stanton accompanied Grant to Louisville and there the two spent a day reviewing the situation.
In Bragg’s camp, Polk was relieved of his command, and Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee rejoined the army. Bragg’s army was reorganized into three corps commanded by Longstreet, Hardee, and Breckinridge.
Entrenchments of Thomas’ Corps, Army of the Cumberland in front of Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain in distance. From Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.
When Grant reached Chattanooga on October 23 he found a plan already drawn up to open a new supply line for the besieged army. This plan of necessity was conditioned upon the terrain and the configuration of the river between Bridgeport, the railhead and base of supplies for the Union Army, and Chattanooga. (After the Tennessee River passes the city it flows southward for some 2 miles until it strikes Lookout Mountain where, after a short westerly course, it curves northward. This elongated loop of the river is called Moccasin Bend.)
The plan called for 1,500 men on pontoons to float down the river from Chattanooga during the night of October 26-27 while another force marched across Moccasin Point to support the landings of the river-borne troops. Grant ordered the plan executed. The pontoon-borne troops quickly disembarked upon striking the west bank at Brown’s Ferry, drove off the Confederate pickets, and threw up breastworks. The troops marching across the neck of land came up to the east side of the ferry, joined this group, and constructed a pontoon bridge.
Hooker’s advance from Bridgeport coincided with this action. He marched by the road along Raccoon Mountain into Lookout Valley. There he met the advance post of a Confederate brigade and drove it back. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard’s Eleventh Corps moved to within 2 miles of Brown’s Ferry, while Brig. Gen. John W. Geary of the Twelfth Corps remained at Wauhatchie to guard the road to Kelley’s Ferry.
The Confederates made a night attack against Geary which the latter repulsed, but both sides lost heavily. After this action, the short line of communication with Bridgeport by way of Brown’s and Kelley’s Ferries was held by Hooker without further trouble.
With the successful seizure of Brown’s Ferry and construction of a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River there, and Hooker’s equally successful advance from Bridgeport and seizure of the south side of the river at Raccoon Mountain and in Lookout Valley, the way was finally clear for the Union Army to reopen a short line of supply and communication between Chattanooga and Bridgeport, the rail end of its supply line. This “Cracker Line” ran by boat up the Tennessee River from Bridgeport to Kelley’s Ferry. Above Kelley’s Ferry, the swift current made the stream unnavigable at certain points to boats then available. Accordingly, at Kelley’s Ferry, the “Cracker Line” left the river and crossed Raccoon Mountain by road to Brown’s Ferry. There it crossed the river on the pontoon bridge, thence across Moccasin Point, and finally across the river once more into Chattanooga.
Early in November, Bragg ordered Longstreet to march against Burnside in East Tennessee with Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaw’s and Maj. Gen. John B. Hood’s Divisions of infantry, Col. E. Porter Alexander’s and Maj. A. Leyden’s battalions of artillery, and five brigades of cavalry under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler—about 15,000 men in all. This movement caused great anxiety in Washington and the authorities urged Grant to act promptly to assist Burnside. Grant felt that the quickest way to aid him was to attack Bragg and force the latter to recall Longstreet. On November 7, Thomas received Grant’s order to attack Bragg’s right. Thomas replied that he was unable to move a single piece of artillery because of the poor condition of the horses and mules. They were not strong enough to pull artillery pieces. In these circumstances, Grant could only answer Washington dispatches, urge Sherman forward, and encourage Burnside to hold on.
Lifting the Siege—The Battle of Chattanooga
(See map on pages [36]-37.)
With the Confederate Army in front of Chattanooga divided into two corps, Hardee on the right and Breckinridge on the left on Missionary Ridge, and General Stevenson with a small force occupying Lookout Mountain, Bragg waited.
Grant’s plan of battle was for Sherman with his four divisions to cross the Tennessee River at Brown’s Ferry and march behind Stringer’s Ridge, concealed from the eyes of the Confederates, and take a position near the North Chickamauga Creek. He was to recross the river by pontoon bridge at the mouth of the South Chickamauga Creek, strike the north end of Missionary Ridge and capture it as far as the railroad tunnel. Thomas was to move his Army of the Cumberland to the left, and connect with Sherman. This united force was to sweep the Confederates southward off Missionary Ridge and away from their base of supplies at Chickamauga Station. Howard’s Corps was to act as a general reserve for this force. Hooker, with the Twelfth Corps and Brig. Gen. Charles Cruft’s Division (Fourth Corps), was to hold Lookout Valley. Col. Eli Long’s Cavalry was to cover Sherman’s left and when no longer needed for this task was to strike Bragg’s communications. This original plan, however, was changed several times to fit the situation.
The rains that hampered movement of Union supplies also delayed Sherman’s movement across the Tennessee. High water broke the bridge at Brown’s Ferry and Osterhaus’ Division could not cross the river. Subsequently it received orders to join Hooker in Lookout Valley.
On November 22, Grant received word that Bragg was withdrawing his army; actually the movement reported was Buckner leaving to reinforce Longstreet. To “test the truth” of the report, Grant changed his plans and ordered Thomas to make a demonstration to his front on the 23rd. This began the battles of Chattanooga.