The Vicksburg Campaign
518. Eastern Tennessee: Chickamauga.—While Grant was occupied about Vicksburg, important events were taking place in the eastern part of Tennessee. In June, Rosecrans, who had been much criticised for inactivity after the battle of Stone River, broke up his encampment in the vicinity of Murfreesborough. Bragg was a few miles to the south, at Shelbyville, but was soon forced to fall back on Chattanooga. Rosecrans then moved so far around Bragg’s army to the south that the Confederate commander deemed it prudent to evacuate Chattanooga and withdraw some twelve miles into Georgia. Rosecrans hastened to pursue; but Bragg, after receiving reënforcements under Longstreet from Virginia, turned upon his pursuers. Rosecrans drew back toward Chattanooga, and at Chickamauga was vigorously attacked by Bragg. The battle raged furiously for two days, September 19 and 20, and was one of the most sanguinary of the war. The Union forces were finally driven from the field.[[234]] General George H. Thomas,[[235]] who, like Admiral Farragut, was a Southern officer that took the Union side, greatly distinguished himself by withstanding the final assaults on the center, and so delayed the pursuit that the Union army was able to withdraw in fair condition into Chattanooga. For this service, Thomas was afterwards called “The Rock of Chickamauga.”
General George H. Thomas.
519. The Situation at Chattanooga.—East of Chattanooga, at a distance of about three miles, is situated a long, high hill, rising almost to the magnitude of a mountain, known as Missionary Ridge; while south of the city another elevation, known as Lookout Mountain, rises about seventeen hundred feet. On these two heights, overlooking Chattanooga, Bragg established his army. He was also in control of the Tennessee River. The force of Rosecrans, shut up in the city, had only a single road, known by the soldiers as the “cracker trail,” for supplies from the west. Every other approach was commanded by the Confederate guns. Bragg was so sure that the Union army would be forced to surrender, that he sent Longstreet to assist in the siege of Knoxville, which city was then held by General Burnside.
520. Grant at Chattanooga.—Soon after the battle of Chickamauga, Rosecrans was relieved, and Grant, who had been put at the head of all the armies west of the Alleghanies, assumed command in his place. To reënforce the Union forces, Hooker was sent with the Twelfth Corps from Virginia, and Sherman, with the Army of the Tennessee, was brought from Vicksburg by way of Memphis. Hooker took a position on the right, Sherman on the left, while Thomas, with the Army of the Cumberland, commanded the center.
General William T. Sherman.
521. Battles of Chattanooga.—Grant’s plan, after opening a line of supplies, was to have the two wings of the army push back the opposing flanks of the enemy until the center would be obliged to retire from Missionary Ridge. Bragg’s left, on Lookout Mountain, was some five miles in front of his main line; and Hooker’s army, in order to dislodge the enemy, was obliged to pass over the shoulder of the mountain. The Twelfth Corps pushed up the mountain side with great gallantry, fought what is sometimes called “The Battle above the Clouds,” November 24, and soon succeeded in driving the enemy from the mountain and back beyond Missionary Ridge. Sherman,[[236]] on the left, advanced rapidly, but found a deep ravine in his way. Thomas was directed to engage the enemy in front, in order to keep the Confederate center from attacking Sherman, but not to advance to a general engagement. His troops, however, not to be outdone either by the Army of Virginia or by the Army of the Tennessee, charged up the sides of Missionary Ridge and drove all before them. Bragg’s forces, compelled to withdraw November 25, pushed rapidly south through the field of Chickamauga and took up their winter quarters at Dalton.[[237]]
522. Results of the Campaigns in the West.—The battles about Chattanooga closed the campaigns for the year. Kentucky and Tennessee had been secured by the Union forces, who, through the opening of the Mississippi River, were enabled to pass freely to the Gulf of Mexico. The successes of Grant at Vicksburg and Chattanooga raised him to such importance that in November he was called to Washington, and, in February, with the rank of lieutenant general, superseded Halleck as general in chief of all the armies.