Sworn upon the votive sword,
Every stream a Chickamauga
To the vile invading horde!
None the less, in the battles that followed, the Union forces prevailed. In the three days’ fighting before Chattanooga, culminating in the Battle of Missionary Ridge, on November twenty-fifth, the Confederates were set in full flight. J. Augustine Signaigo described this fight in “The Heights of Mission Ridge.” The final catastrophe had begun.
It had been threatening for a long time. By the end of ’63, nearly every Southern home had suffered some loss or sorrow. “Our Christmas Hymn” by Dr. John Dickson Bruns of Charleston, put the grief of the land into words.
Wild bells! that shake the midnight air
With those dear tones that custom loves,
You wake no sounds of laughter here
Nor mirth in all our silent groves;
On one broad waste, by hill or flood,