“Be-fore the bat-tle I went a-lone to my room in the White House and prayed to Al-migh-ty God to give us the vic-to-ry. I said to Him that this was His war, and that if He would stand by the na-tion now, I would stand by Him the rest of my life. He gave us the vic-to-ry, and I pro-pose to keep my pledge. I rose from my knees with a feel-ing of deep and se-rene con-fi-dence and had no doubt of the re-sult from that hour.”
Get-tys-burg, Vicks-burg, and Port Hud-son made a turn-ing point in his-to-ry.
[CHAPTER XII.]
CHATTANOOGA, CHICKAMAUGA, LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG SPEECH.
In the West the war was now in two parts. The Un-ion troops had won their first point, which was to hold the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er. But there had to be a long, fierce fight ere they could gain cen-tral Ten-nes-see and north Geor-gi-a. The foe led by Bragg, and the Un-ion troops by Ro-se-crans fought their best but it was not till the warm months, and the fall of 1863 that Ro-se-crans, at last, made Bragg fall back, bit by bit, un-til Chat-ta-noo-ga was in the hands of the Un-ion for-ces. Then more of the foe went to help Bragg, and the great fight of Chick-a-mau-ga came on Sept. 19 and 20, 1863.
The first day the Un-ion ar-my won; but the next day the right half of Ro-se-crans’ ar-my was bro-ken and fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga. George H. Thom-as, a brave man and a hard fight-er, by great skill held the left wing a-gainst charge af-ter charge that the foe made up-on it, and gave Ro-se-crans time to take such steps as would make safe the Un-ion men who had fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Grant then had all the troops west of the moun-tains in his charge. He gave Ro-se-crans’ place to Thom-as, who was called “The Rock of Chick-a-mau-ga.” Grant him-self, with Thom-as next, then took com-mand of the be-sieged for-ces at Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Some of Bragg’s men had been sent off to make a strike at Burn-side in East Ten-nes-see, so Grant saw that he had a good chance to make a move on the rear of Bragg’s ar-my.