BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA
[Footnote: In the Cherokee language, "The Hawk's Nest.">[
(Nov. 24, 25).—Grant having been appointed successor to Rosecrans, immediately hastened to Chattanooga. Affairs soon wore a different look. Hooker came with two corps from the Army of the Potomac; and Sherman hastened by forced marches from Iuka, two hundred miles away.
[Footnote: Thomas held command after Rosecrans left, and Grant was afraid he might surrender before reinforcements could reach him, and therefore telegraphed him to hold fast. The characteristic reply was, "I will stay till I starve.">[
[Footnote: Twenty-three thousand strong, they were carried by rail from the Rapidan, in Virginia, to Stevenson, in Alabama, eleven hundred and ninety-two miles, in seven days. The Confederates did not know of the change of base until Hooker appeared in front.]
Communications were re-established. Thomas made a dash and seized Orchard Knob (Nov. 23). The following day Hooker charged the fortifications on Lookout Mountain, His troops had been ordered to stop on the high ground, but, carried away by the ardor of the attack, they swept over the crest, driving the enemy before them.
[Footnote: It was a beautiful day. The men had on their best uniforms, and the bands discoursed the liveliest music. The hills were crowded with spectators. The Confederates on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge could see every movement. Bragg's pickets stood leaning on their muskets watching Thomas's columns drawn up as if on parade. Suddenly the Union line broke into a double-quick, and the review was turned into a battle.]
[Footnote: The first day the Confederate left rested on Lookout Mountain, there two thousand four hundred feet high; the right, along Missionary Ridge-so called because, many years ago, Catholic missionaries had Indian schools upon it; and the centre, in the valley between. The second day their army simply occupied Missionary Ridge, in the centre of their former line, in front of Grant at Orchard Knob.—On Lookout Mountain, Hooker met with so feeble a resistance, that Grant is reported to have declared the so-called "battle above the clouds" to be "all poetry, there having been no action there worthy the name of battle.">[
Through the mist that filled the valley, the anxious watchers below caught only glimpses of this far-famed "battle above the clouds." The next morning Hooker advanced on the south of Missionary Ridge. Sherman during the whole time had been heavily pounding away on the northern flank. Grant, from his position on Orchard Knob, perceiving that the Confederate line in front of him was being weakened to repel these attacks on the flanks, saw that the critical moment had come, and launched Thomas's corps on its centre.
[Footnote: The signals for the attack had been arranged: six cannon-shots, fired at intervals of two seconds. The moment arrived. "Strong and steady the order rang out: 'Number one, fire! Number two, fire! Number three, fire!'" "It seemed to me," says Taylor, "like the tolling of the clock of destiny. And when at 'Number six, fire!' the roar throbbed out with the flash, you should have seen the dead line, that had been lying behind the works all day, come to resurrection in the twinkling of an eye, and leap like a blade from its scabbard.">[