%444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and Chattanooga%.—While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans by skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position south of Murfreesboro; then in a second campaign he forced Bragg to leave Chattanooga and retire into northwestern Georgia. Bragg here received more troops, and attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most desperate battles of the war. So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, under General George H. Thomas, a grand character and a splendid officer, by some of the best fighting ever seen held the enemy in check and saved the army from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of "the Rock of Chickamauga."
Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and taking position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the east and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. For a time it seemed in danger of starvation. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more troops; the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned from Vicksburg; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and Grant was put in command of all. Then matters changed. The forces under Thomas, moving from their lines, seized some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, east of Chattanooga (November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the Confederate works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a conflict often called the "Battle above the Clouds"; and Sherman was sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but succeeded only in taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sherman renewed his attack, but failed to gain the main crest, whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in front of Chattanooga, carried the heights, and drove off the enemy. Bragg retreated to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of his army was given to Joseph E. Johnston.
%445. "Marching through Georgia"; "From Atlanta to the Sea."%—As the Confederates had thus been driven from the Mississippi River, and forced back to the mountains, they had but two centers of power left. The one was the army under Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been lying quietly behind the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, protecting Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., now under J. E. Johnston.
[Illustration: WAR FOR THE UNION Breaking the Confederate Line]
Early in the spring of 1864 General U.S. Grant—"Unconditional Surrender Grant," as the people called him—was made lieutenant general (a rank never before given to any United States soldier except Washington and Scott), and put in command of all the Federal armies. General Sherman was left in command of the military division of the Mississippi.
Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed on a plan. Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive back Lee and take Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, was to attack Johnston and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin his movement on the same day (May 4, 1864).
On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by step through the mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. Johnston's retreat was masterly. He intended to retreat until Sherman's army was so weakened by leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads, over which food and supplies must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in command.
Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each time; abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started northwestward, in hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. But Sherman sent Thomas and a part of the army to Tennessee, and after following Hood for a time, he returned to Atlanta, tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having partly burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 60,000 of his best veterans.
[Illustration: SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA]
The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles wide, burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the country as they marched. Early in December the army drew near to Savannah; about the middle of the month (December 13) Fort McAllister was taken; and a few days later the city of Savannah was occupied. During all this long march to the sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was or what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, when on the Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram: