| Confederate | ||
| Hood |  | Six Divisions, 6,881 (estimated) |
| Hindman | ||
| Buckner | ||
| Preston | ||
The estimated Confederate loss given above has been made up in the following manner. The official Confederate loss is given by Colonel W. F. Fox in his Regimental Losses in the Civil War as 15,881 killed and wounded at Chickamauga, the Confederate loss of the troops opposed to the above named Union divisions can be found by adding to 8,625—the Confederate losses in the first table given above—the estimated loss of the Confederate cavalry, probably enough to bring the figures to 9,000, and deducting that from 15,881, the total Confederate loss is secured. The result makes 6, 881 killed and wounded—as given in the last table—by the seven Union divisions mentioned above, at a cost to the latter of 6,140 killed and wounded. Longstreet gives in his report his loss at 7,594 killed and wounded; deducting Stewart’s loss from this sum leaves 5,920 as the loss of the above mentioned Confederate forces. This makes the contrast between the two tables still greater.
These figures emphasize the deadly fighting in that great battle, and they are more eloquent of the valor of American soldiers than words of song or oratory. They emphasize also the value of defensive breastworks, in comparison with fighting unprotected.
The Union troops expended 2,650,000 musket cartridges in hitting the 15,881 Confederate killed and wounded; some of them were, however, wounded by artillery. It appears as if it took about 150 infantry cartridges to hit one man. The expenditure was 650,000 more cartridges than at Stone’s River; but then 6,642 more of the Confederates were struck at Chickamauga, which shows that the firing was much more destructive.
General Rosecrans states:[30] “The fight on the left after 2 p. m., was that of the army. Never, in the history of this war at least have troops fought with greater energy and determination. Bayonet charges, often heard of but seldom seen, were repeatedly made by brigades and regiments in several of our divisions.”
At 2 p. m. on September 21, C. A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, sent a dispatch from Chattanooga to the Secretary of War. It contained the following statements: “Thomas, finding himself cut off from Rosecrans and the right, at once brought his seven divisions into position for independent fighting. Refusing both his right and left, his line assumed the form of a horse-shoe posted along the slope and crest of a partly wooded ridge. He was soon joined by Granger from Rossville, with the brigade of McCook and division of Steedman, and with these forces firmly maintained the fight till after dark. Our troops were as immovable as the rocks they stood on. The enemy hurled against them repeatedly the dense columns which had routed Davis and Sheridan in the morning, but every onset was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. Falling first on one and then another point of our lines, for hours the rebels vainly sought to break them. Thomas seemed to have filled every soldier with his own unconquerable firmness, and Granger, his hat torn by bullets, raged like a lion wherever the contest was hottest with the electrical courage of a Ney. * * * When night fell this body of heroes stood on the same ground they had occupied in the morning their spirit unbroken, but their numbers greatly diminished. * * * The divisions of Wood, Johnson, Brannan, Palmer, Reynolds, and Baird, which never broke at all, have lost very severely.”[31] He should have added that they inflicted greater loss upon the enemy than any of the other divisions. The discouraged spirit of the Confederate Army at the close of the battle was sufficiently apparent when the forces under Thomas’s command were able—after the arrival of General Gordon Granger’s troops—to stop the enemy’s further successes. It is evident that the fighting spirit was gone from Bragg’s army since, although they discovered the falling back, they did not approach Rossville Gap on the 21st with a considerable force, nor seriously interfere in the backward movement to Chattanooga, not even trying to capture a wagon, mule, or horse, although its great cavalry leader, Forrest and his troopers, were in force close to Rossville Gap. It was more paralyzed than the Union Army. General Daniel H. Hill, who commanded a Confederate corps on the right in the battle, states in the article referred to before: “There was no more splendid fighting in ’61, when the flower of the Southern youth was in the field, than was displayed in those bloody days of September, ’63. But it seems to me that the elan of the Southern soldier was never seen after Chickamauga—that brilliant dash which had distinguished him was gone forever. He was too intelligent not to know that the cutting in two of Georgia meant death to all his hopes. * * * He fought stoutly to the last, but, after Chickamauga, with the sullenness of despair and without the enthusiasm of hope. That ‘barren’ victory sealed the fate of the Southern Confederacy.”[32]
If the Army of the Cumberland accomplished so much at Chickamauga in spite of certain mistakes, after having penetrated to the centre of the Confederate territory, what might not have been done, if the right of the Union line had been properly placed and protected during the night of the 19th, and if the disastrous order to Wood had not been issued? The withdrawal of Wood from the line—just before Bushrod Johnson advanced against the centre—cost the Union fighting line 10,000 men, and caused the withdrawal, some hours later, of the Union Army to Rossville. Whether Wood interpreted that order correctly, the fact is that the order should never have been issued. The movement of closing in towards the left and of throwing the right further back, should have been done hours before. One of Mitchell’s cavalry divisions should have been placed on the Union left during the night of the 19th.
It must be conceded that Brannan’s division was the most active in the battle. It was well managed, but its loss in killed and wounded was greater than that of any other Union division. Brannan lost in killed and wounded 1,977, with 214 missing. His division fought bravely under his skillful management, yet he was unprotected on both days. Negley’s loss was 496 killed and wounded, the smallest loss of all. The following officers went through the battle with great credit, viz.: Generals Thomas, Granger, Steedman, Brannan, Baird, Johnson, Palmer, Reynolds; and Brigade-Commanders Hazen, Harker, Van Derveer, Croxton, Whittaker, John C. Mitchell, Willich, and Turchin.
If a real soldier, like Longstreet, had been in command of the Confederate right and had found upon advancing against the Union line, that two brigades lengths extended beyond the Union left, he would certainly have made more out of such a condition than did Breckenridge or Leonidas Polk.
General D. H. Hill, in his report[33] discusses the situation as follows: “The important results effected by two brigades on the flank proved that, had our army been moved under cover of the woods a mile farther to the right, the whole Yankee position would have been turned and an almost bloodless victory gained. A simple reconnoisance before the battle would have shown the practicability of the movement and the advantage to be gained by it.” Hill was in command on that flank and should have acted in accordance with his understanding of the situation, or at least reported the facts to his superior. This was what Rosecrans was anxious about when he hastened troops from the right to the left. If Sheridan could have reached Thomas before Longstreet cut him off in the act of double-quicking toward the left flank, what would have happened?