Chattanooga was first settled about 1835, and was long known as Ross’s Landing. It was incorporated in 1851 as Chattanooga, and received a city charter in 1866. Its growth for the three decades after the Civil War was very rapid. During the American Civil War it was one of the most important strategic points in the Confederacy, and in its immediate vicinity were fought two great battles. During June 1862 it was threatened by a Federal force under General O.M. Mitchel, but the Confederate army of General Braxton Bragg was transferred thither by rail from Corinth, Miss., before Mitchel was able to advance. In September 1863, however, General W.S. Rosecrans, with the Union Army of the Cumberland out-manœuvred Bragg, concentrated his numerous columns in the Chickamauga Valley, and occupied the town, to which, after the defeat of Chickamauga (q.v.), he retired.
From the end of September to the 24th of November the Army of the Cumberland was then invested in Chattanooga by the Confederates, whose position lay along Missionary Ridge from its north end near the river towards Rossville, whence their entrenchments extended westwards to Lookout Mountain, which dominates the whole ground, the Tennessee running directly beneath it. Thus Rosecrans was confined to a semicircle of low ground around Chattanooga itself, and his supplies had to make a long and difficult détour from Bridgeport, the main road being under fire from the Confederate position on Lookout and in the Wauhatchie valley adjacent. Bragg indeed expected that Rosecrans would be starved into retreat. But the Federals once more, and this time on a far larger scale, concentrated in the face of the enemy. The XI. and XII. corps from Virginia under Hooker were transferred by rail to reinforce Rosecrans; other troops were called up from the Mississippi, and on the 16th of October the Federal government reconstituted the western armies under the supreme command of General Grant. The XV. corps of the Army of the Tennessee, under Sherman, was on the march from the Mississippi. Hooker’s troops had already arrived when Grant reached Chattanooga on the 23rd of October. The Army of the Cumberland was now under Thomas, Rosecrans having been recalled. The first action was fought at Brown’s Ferry in the Wauhatchie valley, where Hooker executed with complete precision a plan for the revictualling of Chattanooga, established himself near Wauhatchie on the 28th, and repulsed a determined attack on the same night. But Sherman was still far distant, and the Federal forces at Knoxville, against which a large detachment of Bragg’s army under Longstreet was now sent, were in grave danger. Grant waited for Sherman’s four divisions, but prepared everything for battle in the meantime. His plan was that Thomas in the Chattanooga lines should contain the Confederate centre on Missionary Ridge, while Hooker on the right at Wauhatchie was to attack Lookout Mountain, and Sherman farther up the river was to carry out the decisive attack against Bragg’s extreme right wing at the end of Missionary Ridgg. The last marches of the XV. corps were delayed, by stormy weather, Bragg reinforced Longstreet, and telegraphic communication between Grant and the Federals at Knoxville had already ceased. But Grant would not move forward without Sherman, and the battle of Chattanooga was fought more than two months after Chickamauga. On the 23rd of November a forward move of Thomas’s army, intended as a demonstration, developed into a serious and successful action, whereby the first line of the Confederate centre was driven in for some distance. Bragg was now much weakened by successive detachments having been sent to Knoxville, and on the 24th the real battle began. Sherman’s corps was gradually brought over the river near the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, and formed up on the east side.
The attack began at 1 P.M. and was locally a complete success. The heights attacked were in Sherman’s hands, and fortified against counter-attack, before nightfall. Hooker in the meanwhile had fought the “Battle above the Clouds” on the steep face of Lookout Mountain, and though opposed by an equal force of Confederates, had completely driven the enemy from the mountain. The 24th then had been a day of success for the Federals, and the decisive attack of the three armies in concert was to take place on the 25th. But the maps deceived Grant and Sherman as they had previously deceived Rosecrans. Sherman had captured, not the north point of Missionary Ridge, but a detached hill, and a new and more serious action had to be fought for the possession of Tunnel Hill, where Bragg’s right now lay strongly entrenched. The Confederates used every effort to hold the position and all Sherman’s efforts were made in vain. Hooker, who was moving on Rossville, had not progressed far, and Bragg was still free to reinforce his right. Grant therefore directed Thomas to move forward on the centre to relieve the pressure on Sherman. The Army of the Cumberland was, after all, to strike the decisive blow. About 3.30 P.M. the centre advanced on the Confederate’s trenches at the foot of Missionary Ridge. These were carried at the first rush, and the troops were ordered to lie down and await orders. Then occurred one of the most dramatic episodes of the war. Suddenly, and without orders either from Grant or the officers at the front, the whole line of the Army of the Cumberland rose and rushed up the ridge. Two successive lines of entrenchments were carried at once. In a short time the crest was stormed, and after a last attempt at resistance the enemy’s centre fled in the wildest confusion. The pursuit was pressed home by the divisional generals, notably by Sheridan. Hooker now advanced in earnest on Rossville, and by nightfall the whole Confederate army, except the troops on Tunnel Hill, was retreating in disorder. These too were withdrawn in the night, and the victory of the Federals was complete. Bragg lost 8684 men killed, wounded and prisoners out of perhaps 34,000 men engaged; Grant, with 60,000 men, lost about 6000.
CHATTEL (for derivation see [Cattle]), a term used in English law as equivalent to “personal property,” that is, property which, on the death of the owner, devolves on his executor or administrator to be distributed (unless disposed of by will) among the next of kin according to the Statutes of Distributions. Chattels are divided into chattels real and chattels personal. Chattels real are those interests in land for which no “real action” (see [Action]) lies; estates which are less than freehold (estates for years, at will, or by sufferance) are chattels real. Chattels personal are such things as belong immediately to the person of the owner, and for which, if they are injuriously withheld from him, he has no remedy other than by a personal action. Chattels personal are divided into choses in possession and choses in action (see [Chose]).
A chattel mortgage, in United States law, is a transfer of personal property as security for a debt or obligation in such form that the title to the property will pass to the mortgagee upon the failure of the mortgagor to comply with the terms of the contract. At common law a chattel mortgage might be made without writing, and was valid as between the parties, and even as against third parties if accompanied by possession in the mortgagee, but in most states of the Union legislation now requires a chattel mortgage to be in writing and duly recorded in order to be valid against third parties. At common law a mortgage can be given only of chattels actually in existence and belonging to the mortgagor, though if he acquired title afterwards the mortgage would be good as between the parties, but not as against subsequent purchasers or creditors. In equity, on the other hand, a chattel mortgage, though not good as a conveyance, is valid as an executory agreement.
Goods and chattels is a phrase which, in its widest signification, includes any property other than freehold. The two words, however, have come to be synonymous, and the expression, now practically confined to wills, means merely things movable in possession.
CHATTERIS, a market town in the Wisbech parliamentary division of Cambridgeshire, England, 25½ m. N. by W. of Cambridge by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4711. It lies in the midst of the flat Fen country. The church of St Peter is principally Decorated; and there are fragments of a Benedictine convent founded in the 10th century and rebuilt after fire in the first half of the 14th. The town has breweries, and engineering and rope-making works. To the north runs the great Forty-foot Drain, also called Vermuyden’s, after the Dutch engineer whose name is associated with the fen drainage works of the middle of the 17th century.