Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. / Late Retired General. U. S. A.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Sherman now marched eastward, with all the men that could be spared, to join in the impending struggle at Chattanooga. There was no time to build bridges, so rivers were forded or crossed in scows. On November 15th he rode into Chattanooga, and soon thereafter all his troops were marshalled at that place, ready to deal with Bragg. Already Hooker's two corps had entered Lookout Valley, and the Army of the Cumberland was on the scene. Bragg had sent Longstreet to attack Burnside in Eastern Tennessee, and Grant was anxious lest Burnside should be overmatched. So, to prevent Bragg from sending more troops thither, and even, if possible, to force him to recall Longstreet, Grant determined upon an immediate attack by Sherman upon Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.

The situation of the opposing forces, and the important issues at stake, were well described at the time by Mr. Brigham, in the New York Tribune:

"When General Bragg followed timidly the broken array of General Rosecrans on its retreat into Chattanooga, instead of pursuing that part which did not make its escape—(for not doing which he has been much blamed)—he halted the main body of his army on the morning of the 23d of September, on Missionary Ridge, immediately in front of our works, but mainly circling round from the left to the centre of our line, his right resting on the river about three miles above Chattanooga. The railroad to Cleveland—about twenty miles—connecting there with the main line from Knoxville to Atlanta, and the road to Dalton, some forty miles, connecting there with the same line, entered Chattanooga through Missionary Ridge, so that their terminus came to be near Bragg's headquarters, in sight of our works on the left. It was on the first named road that Longstreet's corps departed lately for East Tennessee, and over them Bragg has received most of his supplies, and maintained his connection, not only with East Tennessee, but with Georgia. The road to Knoxville once cut, or the connection even rendered precarious, it was plain that the situation of affairs in East Tennessee, especially with the rebels, would all at once become materially changed. Should the main line connecting East Tennessee and Georgia be broken, or seriously menaced, by driving the Rebels from Missionary Ridge, or by our gaining a foothold on the south side of the river on the flank of the Rebel position, the principal questions in the case would be, how would Longstreet get out of East Tennessee, and how far would Bragg be compelled to retreat?

"To realize this, or any part of this state of things, it would be necessary to cross the river above Chattanooga with a heavy force, and assail the Rebels in their flank. To drive them from Missionary Ridge would be to render the work complete. If, in addition to these, Lookout Mountain should fall into our hands, little or nothing further could be desired."

The topography of the place was also described by Mr. Brigham: "Missionary Ridge is a line of hills, ranging from 100 to 400 feet in height, sweeping round from Chattanooga Valley on our centre to our left, to less than one mile of the river above Chattanooga, and sloping westwardly toward the town, thus confronting our line of defenses at the point where the Ridge approaches the river, it backs up toward the east on a general line with, and from one to two miles from the river, toward which the hills have another sloping but rather abrupt face. On the westward slope Bragg planted his works; on the north or river slope he does not seem to have constructed permanent works. To cross the river and assail the Rebels on their flank, while General Thomas opened upon them in front, was the plan."

The movement was begun on the morning of November 23d. Sherman's troops had been joyfully greeted by the Army of the Cumberland as "Grant's Gophers," in allusion to their sapping and mining achievements at Vicksburg. They had just completed a long and arduous march, but were in splendid condition, iron-framed veterans. And they had a task before them worthy of their prowess. On the night of the 23d, amid fog and rain, they silently crossed the Tennessee River, stealing up and capturing the Rebel pickets. The morning of the 24th dawned, cold and rainy. The crash of musketry was heard at the centre of the Union line, where Howard and his men pressed close upon the foe. Next Jeff. C. Davis's fine troops crossed over and joined Sherman, and with pick and spade the lines of rifle pits were rapidly advanced. At noon the artillery was taken across, a pontoon bridge having been constructed. Howard gallantly drove Bragg's right flank skirmishers before him, and forced a junction with Sherman.

Now off on the other flank of Bragg came the "Battle above the Clouds" along the grim slopes of Lookout Mountain. On the afternoon of the 24th, Hooker moved Geary's command by an extensive detour to the crest of Lookout Mountain ridges, and Osterhaus's men were kept waiting in Lookout Valley until Geary was seen marching along the ridge toward the enemy's works, when the signal was given and Osterhaus was ordered to charge up the precipitous height. "The audacity of this attack," said a correspondent, "was its chief merit, and insured its success. No one can appreciate the thing without an intimate acquaintance with the topography of the country thereabout, and that it is useless for me to attempt to indicate with words merely. To any casual observer it would have seemed madness. Our men could and would have defended the position successfully with hand grenades and loose rocks alone. The Rebels, however, seemed filled with dismay when they saw their foes climbing up the rocks as nimbly as if they had been so many mountain goats, and they did not make half of the resistance they might. Then, too, the disaffection among their conscripts, of which we have heard and read so much manifested itself most palpably. They in some cases threw away their arms by platoons and jumping over their breastworks, rushed down the mountain side exclaiming, 'Don't shoot, we are your friends!' These men seemed transported with joy on reaching our lines, and not a few of them declared a willingness to take places in the ranks of our men to fight those who had subjected them to tyranny unexampled. Those who did use their weapons against the advancing columns, proved themselves very poor marksmen. Nearly every shot went whistling down the mountain over the heads of the men. And thus the chief obstacle to Osterhaus's progress was from steep and hostile rocks. By dark the whole mountain was in Hooker's hands, save a small plat of ground on the summit, and that was virtually in his possession, as he only needed a little more daylight to complete his victory. The next morning all the Rebels who were not prisoners had vanished like the air, and our men could quietly enjoy the view of the territory of four States to be had from this great eminence. Our prisoners here will number at least 2,000, and the capture of arms was more than proportionate. The works on the mountain are not very artistic, nor are they extensive, but they were sufficient for any purpose the Rebels seem to have had in holding the position.

"The climbing of Lookout, if it were only by a pleasure party, would necessarily be attended by amusing and stirring incidents; and though Osterhaus's men believed they were engaged in a hazardous and apparently foolhardy movement, they joked and laughed at one another all the way up. Every fall was the signal for a shout of 'grab a root,' in allusion to a camp story about a certain colonel who issued that novel command to his regiment just as he lost his footing while making a rather inglorious retreat down a hill, on an occasion not now to be mentioned. One man, a Sergeant-Major in one of the Missouri regiments, did 'grab a root' to swing himself round a sharp and protecting ledge of rocks in the way of his ascent. The root, however, proved rotten, or was not deeply imbedded in the ground, and broke just at the critical moment. The sergeant executed an involuntary somersault or two, and alighted on his feet unhurt. His regiment witnessed the acrobatic feat extraordinary, and set up such a shout of applause and laughter as, I have no doubt, made the butternuts quake in their boots.

"The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-second Missouri Regiments have the honor of being first to plant foot on the summit. They were closely followed, however, by the whole of General Osterhaus's Command, and General Geary's Division shares with this the honors of an achievement which was beyond the hopes of one party or the fears of the other. So far as I could learn, there was not a single regiment or even a single individual that shrank for a moment from the appalling looking service. An incident will serve to illustrate the common feeling. When the order to charge up the mountain in the face of the Rebel works was received, Colonel Peckham of the Twenty-ninth Missouri, an officer who was himself wounded and who lost over sixty per cent. of his regiment in the memorable charge upon the enemy's works in the Chickasaw Bayou fight, in December last, and who was again wounded on the 19th of May following, in the abortive charge made by his division (Blair's) upon the enemy's works in the rear of Vicksburg, was fully impressed with the idea that he was now in the way of another such slaughter. He turned to one of his men in whose fate he felt a deep personal interest, and pulling from his pocket a watch presented him by another regiment in which he had at one time served, told the man to fall back to the camp and take this watch and a message to his wife in case he should be killed. The brave fellow demurred to the order, saying he preferred staying with the regiment. 'I tell you,' said the Colonel, 'your going with the regiment will be but a useless sacrifice of one more life.' 'I will not leave the regiment,' was the reply, 'unless you make the order a peremptory one, and I beg you not to disgrace me in that way.' The Colonel yielded the point. His fears for the man proved groundless, but when I met him the next day, he could not shake hands with me. He had a severe wound in the right shoulder, received making his way on foot up the mountain at the head of his command."

That night old Lookout was ablaze with the camp fires of the Union army. But while Hooker was warring amid the clouds, his fellow-generals were busy elsewhere. "Sherman," writes the correspondent, "has, on the end of Mission Ridge, got his forces in position. His line of battle is very extended. It is grand as well as formidable. Advancing a heavy line of skirmishers, he moves over the low ground to the base of the ridge, where the Rebels but a very short time before were massed in force. They withdrew, offering but comparatively slight resistance when Sherman commenced moving. Indeed the firing was mainly by the skirmishers. Rising the crest of the ridge, Sherman takes possession of the termini of the two railroads of so much importance to Bragg—that running to Knoxville (over which Longstreet departed to East Tennessee), and that running to Atlanta, over which Bragg receives his supplies. It being near dark, Sherman halts on the ground he has won.