Major-General Ulysses S. Grant continued efforts to break the Federal army out of Chattanooga. This would involve defeating the Confederate Army of Tennessee, General Braxton Bragg commanding. The Confederates held a line outside Chattanooga that ran from Missionary Ridge above the town on Bragg’s right (northeast) to Lookout Mountain below the town on Bragg’s left (southwest).
After the Federals had seized Orchard Knob near the Confederate center, Grant initially expected the next major action to take place against the Confederate right on Missionary Ridge. Major-General William T. Sherman commanded four Federal divisions in that sector, with orders to seize Tunnel Hill at the base of the ridge’s northern end. This point was held by just two brigades from Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne’s Confederate division.
November 24 started dark and dreary, with Sherman positioning his troops for attack. The Federals forced a crossing of the Tennessee River just south of Chickamauga Creek, about six miles above Chattanooga, around 1 p.m. Sherman later recalled the building of the pontoon bridge that enabled his troops to cross: “I have never beheld any work done so quietly, so well, and I doubt if the history of war can show a bridge of that extent (viz, 1,350 feet) laid down so noiselessly and well in so short a time.”
With Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis’s Federal division guarding the bridge, Sherman’s remaining troops advanced and seized a ridge that they believed to be Tunnel Hill. Only later did Sherman realize that they had only taken a detached spur overlooking a ravine that separated them from their true objective. Grant, who was close friends with Sherman, did not order him to continue forward, so Sherman stopped for the day. A golden opportunity to crush Bragg’s right flank was squandered.
Meanwhile, Major-General George H. Thomas, commanding the Federal center, had been urging Grant to move against the Confederate left on Lookout Mountain. Major-General Joseph Hooker commanded three divisions in that sector, and Grant had little confidence in his leadership. Grant therefore directed Thomas (Hooker’s immediate superior) to have Hooker simply demonstrate against Lookout Mountain and “take the point only if (his) demonstration should develop its practicability.”
Hooker had no intention of merely demonstrating; he issued orders to capture the mountain. He had three divisions from three different armies, totaling about 12,000 men. At 8 a.m., his lead division under Brigadier-General John W. Geary (from the Army of the Potomac) began using felled trees to bridge Lookout Creek and scale the northwest face of the 1,100-foot-high mountain. Brigadier-General Charles Cruft’s division (from Thomas’s army) came up on Geary’s left, and Brigadier-General Peter J. Osterhaus’s division (from Sherman’s army) came up on Cruft’s left.
Unbeknownst to the Federal high command, Bragg had shifted most of his army to Missionary Ridge, leaving just two divisions of less than 3,000 men on Lookout Mountain, commanded by Major-General Carter L. Stevenson. They could offer little resistance.
Rain and heavy fog slowed the Federal progress, but it hampered the Confederates as well. Federal artillerists at Moccasin Point could not find their range, nor could their Confederate counterparts atop the mountain. The fog prevented the Federal high command at Orchard Knob from seeing the action.
The Federals pushed Stevenson back beyond the Craven farmhouse, also known simply as the “white house.” Hooker reported that the Confederates “were hurled in great numbers over the rock and precipices into the valley.” Bragg had promised to send Stevenson reinforcements if he requested, but when Stevenson sent his request, he got no immediate response.
Bragg finally replied at 2:30 p.m. by ordering Stevenson to “fight the enemy as you retire” and join the rest of the Confederates on Missionary Ridge. Stevenson did not want to pull out while his men were still engaged, so he directed gradual withdrawals until the last defense line fell back around 8 p.m., under cover of heavy guns. The Confederates burned the bridge over Chattanooga Creek leading to Rossville Gap as they withdrew.
The clouds parted as Federal troops ascended the summit of Lookout Mountain. They unfurled a large flag that was visible to the rest of the Federals in Chattanooga below. This prompted loud cheering and patriotic music. An officer wrote that “the pealing of all the bands was as if all the harps of Heaven were filling the dome with triumphant music… it is useless to attempt a description of such a scene as that.” Quartermaster-General Montgomery C. Meigs witnessed the fight and later called it “The Battle Above the Clouds.”
Grant, unaware that Sherman had not yet captured Tunnel Hill, reported to General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck at sundown:
“The fighting today progressed favorably. Sherman carried the end of Missionary Ridge, and his right is now at the tunnel, and his left at Chickamauga Creek. Troops from Lookout Valley carried the point of the mountain, and now hold the eastern slope and a point high up. Hooker reports 2,000 prisoners taken, besides which a small number have fallen into our hands from Missionary Ridge.”
But Sherman had not yet reached Tunnel Hill, Hooker had not captured the summit of Lookout Mountain, and his Federals captured less than 200 Confederates. It was only after 8 p.m. that Hooker’s forces advanced and occupied the empty summit.
Grant did not think highly of Hooker’s effort; he later wrote in his memoirs, “The battle of Lookout Mountain is one of the romances of the war. There was no such battle, and no action even worthy to be called a battle on Lookout Mountain. It is all poetry.” Nevertheless, taking the mountain enabled the Federals to no longer rely on the tenuous “cracker line” for supplies. It also enabled Hooker to move into Rossville Gap and operate against the Confederate left and rear.
Grant directed Thomas to move against the Confederate center the next day. He added, “If Hooker’s present position on the mountain can be maintained with a small force, and it is found impracticable to carry the top from where he is, it would be advisable for him to move up the valley with all the force he can spare and ascend by the first practicable road.” Thomas apparently did not appreciate Grant’s dismissal of Hooker’s efforts, and he instead directed Hooker to move directly against the Confederate left flank on Missionary Ridge.
The Confederate high command met at Bragg’s headquarters to assess the situation. Lieutenant-General William Hardee, commanding Confederates on Missionary Ridge, urged a withdrawal, arguing that both flanks were in danger and the rains were swelling Chickamauga Creek, thereby threatening the Confederate line of supply and retreat.
Major-General John C. Breckinridge, commanding the Confederate center, strongly contended that Missionary Ridge could be held and the army must not retreat. Bragg, who later accused Breckinridge of drunkenness on duty, nevertheless agreed with him and announced that the army would stay put. Bragg shifted Stevenson’s troops to Hardee’s sector on the line.
When Cleburne’s adjutant general asked Hardee for orders, Hardee told him, “Tell Cleburne we are to fight, that his division will undoubtedly be heavily attacked, and that he must do his very best.” That night, the rain stopped and the clouds parted to display a total eclipse of the moon. Confederates considered this a bad sign.
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