Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding the Federal armies around Chattanooga, was in the process of pushing through General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee outside the town. Of the three main wings of the Federal army:
- Major-General William T. Sherman’s force held a spur across a ravine from Tunnel Hill, northeast of Chattanooga.
- Major-General George H. Thomas’s force held Orchard Knob in the center.
- Major-General Joseph Hooker’s force held Lookout Mountain southwest of Chattanooga.
Grant envisioned the main action to take place on the left (northeast), where Sherman was expected to seize Tunnel Hill and drive the Confederates off Missionary Ridge. Hooker would probe toward Rossville Gap to cut the Confederate line of retreat, while Thomas would be ready to throw his troops in wherever they would be needed most. Thomas quietly resented being relegated to a supporting role, but Grant had little faith in the combat readiness of Thomas’s men, and he had great trust in his good friend Sherman.
Sherman’s performance on November 25 left much to be desired. His 16,000 troops advanced at dawn but did not arrive in front of Tunnel Hill until 11 a.m. Bragg’s best division, Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne’s 4,000 men, defended the hill, with support from divisions under Major-General Carter L. Stevenson and Brigadier-General States Rights Gist. The small, narrow hill allowed for an easy defense against a superior attack force.
Despite this advantage for the defenders, Sherman still had the manpower to take Tunnel Hill by flanking maneuver. But he chose instead to launch head-on attacks piecemeal, which Cleburne held off for four hours. Cleburne became known as the “Stonewall Jackson of the West” for this action.
With Sherman stalled, Thomas urged Grant to get Hooker in motion southwest of Tunnel Hill. Grant approved, and Thomas directed Hooker to “move forward firmly and steadily upon the enemy’s works in front of Missionary Ridge.” Hooker’s three divisions were to be supported by the Fourteenth Corps under Major-General John M. Palmer.
The Federals advanced but soon had to stop to repair the bridge over Chattanooga Creek that led to Rossville Gap. When the bridge was finally ready around 3 p.m., Hooker pushed forward and Major-General John C. Breckinridge, commanding Confederates in that sector, slowly fell back in the face of superior numbers.
During the delays of Sherman and Hooker in early afternoon, Grant suggested to Thomas that he send his troops forward to attack the Confederate center at the foot of Missionary Ridge. Thomas objected because he believed the center to be the strongest part of the enemy line, and he now had less than 20,000 men after sending reinforcements to both Sherman and Hooker. Grant left the decision to Thomas until Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins, Grant’s chief of staff, finally persuaded Grant to order Thomas to advance.
Thomas’s attack force consisted of four divisions:
- The divisions of Major-General Philip Sheridan and Brigadier-General Thomas J. Wood from Major-General Gordon Granger’s Fourth Corps
- The divisions of Brigadier-Generals Richard W. Johnson and Absalom Baird from Palmer’s Fourteenth Corps.
A signal gun fired at 3:40 p.m., and the Federals advanced across the open plain along a two-mile front. They were unaware how poorly manned the enemy defenses were, as Bragg had not expected the Federals to threaten his center. The Confederates in the first line of rifle pits fired one volley and quickly fell back to the second.
The Federals only had orders to seize the first line, but once they got there, they found themselves in danger of being decimated by rifle and artillery fire from the two lines above them. Without orders, the troops of Sheridan’s and Wood’s divisions began charging up the mountain. Grant, watching from his Orchard Knob headquarters, asked, “Thomas, who ordered those men up the ridge?” Thomas replied, “I don’t know, I did not.” Grant then asked Granger if he ordered the charge. Granger replied, “No, they started up without orders. When those fellows get started all hell can’t stop them.” Grant, hopeful for success, did not abort this unauthorized assault.
The Confederates abandoned the second line, with many being hit by friendly fire from their comrades in the line above. Sheridan stopped near the second line, spotted two Confederate cannon near Bragg’s headquarters above, raised a flask and said, “Here’s at you!” The cannon opened fire, spitting dirt at Sheridan and others nearby. Sheridan said, “Ah, that is ungenerous; I shall take those guns for that!”
The Federals then continued their charge up to the third line, with some chanting, “Chickamauga! Chickamauga!” Confederate artillerists could not depress their guns low enough to fire on the attackers; some desperately lit fuses in shells and rolled them down the mountain. The Federals swept through the third line and raced to the top of Missionary Ridge, nearly capturing both Breckinridge and Bragg in the process.
While Cleburne’s men celebrated repelling Sherman, Lieutenant-General William Hardee, Cleburne’s superior, informed him that the center had collapsed, and his Confederates were about to be isolated. Cleburne quickly formed a rear guard to prevent the Confederate retreat from becoming a rout. Bragg’s army retreated down the reverse slope of Missionary Ridge, and the Federal pursuit, led by Sheridan’s division, ended at nightfall. Hooker soon joined the rest of the Federals on Missionary Ridge.
Three days of fighting ended in a resounding Federal victory that ended the siege of Chattanooga in spectacular fashion. During that time, the Federals sustained 5,824 casualties (753 killed, 4,722 wounded and 349 missing). Grant telegraphed General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, “Although the battle lasted from nearly dawn until dark this evening I believe I am not premature in announcing a complete victory over Bragg. Lookout mountain-top, all the rifle pits in Chattanooga Valley, and Missionary Ridge entire, have been carried, and are now held by us. I have no idea of finding Bragg here tomorrow.”
Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana, observing the action on behalf of the War Department, wrote, “Glory to God. The day is decisively ours.” In a later message, Dana wrote, “Our men are frantic with joy and enthusiasm, and received Grant as he rode along the lines after the victory with tumultuous shouts.” He added that “the storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the greatest miracles in military history. No man who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front can believe that men were moved up its broken and crumbling face unless it was his fortune to witness the deed.”
Quartermaster-General Montgomery Meigs wrote, “The slave aristocracy broken down. The grandest stroke yet struck for our country… It is unexampled–another laurel leaf is added to Grant’s crown.” Grant later wrote:
“The victory at Chattanooga was won against great odds, considering the advantage the enemy had of position, and was accomplished more easily than was expected by reason of Bragg’s making several grave mistakes: first, in sending away his ablest corps commander with over 20,000 troops; second, in sending away a division of troops on the eve of battle; third, in placing so much of a force on the plain in front of his impregnable position.”
The Confederates lost 6,667 men (361 killed, 2,160 wounded and 4,146 missing, mostly captured). They also lost 41 guns. A reporter for the Richmond Dispatch called the battle at Chattanooga “the most ignominious defeat of the whole war,” noting that “for the first during our struggle for national independence our defeat is chargeable to the troops themselves and not to the blunders or incompetency of their leaders.”
A Confederate soldier wrote home that his comrades had “ignominiously left a field which could have been theirs had they but nerved their hearts to take it.” He believed that “it would have been but child’s play” for the Confederates to hold their positions, but instead “they fled panic-stricken before the enemy.”
The Confederates crossed Chickamauga Creek, with Cleburne reporting, “By 9 p.m., everything was across, except the dead and a few stragglers linger here and there under the shadow of the trees for the purpose of being captured: faint-hearted patriots succumbing to the hardships of the war and the imagined hopelessness of the hour.”
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