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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36067-h.zip b/36067-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ab9301 --- /dev/null +++ b/36067-h.zip diff --git a/36067-h/36067-h.htm b/36067-h/36067-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..409e36d --- /dev/null +++ b/36067-h/36067-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2849 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chattanooga and Chickamauga, by Henry Van Ness Boynton. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +.fm2 {font-size: 125%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.fm3 {font-size: 100%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.fm4 {font-size: 90%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.author {text-align: right; margin-right: 20%;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + +.transnote { background-color: #ADD8E6; color: inherit; margin: 2em 10% 1em 10%; font-size: 80%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em;} +.transnote p { text-align: left;} + +ins.correction { + text-decoration:none; /* replace default underline.. */ + border-bottom: thin dotted red; /* ..with thin dotted red */ +} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Chattanooga and Chickamauga, by Henry V. Boynton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chattanooga and Chickamauga + Reprint of Gen. H. V. Boynton's letters to the Cincinnati + Commercial Gazette, August, 1888. + +Author: Henry V. Boynton + +Release Date: May 9, 2011 [EBook #36067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHATTANOOGA AND CHICKAMAUGA *** + + + + +Produced by Carla Foust and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note</h3> +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed +at the end. All other inconsistencies are as in the original.</p> + +<p>In this version there are maps. Clicking on these images will show you +larger versions.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"> +<img src="images/iCover.jpg" width="399" height="700" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>CHATTANOOGA<br /> + +AND<br /> + +CHICKAMAUGA.</h1> + +<p class="fm3">REPRINT OF</p> + +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">Gen. H. V. BOYNTON'S LETTERS</span></p> + +<p class="fm4">TO THE</p> + +<p class="fm3">Cincinnati Commercial Gazette,<br /> + +AUGUST, 1888.</p> + +<p class="fm4">Second Edition, with Corrections.<br /> + +WASHINGTON, D. C.:<br /> +GEO. R. GRAY, PRINTER.<br /> +1891.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p><i>Comrades of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland:</i></p> + +<p>When General H. V. Boynton's letters recently appeared in the Cincinnati +<i>Commercial Gazette</i>, so vividly portraying the achievements and heroism +of the Army of the Cumberland in its campaign for the possession of +Chattanooga, including the inevitable incident thereto, the battle of +Chickamauga, I thought how agreeable it would be for each member of the +society to have a copy for perusal at our approaching reunion on the +twenty-fifth anniversary of Chickamauga.</p> + +<p>Accordingly I asked General Boynton's permission to print these letters +in pamphlet form, as advance sheets of any volume in which he may +determine to put them with other matter. To this he most cheerfully +assented in the following letter:</p> + +<blockquote><p class="author"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>Sept.</i> 1, 1888.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear General</span>: You are welcome to the Chickamauga letters for +any use you choose to make of them. While the salient features +of both days' battle are easily understood, the details of +movements by brigades are in many cases intricate. For this +reason various errors may have been made in the text. If those +who observe them will take the trouble to correct them before +the public, they would thus assist in establishing the correct +history of a battle in which the Army of the Cumberland should +take great pride.</p> + +<p class="author"> +Very truly yours,<br /> +H. V. BOYNTON.<br /></p> + +<p>General W. S. Rosecrans.<br /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>With this explanation, the letters are given in the order of their +respective dates.</p> + +<p class="author">W. S. ROSECRANS.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>August 3</i>. [Special.]—In two preliminary letters about +Chickamauga the attempt was made to describe the field as it appears +to-day, and to present some of the scenes of the battle which came +rushing back over the plains of memory with a power suggestive of the +departed legions that once clothed these farms, forests, and ridges with +the terrible magnificence of battle.</p> + +<p>In a sense, to write of Chickamauga is to try to excite interest in a +subject which far too many regard as worn; but to the veterans who +fought there it will never be a threadbare story. For that generation +which has been born and has come to manhood since Chattanooga was won by +the Union arms, there is no campaign which can be studied with greater +profit, or which will more richly repay the reader. History has not yet +done justice to Chickamauga, but its verdict is sure. Many of the +misconceptions of the days following the battle still exist in the +popular mind. It may be years before they are cleared away; but +eventually the Chickamauga campaign will stand in the history of our war +as unequaled in its strategy by any other movement of the contest, and +as unsurpassed, and probably not equaled, for the stubbornness and +deadliness which marked the splendid fighting of Unionist and rebel +alike; and, furthermore, it will stand as a substantial Union victory.</p> + +<p>Just in proportion as the credit due is awarded to those who planned and +executed the campaign will well-merited condemnation be meted out to +those at Washington who insisted upon forcing the movement without +regard to proper and vital preparation, who withheld re-enforcements, +and who, in spite of public and private warnings which it was criminal +not to heed, made rebel concentrations against Rosecrans possible from +in front of Washington itself, and from Charleston, Mobile, and +Mississippi.</p> + +<p>It will be the purpose of a few letters to go over some of the +well-known ground of this campaign with a view of enforcing the ideas +expressed in general terms above, and attempting to present a clear +account of this most involved, and still seriously misunderstood battle. +The strategy—matchless in our war—which compelled Bragg to abandon +Chattanooga; the life and death struggle for concentrating the Union +army when Rosecrans, against the protests of Washington authorities that +it could not be true, found his widely separated corps confronted with +re-enforcements from every part of the Confederacy; and, lastly, the +great battle in the Chickamauga forests for the possession of +Chattanooga,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> are each most fruitful and interesting themes. The present +letter will relate to the first-named subject, the strategy of the +Chickamauga campaign.</p> + +<p>Marching from Murfreesboro on the 23d of June, 1863, General Rosecrans +had advanced against Bragg, who was strongly fortified, and whose lines, +besides, occupied gaps and ranges of great natural strength. By +brilliant strategy, with the loss of only 586 killed and wounded, and +thirteen captured or missing, the Army of the Cumberland, with its nine +divisions and twenty brigades, operating through sixteen days of +continuous rain, maneuvered Bragg, with his seven divisions and +twenty-three brigades, out of his natural and artificial strongholds, +and forced him across the Tennessee. Up to that time there had been no +strategic campaign to equal this, and it was soon to be far surpassed, +except in the one element of loss, by the campaign to follow it. So +brilliant had been the conception and the execution that all the corps +commanders, headed by General Thomas, hastened to call on General +Rosecrans and offer the warmest congratulations.</p> + +<p>At the close of the Tullahoma campaign Bragg occupied Chattanooga and +the mountain passes above and below it. Rosecrans's army lay along the +western base of the Cumberland Mountains, its right above Winchester and +its left at McMinnville. Here General Rosecrans at once began the most +vigorous preparations for another campaign for the occupation of +Chattanooga. Because the necessities of the case compelled secrecy as +one of the main elements of success, there was soon at Washington a +manifestation of unreasoning impatience over what was criticized as the +inaction of the Union commander; but those who were on the ground know +well the unceasing activity and energy with which the work progressed of +accumulating sufficient supplies of food, material, and ammunition, +preparing the means for crossing the Tennessee and obtaining the +necessary knowledge of the mountain passes, roads, and trails by which +the army must move. Rosecrans's supplies reached him over a badly +equipped line of worn railroad, a hundred and thirteen miles in length, +and, as can be readily understood, when the daily wants of a great army +preparing for extended movement and battle are considered, the matter of +accumulating a surplus of supplies was not the task of a day or a week. +With every effort the railroad was not repaired until July 25, and the +forward movement began on the 14th of August.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;"> +<a href="images/i007_large.png"><img src="images/i007.png" width="316" height="435" alt="" title="" /></a> +</div> + +<p>A glance at the map will disclose the great natural obstacles which lay +between General Rosecrans and Chattanooga. As his army faced toward the +latter point, the Cumberland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> Mountains, with a general elevation of +2,200 feet, rose before it. The escarpment was everywhere precipitous, +and destitute of every means of approach except narrow mountain roads +and trails, with the one exception that a short railroad ran from Cowan +to Tracy City, on the summit of the range. To the eastward this range +dropped by like precipitous and difficult slopes into the valley of the +Sequatchee River. Beyond that stream rose the equally sharp cliffs of +Walden's Ridge, with a general elevation of 1,300 feet. This fell off +along the eastern and southern edge of the plateau into the valley of +the Tennessee, and overlooked it from the mouth of the Sequatchee River +to a point far above Chattanooga. It was fifty miles as the crow flies +from the lines of Rosecrans's army across this continuous mountain +region to the valley of the Tennessee. This river was broad and deep, +and presented in itself the most serious natural obstacle which the +Union army had encountered since it left the Ohio River. It was 2,700 +feet wide at Bridgeport, and 1,254 feet at Caperton, the points where +the bridges were subsequently thrown.</p> + +<p>On the left bank of the river, the stronghold of Chattanooga lying +behind the river, and the great ranges to the westward between +Rosecrans's position and his own, might well seem to Bragg impregnable, +in fact almost unassailable. First, toward the west, came the Lookout +range, rising abruptly from the river to the height of 2,200 feet, and +stretching southwestwardly far into Georgia and Alabama. Its western +precipices looked down into the narrow valley of Lookout Creek. Beyond +the latter rose the equally precipitous cliffs of the Raccoon Mountains, +the latter having the same general elevation as the Lookout range.</p> + +<p>The gorge of the Tennessee where it breaks through these mountain ranges +is so narrow and so thoroughly commanded from the heights on both sides +as to render it impracticable to so move an army as to attack it from +the front or river side.</p> + +<p>With these giant obstacles to the progress of his columns, most serious +even if they had been within the Union lines, but almost insuperable +when found in an enemy's territory, and while he was bending every +energy to complete preparations for carrying out a brilliant plan of his +own for overcoming them, General Rosecrans was astonished at receiving +on August 4, only ten days after his railroad had been repaired to the +Tennessee River, a dispatch from Halleck saying: "Your forces must move +forward without delay. You will daily report the movement of each corps +till you cross the Tennessee River."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p> + +<p>To a commander who was building boats, opening mountain roads, rushing +the accumulation of stores, getting out material for four thousand feet +of bridges, preparing to leave his base carrying provisions for +twenty-five days, and ammunition for two battles, and crossing three +mountain ranges and a deep and broad river, in an enemy's country, and +in the face of an army, this dispatch was not only astounding, but +discouraging and exasperating to the last degree.</p> + +<p>It had become a habit at Washington to sneer at the slowness of General +Rosecrans, as it was later to denounce General Thomas in similar terms +at Nashville. There was no more reason or justice in the one case than +in the other. The verdict of history has been reached in the case of +General Thomas. It is sure to come, and to be the same in this matter, +for Rosecrans.</p> + +<p>To this dispatch, which can only be excused on the ground of wholly +inexcusable ignorance of the active preparations in progress and the +natural difficulties of an advance, General Rosecrans replied with his +accustomed clearness and spirit: "Your dispatch ordering me to move +forward without delay, reporting the movements of each corps till I +cross the Tennessee, is received. As I have determined to cross the +river as soon as practicable, and have been making all preparations and +getting such information as may enable me to do so without being driven +back, like Hooker, I wish to know if your order is intended to take away +my discretion as to the time and manner of moving my troops." To this +Halleck responded: "The orders for the advance of your army, and that it +be reported daily, are peremptory." General Rosecrans immediately wrote +the following reply, and, calling his corps commanders together, read +the dispatches given above. There was no dissent from the proposition +that at that stage of their preparations it was impossible to move. He +then read his reply as follows, and all approved and agreed that they +should support him:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">General Halleck</span>: My arrangements for beginning a continuous movement +will be completed and the execution begun Monday next. We have +information to show that crossing the Tennessee between Bridgeport and +Chattanooga is impracticable, but not enough to show whether we had +better cross above Chattanooga and strike Cleveland, or below Bridgeport +and strike in their rear. The preliminary movement of troops for the two +cases are very different. It is necessary to have our means of crossing +the river completed, and our supplies provided to cross sixty miles of +mountains and sustain ourselves during the operations of crossing and +fighting, before we move. To obey your order literally would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> be to push +our troops into the mountains on narrow and difficult roads, destitute +of pasture and forage, and short of water, where they would not be able +to maneuver as exigencies may demand, and would certainly cause ultimate +delay and probable disaster. If, therefore, the movement which I propose +cannot be regarded as obedience to your order, I respectfully request a +modification of it or to be relieved from the command."</p> + +<p>On the following day Halleck replied as follows:</p> + +<p>"I have communicated to you the wishes of the Government in plain and +unequivocal terms. The objective has been stated, and you have been +directed to lose no time in reaching it. The means you are to employ and +the roads you are to follow are left to your own discretion. If you wish +to promptly carry out the wishes of the Government you will not stop to +discuss mere details. In such matters I do not interfere."</p> + +<p>This was answered the same day by General Rosecrans as follows:</p> + +<p>"Your dispatch received. I can only repeat the assurance given before +the issuance of the order. This army shall move with all dispatch +compatible with the successful execution of our work. We are pressing +everything to bring up forage for our animals. The present rolling-stock +of the road will barely suffice to keep us day by day here, but I have +bought fifty more freight cars, which are arriving. Will advise you +daily."</p> + +<p>This was the last of interference from Washington, but, accustomed as +all there were to interfering at will, and directing affairs according +to the situation as they saw it, they could not brook such manifestly +proper independence as was shown by Rosecrans, and from that time +forward there was needed only an excuse to insure his removal.</p> + +<p>Had there been a tithe of the attention given to preventing the rebels +from concentrating on his front from every part of the Confederacy—in +fact, bringing Longstreet's veterans from the lines under Halleck's own +eyes—that there was to the kind of interference which has been noticed, +Bragg would have been destroyed in front of Chattanooga. But this +subject properly belongs in a succeeding letter. The dispatches given +above are well known, but their reproduction will prove a convenience to +readers who may not carry their exact terms in mind.</p> + +<p>Ten days later, namely, on August 14, the movement to secure Chattanooga +began. A glance at the map will reveal its strategy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>Rosecrans had decided to cross the Tennessee in the vicinity of +Bridgeport, and subsequently the Raccoon and Lookout Mountain ranges at +points south of Chattanooga, and thus compel Bragg to evacuate the place +or to come out of it and fight for his line of communications. It is +easily seen that if after crossing the river the enemy, warned in time, +should be found in force on the western slopes of these ranges further +progress in that direction would have been impossible, and a return to +the north bank of the river obligatory. It was, therefore, necessary to +wholly deceive Bragg as to the points of crossing.</p> + +<p>Burnside was marching from Kentucky into East Tennessee. Any apparent +movement of the Army of the Cumberland in force in that direction would +naturally lead Bragg to believe that a junction of the Union forces was +contemplated on his right.</p> + +<p>Everything being ready, Crittenden opened the campaign with the +Twenty-first Corps. Leaving his camps at Hillsboro, Manchester, and +McMinnville on the 16th of August, he crossed the Cumberland Mountains +and occupied the Sequachee Valley from a point between Jasper and Dunlap +to Pikeville. Van Cleve held the latter place, Palmer was established at +Dunlap, and Wood at Anderson, between Dunlap and Jasper. All built +extensive camp fires and moved about in such ways as to convey to +observers from the heights the impression that the whole army was +moving. Meantime Minty's active cavalry had moved through Sparta and +driven Dibrell's cavalry eastward through Crossville, on to the +Tennessee, and over it, and Dibrell, having come to reconnoiter and see +what was going on, naturally got the idea that Rosecrans's army was +coming. The crossing of the Cumberland was but the first step of the +imposing diversion. Though the mountain roads were few and very +difficult, Crittenden's movements over them had been completed exactly +on time. The advance over Walden's Ridge, equally difficult, though it +was not quite as high as the main range, was immediately undertaken. +Minty, on the extreme left, appeared on the Tennessee more than thirty +miles above Blythe's Ferry, where he made most energetic commotion. +Hazen reached the river in the vicinity of Dallas. Two brigades were +strung out along the edge of the cliffs on the top of Walden's Ridge, +where they overlooked Blythe's Ferry, and could be seen from the other +side of the river. Minty, with his troopers, swept down the valley of +the Tennessee to near Chattanooga. Wilder and Wagner also appeared in +the valley. While a show of building boats was made in the small streams +about Blythe's Ferry, Wilder from the heights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> of Walden's Ridge, +opposite Chattanooga, opened fire on the town with artillery. Bragg was +thoroughly deceived. Forrest was ordered far up the Tennessee to +Kingston to watch for the expected crossing. Buckner was ordered from +East Tennessee toward Blythe's Ferry.</p> + +<p>As may be supposed, Wilder's cannonading produced the wildest excitement +in Chattanooga. The rolling-stock of the railroads was hastened out of +reach. The depots of supplies were moved out of the range of the +unexpected bombardment. D. H. Hill's corps was hurried off to guard the +river above, and other heavy forces were moved in the same direction. +Everything done by Bragg was based upon the idea that Rosecrans was +moving in force to points on the river above the city.</p> + +<p>Meantime the real movement was going on quietly sixty to eighty miles in +the opposite direction, in the vicinity of Bridgeport and Stevenson. A +force of cavalry for the purposes of observation, and to convey the idea +by quick movements that Rosecrans was feigning below, while really +expecting to cross above the city, was sent as far westward as Decatur. +Thus Rosecrans was operating along the river through a hundred miles of +mountain region and fifty miles of low country beyond, and in spite of +the natural difficulties every part of the plan was working with +precision.</p> + +<p>Thomas and McCook on the right moved at the same time with Crittenden. +Reynolds, of Thomas's corps, had marched in advance and repaired the +roads by way of University, and down the eastern slope of the mountain +to Jasper. Brannan followed him, and both were at first kept well out of +sight of the river. Baird and Negley came down nearer to Bridgeport, and +McCook descended back of Stevenson. With the exception of Sheridan, at +Bridgeport, all were kept well out of sight from the enemy's cavalry on +the left bank.</p> + +<p>Sheridan alone made a show of his presence and openly began the +construction of a trestle through the shoal water, in order to lessen +the length of the floating bridge. As this was without a decided show of +strength it deepened the impression that the movements on this wing were +the feint and those toward the upper river the real move. In fact, after +watching Sheridan's trestle building for a while from the other side of +the river, Anderson's brigade of infantry, the only infantry force +available to oppose a passage of the river, was withdrawn and sent to +Chattanooga.</p> + +<p>The bridge for Caperton's Ferry was brought down on a train, which was +halted out of sight, and a road cut for its transportation through the +woods to a point near its desti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>nation, where the troops which were to +lay it were drilled in their work.</p> + +<p>Early on the 29th fifty boats, each carrying fifty men, were brought out +of the woods near Caperton's, rushed across an open field, launched, and +quickly rowed to the opposite shore. The Confederate cavalry pickets +were driven off and twenty-five hundred men held the south bank. The +bridge was promptly laid. Davis was soon over, and then McCook's entire +corps, with cavalry, started promptly for Valley Head, forty miles down +the Lookout range. Reynolds collected boats at Shellmound, Brannan had +built rafts and cut out canoes at the mouth of Battle Creek. The long +bridge was successfully laid at Bridgeport, and before Bragg had +recovered from his surprise, in fact before he had comprehended the +extent of the movement, Rosecrans, with two corps, was over the river +and moving on his communications.</p> + +<p>As soon as the crossing was assured, Crittenden marched with celerity by +way of the Sequatchee Valley towards the bridges and was soon across +with the main body and advancing on the left of it directly towards +Chattanooga.</p> + +<p>This crossing of the Tennessee was a great feat. The bridges were not +sufficient for the army. Reynolds gathered small boats and improvised +his own means of crossing. Brannan's men had cut out canoes from immense +poplars and launched them in Battle Creek out of sight. Some of them +would hold fifty men. They also built rafts, one of them large enough to +carry artillery. These, with an abandoned rebel pontoon boat, +constituted Brannan's flotilla. When the signal was given the whole +swept out from behind the bushes which concealed the mouth of Battle +Creek and made for the opposite shore. The rebel pickets withdrew and +the crossing was secured. Then all his men who could swim, piling their +guns, clothing, and accouterments on a few fence rails, pushed these +before them and thus gained the opposite bank. Later, Wilder swam his +mounted brigade across the river and joined Crittenden south of +Chattanooga. Halleck must have had this ability for crossing a river in +the presence of an enemy in mind when he telegraphed Rosecrans, a few +weeks before, to move at once and keep moving.</p> + +<p>But this crossing, and the grand diversion which made it possible, were +only the preliminary, and by no means the formidable parts of the +movement. To complete it, Rosecrans was to cut loose from his base, +carry twenty-five day's supplies and sufficient ammunition for two +battles, cross two precipitous and difficult mountain ranges wholly +within the enemy's territory, and their passes presumably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> strengthened +and defended, and, after crossing the last range at widely separated +points, to descend into the valley in the rear of that enemy's +stronghold, prepared for battle or any other contingencies which might +arise on this distant and isolated theater of action.</p> + +<p>When Bragg discovered the real point of crossing and the lines of actual +movement it was too late to recall the forces dispatched up the +Tennessee or to post columns of sufficient strength on the slopes before +Rosecrans to impede his advance in force. How strong the positions thus +turned by the Union forces were will appear from the statement that so +precipitous and otherwise difficult were the roads over these ranges +that at several of them it required a day and a night for a division +with its artillery and reduced trains to make the ascent.</p> + +<p>The Union commander had delayed his movement until the corn was ripe in +order that it might not be necessary to carry grain for his animals, +which would have largely increased his trains—so careful, thoughtful, +and wise was he in every detail of preparation.</p> + +<p>Bragg's failure to resist in the vicinity of Rosecrans's crossings and at +the crossings of Raccoon Mountain was due in part to the fact that even +after he knew that the heads of columns were over the river he was still +inclined to look upon their movements as a feint, and to regard the real +point of danger to lie above the city. Rosecrans, even after crossing, +sought successfully to strengthen such impressions in Bragg's mind. He +directed Wagner's, Wilder's, and Minty's brigades to report to Hazen, +and with this force, some 7,000 strong, the latter was ordered to make a +conspicuous show of crossing the river far above Chattanooga. This +active and efficient officer admirably executed his orders. By extended +fires, by marchings and countermarchings, by moving his artillery +continuously across openings in sight from the opposite bank, by buglers +at widely separated points, and other similar devices, he easily created +the belief that an army was encamped on the right bank intending to +cross.</p> + +<p>With the exception of this force, all of Rosecrans's army was south of +the river on September 4, and on the move. The right was already well on +its way. On the 6th his army had descended from Raccoon Mountain and +occupied the valley between that range and the western slope of Lookout +from a point seven miles from Chattanooga to Valley Head, forty-two +miles from the city. The next day McCook and Thomas began to ascend +Lookout at points respectively forty-two and twenty-six miles from +Chattanooga. On the 8th McCook's troops were in motion down the eastern +slope of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> the mountain toward Alpine, and Thomas was descending from +Steven's and Frick's Gap, both of which were near where the road from +Trenton, after running southwardly, is represented as leading over +Lookout. Crittenden had pushed small portions of his command up mere +mountain trails, and on the 9th these gained position where they could +look down upon Chattanooga. They saw no flags, and soon discovered that +Bragg had evacuated. The day before Wagner, still watching from the +north bank of the river, had reported to Rosecrans that the enemy was +leaving. The news came in the night, and Rosecrans ordered Crittenden to +ascertain the situation. His detachments on the mountain had already +discovered that the city was deserted. Crittenden was at once ordered to +march around the north point of Lookout, and follow Bragg toward +Ringgold. At night on the 9th Palmer and Van Cleve's divisions were +established at Rossville, five miles south of Chattanooga.</p> + +<p>Thus, in three weeks from the time his diversion towards Bragg's right +began, and in five days from the time his army was over the river, +Rosecrans had repeated the Tullahoma campaign on a far greater scale, +and in the face of much more formidable obstacles, and absolutely +without fighting, except as Minty had been slightly engaged with Dibrell +near Sparta in the outset of the movement, had driven Bragg from the +mountain stronghold of Chattanooga, the objective of the campaign. It +was well said later by General Meigs, who came from Washington to +Chattanooga after its final occupation by the Union army, and spent some +days in studying the movements by which it had been secured: "It is not +only the greatest operation in our war, but a great thing when compared +with any war."</p> + +<p>But the occupation of Chattanooga, in a military sense, was not +accomplished by sending Crittenden's two divisions beyond it and one +brigade into it. Bragg had only withdrawn to save his communications and +supplies, and to await the re-enforcements he knew to be hastening from +Virginia, from Mobile, and from Mississippi. The battle for Chattanooga +was yet to be fought. Bragg had retired with deliberation. He +established his headquarters at Lafayette, behind Pigeon Mountains, but +his rear guard never passed beyond Lee and Gordon's Mills.</p> + +<p>The news that Rosecrans' troops were in Chattanooga, and that he had +pushed out after the retreating Bragg, made a tremendous impression upon +the North. It was accepted as a capture, and a military occupation of +that long-coveted stronghold. It is true it was occupied, but not in a +military sense, since the Union army had not been brought into it, or +concentrated between it and the enemy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hence arose that misconception, which is widespread still, that the Army +of the Cumberland had occupied Chattanooga, and thence marching out to +attack Bragg, had been defeated by the latter at Chickamauga, and driven +back in disorder into Chattanooga.</p> + +<p>But, instead, Chickamauga was the battle for Chattanooga, fought by +Rosecrans while on the way to take military possession of it, and while +he was concentrating his army between Bragg and that city, the objective +of the Union campaign. The battle was not for the Chickamauga woods, but +for the passes behind them which controlled the way to Chattanooga. +These were secured as the immediate result of the battle, and the +successful occupation of Chattanooga in the military sense followed—an +occupation which lasted till the close of the war.</p> + +<p>In connection with the fact of Crittenden's unopposed movement into +Chattanooga another point of general misapprehension arose, which, +through the years, has formed the basis of unfair and unthinking, if not +ignorant criticism of General Rosecrans' brilliant strategy. Why did not +Rosecrans face Thomas and McCook about in the valley west of Lookout, +where their movements would have been concealed, and hurry them after +Crittenden into Chattanooga? It was simply because with McCook's advance +nearly fifty miles from Chattanooga by the roads west of Lookout, and +Thomas's head of column already down and over Missionary Ridge, full +thirty miles away, to withdraw and send them in succession after +Crittenden would have been to have invited attack in detail from Bragg +upon each head of column as it followed Crittenden, with all the chances +in favor of Bragg's success. Besides, the shortest and surest, in fact +the only practicable line of concentration looking to the safety of the +widely-separated corps was through a movement to the left along the +eastern bases of Lookout and Missionary Ridge. It was this movement of +Rosecrans for concentrating on Crittenden's position south of Rossville +that led to the battle of Chickamauga. Bragg, having been heavily +re-enforced, started at the same time from Lafayette to interpose +between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, the Union objective of the whole +campaign.</p> + +<p>Subsequent letters will follow this exciting concentration, and the +desperate contests of each army for position, and the bloody battles +which ensued, and by which Chattanooga was finally won.</p> + +<p class="author">H. V. B.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, August 7.—[<i>Special.</i>]—In the movements of the Union +armies none, from first to last, presented such brilliant strategy as +the two which brought General Rosecrans from Murfreesboro', to the rear +of Chattanooga. Almost equally wonderful was the successful +concentration of his widely scattered corps. This was accomplished in +the face of an enemy that had been heavily re-enforced with veteran +troops, and largely outnumbered General Rosecrans. The concentration, +moreover, united the Army of the Cumberland for battle between this +confident enemy and the city which was the objective of the Union +forces.</p> + +<p>The story is crowded with brilliant and successful operations of +detached corps against greatly superior forces and of minor strategy, +which blend harmoniously with the more striking features of the great +campaign. It covers a period of intense anxiety for General Rosecrans +and his subordinate commanders, of most skillful action, and continued +danger to destruction in detail. It culminated in the delivery of a +battle, which, though still widely misunderstood, unquestionably ranks +for the stubbornness and effectiveness of its fighting and the +importance of its results with the most notable battles of the war.</p> + +<p>A previous letter left the Army of the Cumberland where its strategy had +thrown it across three mountain ranges and the Tennessee River, and +brought it without loss to the rear of Chattanooga, at the foot of the +eastern base of the Lookout Mountain. This had compelled Bragg to +withdraw toward Lafayette. The left of the Union army, under General +Crittenden, had passed around the north end of Lookout, marched through +Chattanooga after Bragg, and occupied Rossville Gap. General McCook, +forty-two miles to the right, had descended to Alpine, while the center, +under General Thomas, was at Steven's Gap, directly opposite Bragg's +center, at Lafayette.</p> + +<p>Finding that the enemy had withdrawn behind Pigeon Mountain, General +Rosecrans having been assured from Washington that no re-enforcements +had been sent from Lee's army, determined to push Bragg vigorously at +all points for the purpose of gaining every advantage which a retreat +presented, and of inflicting all the damage possible. Beyond question, +this put his army in serious peril, since Bragg had only retired to meet +re-enforcements promised and actually arriving from all quarters, and +was even then concentrated and ready to strike. McCook, on the right, +pushed in from Alpine and Summerville with Stanley's cavalry to +within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> seven miles of Lafayette without finding any signs of retreat. +He therefore wisely kept his trains and main force near the mountain.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 264px;"> +<a href="images/i019_large.png"><img src="images/i019.png" width="264" height="375" alt="" title="" /></a> +</div> + +<p>Negley, of Thomas, marched out from Steven's Gap beyond the Chickamauga +and his skirmishers deployed in front of Dug Gap. This advanced position +he held during the 10th, and early next morning was supported in it by +Baird's division. Here Bragg attempted his initiative, and developed his +preparations for advance. Two corps of infantry, Hill's and Walker's, a +division from Polk's command, and a division of cavalry, were in the +gaps of Pigeon Mountains, or the woods behind them, under orders to +advance on Negley. By a fortunate delay their combinations for attack +were not completed until Baird had arrived. The bold front displayed by +both of these officers still further held back those overwhelming forces +of Bragg. When the latter were ready to move, the skill, sharp fighting, +and able maneuvering under fire enabled these Union officers to bring +their troops back to the shelter of the mountain with comparatively +little loss. It was a thrilling and difficult situation, and the day a +most anxious one for Generals Rosecrans and Thomas.</p> + +<p>The disappointment was great to Bragg when he learned that his heavy +converging columns from Catlett's Gap on his right, Dug Gap in the +center, and Blue Bird Gap on his left had met on the ground held by +Negley and Baird, only to find them retiring with such show of strength +and with such well ordered lines as enabled them to elude even serious +attack. Both these officers deserve far greater credit than they have +ever received for their courage, coolness, and ability. At night they +were supported by the arrival of Brannan and Reynolds from the west side +of the mountain, and the position of Thomas at Steven's Gap was secure.</p> + +<p>Rosecrans' anxiety and Bragg's attention were instantly turned to the +Union left. The discovery on the 11th that the rebel rear guard under +Cheatham had not moved south of Lee & Gordon's showed Rosecrans that +whatever Bragg's intention may have been, he was then concentrating for +battle. As General Rosecrans himself declares in his official report, +the concentration of the Army of the Cumberland became a matter of life +and death.</p> + +<p>Crittenden, from the 9th to the 12th, had carried on most vigorous +operations. Palmer and Van Cleve had advanced to Ringgold. Wood was +close at hand. Hazen, Minty, and Wilder, fresh from their part in the +brilliant feint north of the river, had joined Crittenden, and some +lively minor battles were the result. The discovery that the rebel rear +guard was still at Lee & Gordon's suddenly stopped these opera<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>tions, +and on the 12th, under an order to concentrate with the utmost celerity +north of the Chickamauga, Crittenden established himself along that +river near and above Lee & Gordon's.</p> + +<p>On the 13th Bragg had ordered an attack upon him by Polk with two corps +and the promise of the support of a third, hoping to overthrow this +wing, in continuance of his plan of defeating the Union corps in detail, +before the center or right could afford relief. In the face of such +threatening, with McCook over fifty miles away, and Thomas unable to +move from the center till McCook should be within supporting distance, +Rosecrans undertook the concentration of his army.</p> + +<p>At this point, that justice may be done, it is well to contrast the +attitude which the governments at Washington and Richmond had assumed +toward this movement on the rebel center.</p> + +<p>For weeks before General Rosecrans had moved forward he had tried to +impress upon the authorities at Washington the importance of giving him +strong support. Promising offers to raise veteran mounted troops from +several Eastern governors were laid before the War Department and +refused with insulting warmth. Two weeks later came the order from +Halleck to move at once and keep moving, which is treated of at length +in a former letter.</p> + +<p>This gross ignorance at Washington of the gigantic difficulties of the +situation was equaled, if not surpassed, by a telegram of September 11, +the very day that Bragg's re-enforced army was moving against Rosecrans' +center and organizing for an attack on his left, and while Rosecrans and +Thomas and McCook were straining every nerve in a life and death effort +to concentrate their army. Said Halleck, by telegraph of this date:</p> + +<p>"After holding the mountain passes on the west and Dalton, or some point +on the railroad, to prevent the return of Bragg's army, it will be +decided whether your army shall move further South into Georgia and +Alabama. It is reported here that a part of Bragg's army is re-enforcing +Lee. It is important that the truth of this should be ascertained as +early as possible."</p> + +<p>This showed that Halleck shared the general and ignorant belief that +Rosecrans had occupied Chattanooga in a military sense.</p> + +<p>At this time Longstreet's advance had been gone a week from under +Halleck's eyes near Washington, and two divisions of Johnston's troops +from Mississippi, and Buckner, from East Tennessee, had already joined +Bragg, and others were on the way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>The failure to give Rosecrans effective flanking supports was +inexcusable. The only explanation for it is found in the irritation and +dislike which his straightforward and independent dealings had aroused +in Washington, and a failure to understand the natural obstacles of the +position and the contemplated advance. Meade was in a state of enforced +inactivity before Lee. Grant's army was doing nothing to occupy Johnston +in Mississippi, and there was no such Union activity in front of Mobile +and Charleston as prevented troops being spared to Bragg from those +points. And so, while the Washington authorities were finding fault with +Rosecrans while he was pushing some of the most brilliant and effectual +moves of the war, and were not even lifting a finger to encourage or +even to protect him, the Richmond government was neglecting no means to +strengthen Bragg to the extent of its powers. As a result, in one week +from the date of Halleck's telegram inquiring whether Bragg was +re-enforcing Lee, Longstreet and Johnston and Walker and Buckner had +reached Bragg from the extremes of the Confederacy, and he had moved to +attack Rosecrans with 70,000 men.</p> + +<p>In this criminal neglect of Rosecrans the authorities were without +excuse. No friend of Stanton's or Halleck's have even yet attempted to +explain, much less defend it. These and other high officers, at one time +or another, arraigned General Rosecrans as solely responsible for what +they chose to designate as the disaster and defeat of Chickamauga. It +was the shortest way for some of them to divert attention from the +terrible neglect and responsibility which rested on their heads. But +even if the favorable chances for the concentration of Confederate +forces against Rosecrans had escaped unwilling observation at +Washington, the authorities there were without excuse, since the case +was very pointedly placed before them in an editorial of the Cincinnati +Commercial, which excited so much attention that the editor was +officially notified that such articles were highly indiscreet. This was +as early as September 1. In view of what occurred a few weeks later, and +of the evidence it gives of ample warning, it is interesting to +reproduce this editorial of Mr. Halstead, printed on the date named, +under a title, a "Point of Danger." Said the editor:</p> + +<p>"Jeff Davis and his generals are as well informed as we are of the +presence of a considerable part of the army of the Potomac in New York +City to enforce the draft, and that consequently an advance on Richmond +need not be apprehended for some weeks. They have also heard of the +presence of Admiral Farragut in New York, and infer from the +circumstance that there is no immediate danger of an attack on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> Mobile. +They know the situation at Charleston, and are not mistaken in the +opinion that the advance upon that city must be slow, by process of +engineering, digging, and heavy cannonading. They do not need large +bodies of troops to make the defense; negro laborers, engineer officers +and gunners being all that are required. General Grant's army, as is +well known, is, for the most part, resting from its labors in undisputed +possession of an enormous territory. The real aggressive movement of the +Federal forces is upon the rebel center; that is to say, East Tennessee, +and it is extremely unlikely that the rebels are deficient in +information as to the strength and intentions of Generals Rosecrans and +Burnside.</p> + +<p>"The important question is whether they will improve the opportunity by +concentrating upon their center. The reports that General Joe Johnston +has joined his forces to those recently under Bragg, and has thus +gathered a force almost if not quite equal numerically to those in the +hands of General Rosecrans, have in addition the immense advantages of +the occupation of mountain passes, and that are to be found in pursuing +a defensive system of warfare. General Lee is reported to have sent +troops to East Tennessee, and it is probable that he has done so, as, +thanks to the New York riots, he has some divisions temporarily to spare +from Virginia. If the rebels do give up East Tennessee and Northern +Georgia without a struggle, that is to say, if Generals Rosecrans and +Burnside complete the operations in which they are engaged without +meeting serious resistance, it may be taken as conclusive evidence of +the exhaustion of the rebellion."</p> + +<p>Several subsequent editorials enforced these ideas, and were even so +definite as to point out Johnston, Longstreet, and Buckner as the +commands which were likely to re-enforce Bragg.</p> + +<p>General Rosecrans had had these general points of danger in mind, and +made them known to the Government nearly a month before he crossed the +Tennessee. But his request for more men and flanking supports was +refused at the War Department with much warmth and most inconsiderate +emphasis. This Commercial editorial, therefore, startled him, and his +records show that he sent Mr. Halstead a sharp letter intimating that +such an editorial was little better than a call to the Jeff Davis +government to fall on him. It was, however, the clear common sense of +the situation; and if the Washington authorities had heeded it, instead +as was their custom, sneering at "newspaper generals" and newspaper ways +of carrying on the war, many lives would have been saved at Chickamauga +which were lost because of the unequal contest, and there would never +have been any questioning of that costly, but no less decided victory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is further true that General Peck, stationed in North Carolina, sent +word to General Rosecrans, under date of September 6, that Longstreet's +corps was passing southward over the railroads. Colonel Jacques, of the +Seventy-third Illinois, who had come up from the South, tried in vain +for ten days to gain admittance in Washington, to communicate this fact +of Longstreet's movement to Halleck and Stanton, and then, without +accomplishing it, started West, and reached his command in time to fight +with the regiment at Chickamauga. There had been time enough, after +General Rosecrans's explanations of his proposed plan, to force +Burnside, with twenty thousand men, down from East Tennessee, and to +have brought all needed strength for the other flank from the Army of +the Tennessee on the Mississippi. Even when ordered up, after the +battle, this latter loitered to a degree that its commander will never +be able to satisfactorily explain.</p> + +<p>To return from this digression, Bragg on the 13th had ordered an attack +by three corps on Crittenden. The latter, by his great activity and by +the bold operations of Van Cleve, Wood, Palmer, and the brigades of +Hazen, Minty, and Wilder, had created the impression of much greater +strength than they really had, and Polk moved cautiously. Finally, just +as he was ready to attack, his column on the Lafayette road encountered +Van Cleve moving on him with a single brigade of infantry. So vigorously +did this officer attack that he forced Polk's advance back for three +miles, and created the impression of a general Union advance. This +disconcerted Polk, and instead of ordering his forces forward, he +halted, took up a defensive position, and sent to Bragg for +re-enforcements. Thus Negley and Baird, by their pluck and skill in +front of overwhelming forces, and Palmer and Crittenden's active +divisions and attached brigades on the left, by their unhesitating +attacks wherever they developed the enemy, and by this last one +delivered in the face of an advance of three full corps on one, had made +the concentration of the army possible, and had saved it. The next day +Steedman, that lion of battle, had reached Rossville, in immediate +support of Crittenden, with two brigades of his own command and two +regiments and two batteries temporarily attached, having marched from +Bridgeport, a distance of forty miles, in twenty-eight hours.</p> + +<p>The appearance and wonderful activity of Hazen, Wilder, and Minty's +brigades on the left of Crittenden's, and Steedman's forces of the +reserve corps at Rossville, with the fact that McCook was nearing +Thomas, and that the latter had extended his left to within near +supporting distance of Critten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>den, seem to have restrained Bragg from +attack in any direction after the failure of his orders to Polk to +attack on the 13th until his orders of the night of the 17th for an +attack the next day upon Crittenden's left and rear.</p> + +<p>During this period of comparative inaction against the Union front, +Rosecrans insured the concentration of his army in time for battle. +McCook, not understanding the roads along the top of the mountain, and +not deeming it prudent to consume the time necessary to explore them, +had crossed Lookout twice, at the cost of more than a full day, and +appeared with his head of column at General Thomas's camps during the +16th. On the 17th the latter closed the heads of his columns toward +Crittenden.</p> + +<p>The days of concentration had been a period of the most intense anxiety, +of unceasing watchfulness, of unbending determination, of brilliant +minor affairs, of unflinching courage, and, withal, of cool calculation +and precise execution for every part of the army.</p> + +<p>While, on the morning of the 18th, the three corps of the Union army and +its reserve were in position where each could support the other if +attacked, its supreme effort for position was to come. Bragg's order for +battle contemplated crossing the Chickamauga some miles below Lee and +Gordon's and driving the Union left under Crittenden back on the center +and right under Thomas and McCook, and thus, by thrusting his columns +between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, recover that place and force the +Union army back into the mountains, from which position it is doubtful +if it could have extricated itself.</p> + +<p>Bragg's order for attack on the 18th could not be executed. His army was +concentrated between Lee and Gordon's and Lafayette. He moved with five +infantry and two cavalry corps. Narrow roads, small bridges, difficult +fords, and dense forests delayed operations, so that at nightfall of the +18th his troops were not in position to attack. In fact, he was scarcely +ready to deliver battle under his plan on the morning of the 19th, when +Thomas's unexpected attack, far on the rebel right, deranged Bragg's +plan, and forced him to battle several miles from the point where he was +about to open it on Crittenden, who he supposed still constituted the +Union left.</p> + +<p>It was nothing less than the inversion of the Union army under cover of +a night that had thus disconcerted Bragg and enabled Rosecrans to array +himself for battle between Bragg and Chattanooga, and across the roads +and in front of the passes which led to that city. It was this night +march of two corps which constituted the supreme movement of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +concentration, and which at the same time defeated Bragg's purpose to +fight with the back of his own army to Chattanooga with a view to its +recovery.</p> + +<p>The map given below will make this inversion and final concentration +clear, and show the position of the two armies at daylight on the 19th, +when the battle began.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 313px;"> +<a href="images/i027_large.png"><img src="images/i027.png" width="313" height="440" alt="MAP OF FIRST DAY'S BATTLE." title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">MAP OF FIRST DAY'S BATTLE.</span> +</div> + +<p>On the 17th General Thomas's corps was in the vicinity of Pond Spring, +Negley on the left, and so nearest to a junction with Crittenden at Lee +& Gordon's, Baird next to the right, and Brannan next. Reynolds was +thrown to the front. The left of McCook had closed on Thomas at Fond +Spring.</p> + +<p>During the day Bragg, strongly threatening Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's +with two divisions, held him fast, and started the rest of his army down +the Chickamauga to cross and sweep in on Crittenden's left and rear, +expecting to find him still constituting the left of the Union army, and +to double this left back on Thomas and McCook.</p> + +<p>Bushrod Johnson had crossed at Reed's Bridge, driven Wilder nearly to +the State road at Vineyard's, and bivouacked a mile and a half from +Crittenden's left. Walker had also crossed at Lambert's Ford with three +divisions and Forrest's cavalry division, and halted for the night about +a mile in the rear of Hood. For the most part Bragg's army had the full +night for rest.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the Union columns were alive with motion. That night +was to cover the inversion of an army. About 4 o'clock Thomas started +his whole corps from Pond Spring toward Crittenden, McCook following +him. This was doubtless interpreted by Bragg as a closing in on +Crittenden. But it was far more than that.</p> + +<p>As soon as night shut the columns in they were pressed rapidly to the +left. Negley, as he drew near to Crittenden, was moved to the +Chickamauga in front of Crawfish Springs. This prevented a night attempt +to cut the column by occupying the roads intersecting at that point. +Meantime Thomas, with his other three divisions, pushed on. It was a +long, weary night. Heavy trains of supplies and ammunition occupied the +road. The troops moved mostly through the adjacent fields, both for +celerity of marching and as guards to the trains. Heavy flanking forces +streamed along parallel to the road, and well out toward the river. +There were constant interruptions to continuous movement, causing +frequent halts of the infantry. The night was cool, and, as the commands +stopped, the men warmed themselves by starting fires in the fences. The +result was that toward midnight the trains were everywhere driving +between two continuous lines of fires, and the men on either side, or in +the road, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> constant facilities for warming themselves. It was a +tedious and most fatiguing night, but at daylight the vitally important +task was done. Thomas's head of column, Baird in advance, reached the +Kelly farm at daylight, with Brannan well closed up and Reynolds a short +distance in the rear. Brannan was on the State or Lafayette road, near +the intersection of the road leading into it from Reed's bridge. McCook +had reached a point to the right and rear of Crittenden, near Crawfish +Springs. And so at sunrise the Union right, instead of resting far up +the Chickamauga from Crittenden's position, as Bragg expected to find +it, had become the left of Rosecrans' army and Crittenden was the right. +More than this, Rosecrans had established his lines two miles beyond +Bragg's right, and between it and Chattanooga. The victory of +concentration had been followed by the equally important success of +inverting the army and thus thrusting its columns between the enemy and +the objective of the campaign. These second stages of the movement +deserve to take rank with the matchless strategy with which it was +inaugurated.</p> + +<p>But the battle for the firm and final possession of Chattanooga was +still to come. It opened suddenly for both sides, and for Bragg in a +wholly unexpected quarter. The weary Union troops had scarcely time to +cook their coffee after the night march, and some of them no time at +all, before the storm broke and the army was summoned to the battle +which Thomas had opened.</p> + +<p class="author">H. V. B.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>August 14</i>.—[Special.]—The last letter in this series +left the Army of the Cumberland on the morning of the 19th of September, +concentrated for battle on the field of Chickamauga. By an energetic +night march the army had been thrown forward on its left by inversion +into line, and thrust between the enemy and Chattanooga, the objective +of the campaign. It was a difficult and dangerous movement, where two +armies, intent on battle, were only separated by such a stream as the +Chickamauga, which was everywhere easily fordable above Lee & Gordon's. +But General Thomas, who led this column, is the one commander of a great +army of whom it can be said with accuracy that from the first of the war +to the close no movement of his miscarried. At daylight of the 19th he +held the Lafayette and Chattanooga road at the Kelly farm.</p> + +<p>Bragg's army, though re-enforced from all parts of the Confederacy, and +though it had been well concentrated between Lafayette and Gordon's +mills for several preceding days, had been skillfully foiled by General +Rosecrans in the efforts to strike his isolated corps. During the 18th +it had been pressed by Bragg down the winding and thickly-wooded valley +of the Chickamauga in execution of an order for battle. This order was +based upon the idea that Crittenden's corps at Lee & Gordon's was the +left of the Union army. While he was to be held there by strong force +threatening attack from the other side of the stream, the bulk of +Bragg's army was to cross at the various fords and bridges below, and, +turning up stream, was then to join in sweeping Crittenden back on +Thomas and McCook, whom Bragg supposed still to constitute the Union +center and right. In execution of this plan Bushrod Johnson had crossed +at Reed's bridge, and pushed up to within a mile and a half of Lee & +Gordon's, and westward to within a mile of the Lafayette road, where +night overtook him. Walker's corps had crossed below Alexander's Bridge, +and bivouacked after a short advance toward Crittenden. Minty and +Wilder, with their mounted men, and Dan McCook, with his brigade, had +stoutly resisted and greatly delayed these columns. The most of Bragg's +army had rested through the night. Two corps of Rosecrans's forces had +marched continuously since four o'clock the preceding afternoon. They +were about to move into battle without time for breakfast or further +rest. Bragg, upon Longstreet's arrival, would have 70,000 men available +for the fight. Rosecrans's strength for battle was not over 56,000.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>At daylight all of Bragg's army, wholly concealed by the forests, was in +motion. A considerable portion of it was still crossing the river at the +various fords and bridges from Tedford's to Reed's bridge, and deploying +on the other side toward Crittenden, who was still supposed to hold the +Union left.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, about 9 o'clock, there came to Bragg's ears the sounds of +heavy and unexpected battle far down the Chickamauga and well toward +Rossville. Thomas, whose head of column rested at the Kelly farm, for +the double purpose of exploring the forests in his front and to test the +truth of a report that an isolated brigade of the enemy was on the west +side of the river near Reed's bridge, moved Brannan and Baird directly +into the forest on the road towards Reed's. At this time two-thirds of +Bragg's army, concealed by the forests, had crossed the Chickamauga and +was directing its columns up that stream toward Crittenden. Just at the +time when Bragg expected that his right would have swung across the +Lafayette road, and that his center divisions would have opened on +Crittenden's position at Lee & Gordon's, these portentous sounds of +battle from Thomas's line astonished and perplexed him. After vainly +waiting for them to cease, under the first impression that the affair +was a movement of his forces in reconnaissance, and that some Union +cavalry had been encountered, he found it so serious as to derange his +whole plan of battle, and force him to meet an enemy who had turned his +right. To do this he was obliged to move a portion of his troops that +had not crossed the river down stream to Reed's. By the circuitous roads +which they were obliged to travel, it required a march of six miles to +reach the left of Thomas.</p> + +<p>This destruction of the rebel plan was due to Thomas opening the battle +with the divisions of Brannan and Baird in the vicinity of Reed's +bridge. At 6.30 o'clock Brannan left Kelly's, and moving north, turned +in from the Lafayette road at McDaniel's toward Reed's. A quarter of a +mile from McDaniel's he deployed his division. Van Derveer was on the +left, and thus became the left of the Union army. Connell's brigade was +in the center, and Croxton on the right. In like manner Baird advanced +with a front line of two brigades. King, with the regulars, was on the +left, next to Brannan, and Scribner on the right of King, while +Starkweather marched by the flank behind Scribner's right.</p> + +<p>The last disposition was promptly made by Baird upon his discovering +that the enemy was in strong force to his right.</p> + +<p>Thus while neither army was aware that the other was in heavy force in +the woods which surrounded them, and while Bragg's forces were forming +to move up the Chickamauga, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> so away from Thomas's line of march, +both Brannan and Baird came in force on Bragg's right, in front of +Reed's bridge, at a point near Jay's Mills, and opened the battle of +Chickamauga. Croxton struck first with a vigorous attack on Forrest, +who, with the two divisions of his corps, was guarding the Confederate +right. The cavalrymen were forced back to the sawmill, where they +rallied, dismounted, and began to fight as infantry. Croxton held his +own, and even advanced slightly. Forrest sent for infantry, and Wilson's +brigade of Walker's division hurried from Alexander's and rushed into +the fight.</p> + +<p>Meantime re-enforcements were turning from all portions of Bragg's line +toward the sound of furious battle. Shortly the advance toward +Crittenden ceased, so vigorous had Thomas's battle become. Connell and +Van Derveer at first meeting no enemy on their fronts pressed toward the +vortex of Croxton's fighting. Forrest, relieved by Walker's infantry, +met this advance of Brannan's left with his whole force and fought for +the most part on foot. Croxton, out of ammunition, was obliged to retire +somewhat before Walker, when Baird pushed King in to support him, while +Van Derveer and Connell moved in first on Forrest and next on Ector's +brigade of Walker's reserve. The battle became terrific. Forrest hurried +in person after infantry supports, and for portions of his own command +left near Alexander's.</p> + +<p>At 11 o'clock Bragg had become convinced that Rosecrans had forced +battle upon him on the extreme rebel right. With such vigor did Thomas's +two divisions fight that Walker was ordered at that hour to go to +Forrest with all his force, and Cheatham, of Polk's corps, who had the +strongest division of the army, consisting of five brigades, then +stationed as the reserve of Bragg's left. Hardly had Cheatham started +before Stewart, of Buckner's corps, which was near Tedford's Ford, ready +to move toward Crittenden, was also dispatched in haste to the +Confederate right, and at 1 o'clock Cleburne, of Hill's corps, posted +near the extreme left of the Confederate line, was ordered to the scene +of action before Brannan and Baird. These movements show how Bragg's +plan of battle had been wholly overturned, and how fierce the fighting +of these two divisions of Thomas must have been to decide Bragg to send +four infantry divisions to the assistance of Forrest's corps of two +divisions.</p> + +<p>Meantime Walker had moved Govan's brigade obliquely on the right flank +of Scribner and forced him back. Simultaneously Walthall's brigade +struck King in flank and drove him in disorder over Van Derveer's +brigade. Guenther's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> regular battery, one of the best and most efficient +in the service, was captured. We shall see how it was shortly after +retaken by the splendid Ninth Ohio.</p> + +<p>Thus, while Baird's lines were shaken by the overwhelming concentration +against them, and Brannan was facing and fighting superior numbers, +matters were hot for Thomas, who was slowly moving to and fro along his +divisions and closely watching them. Baird was restoring his lines under +fire and in the face of a flank attack. Croxton's men, with fresh +ammunition, were holding their place. Connell's brigade was immovable, +and poured its fire into the very faces of the enemy. Van Derveer, on +the left, was busily maneuvering to meet flank attacks, and fighting +desperately, but with unvarying success.</p> + +<p>At this moment, when Baird was scarcely able to maintain position, and +must have soon yielded to numbers, Johnson, of McCook's corps, came on +the field from Crawfish Springs, and was led by Thomas to the right of +Baird. Here, with the brigades of Willich and Baldwin on the front and +Dodge in reserve, Johnson, by heavy fighting, relieved the pressure on +Baird, restored the line, and checked Bragg's new center.</p> + +<p>Following came Palmer, most opportunely ordered forward by Crittenden +from Lee & Gordon's, who saw plainly from the development of furious +battle on the Union left that troops would surely be wanted there. +Palmer followed Johnson into line, and under the personal direction of +Rosecrans the brigades of Hazen, Cruft, and Grose were formed in echelon +and ordered forward, immediately encountering Cheatham's men and +becoming fiercely engaged. Hazen on the left fell with great vigor on +Walker's left and relieved Starkweather, of Baird, from precarious +position. At the same time Van Derveer was thrown by Brannan on the +right of Walker and by terrific fighting crushed Walthall's line and +drove it well back into the forests.</p> + +<p>It was here that the Ninth Ohio, the German Turner regiment of Bob +McCook—both regiment and commander of glorious memory—recaptured the +regular battery and brought it into the Union lines. The regiment had +been with the trains during the night march and it was chafing far in +the rear when Van Derveer sent for it. Sore was his need. The repeated +attacks of the enemy on his front and flank in the attempt to crush the +Union left and reach the Lafayette road in its rear were becoming so +frequent and heavy that, in spite of the fact that every man under him +was fighting where he stood and yielding no inch of ground, it seemed as +if the limit of human endurance even for iron<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> veterans must soon be +reached. Then from the near distance came the well-known hurrah of the +Ninth advancing from the right. As all waited to welcome the head of its +column, its charging shout was heard to the front of its line of +advance, followed at once by rapid musketry, and then their great +"hurrah" of victory. The story is brief. Colonel Kammerling at the head +of his regiment, coming on at double-quick, saw to his right and front +the captured artillery of the regulars, just taken by Govan. Without +orders he halted his line, fronted it, and with the command "Links +Schwengket," swung it to the left, faced toward the hill where the +battery stood in the hands of its captors, and with a sweeping charge +drove the rebels back, bayoneting some among the guns, and rushed with +guns and many prisoners back to the Union line. A few minutes after he +came in on the run to Van Derveer, just in time to take part in the last +and supreme effort of the enemy to crush that unyielding left. Forrest's +men had passed beyond Van Derveer's left and formed for assault on his +front, and also directly on his flank. But the vigilant skirmishers and +prisoners taken by them made known the movement. The left was thrown +back in time, and the line presented an obtuse angle opening toward the +enemy. Into this, and heavily against the left of it, Forrest hurled his +columns, four deep. On came these men in gray in magnificent lines, +which showed clearly through the open forest bending their faces before +the sleet of the storm, and firing hotly as they advanced. As they came +within the range of the oblique fire from Van Derveer's right they +halted within forty yards of his left and for a few moments poured in a +destructive fire. A wheel of Smith's regular battery, and of a section +of Church's guns which had reported, brought them where they poured a +nearly enfilading fire of cannister down those long lines, standing +bravely there and fighting almost under the mouths of the guns. Thomas +and Brannan and Van Derveer were looking on and encouraging the line. It +had seemed almost beyond the probabilities to hold it till those well +served batteries opened. An instant later it seemed as if the lines of +gray had sunk into the earth. When the smoke lifted from the third round +the front was clear of everything but the heaps of dead and wounded, and +the work of the day at that point of the Union left was done.</p> + +<p>The fight still raged bitterly, however, along the lines of Johnson, and +of Palmer to the right of him. Brannan and Baird were withdrawn from the +front which they had held, the former being sent toward the center to +provide against contingencies there, and the latter posted to prevent +any move<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>ment toward the Lafayette road at McDaniel's. Forrest and +Cheatham's brigades of infantry next attacked Johnson (of McCook), who +then held the advanced portion of the Union left. Here the contest soon +became furious again, partly on the ground of Baird's morning battle. +Maney's splendid brigade rushed to a hand-to-hand fight, but was borne +back. Wright, Strahl, Jackson, and Smith, with their brigades, all under +Cheatham, each delivered bold and most courageous attacks, but without +carrying the Union line. Rosecrans's army, under the successive +hammering of the Confederate onslaughts, was fast being solidly formed +from left to right. Willich, Baldwin, and Dodge, of Johnson, and Hazen, +Cruft, and Grose, of Palmer, were fairly aligned, having fought +themselves forward into good positions.</p> + +<p>The battle next fell heavily on the right of Palmer, as Bragg at last +had his whole army in rapid motion toward his right. As Palmer's +ammunition began to fail, Reynolds moved up to his right and rear, and +made most excellent dispositions just east of the Lafayette road. Upon +call, he pushed Willich and Edward King in on Palmer's right, and at +once became hotly engaged. Crittenden sent Van Cleve with Samuel +Beatty's and Dick's brigades to the right of Reynold's, leaving Barnes's +brigade with General Wood at Lee & Gordon's.</p> + +<p>As fast as the Union line could be extended to the left it became sorely +pressed by Bragg's troops, then well massed west of the Chickamauga. +General Davis, from McCook, pressed rapidly to the left and was sent in +near Vineyard's. At 3 o'clock Wood was ordered from Lee & Gordon's to +the field of the growing fight. As Bragg still had some forces opposite +this point, General Lytle's brigade, of Sheridan's division, was +directed to relieve Wood and hold the crossing. Thus in six hours from +the time Bragg was directing his army on Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's, a +single brigade, posted there only from prudence, served for all demands +against Confederate movement from that direction. This indicates how +completely Bragg had been driven from his plan.</p> + +<p>Wood and Davis had not been dispatched a moment too soon. Van Cleve, +Davis, and Wood were confronted with solid masses of Bragg's +concentrated troops, and the scenes and splendid fighting of the morning +at the left were repeated hereby these divisions. Stewart, Johnson, and +Preston, of Buckner's corps, and Hindman, of Longstreet's advance, were +assaulting these lines. Davis had been ordered to wheel in on the +enemy's left flank, and this movement led to one of the bravest and +bloodiest contests of the day in front of Vineyard's. Wood advanced his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +lines into the vortex just when Davis was hardest pressed, and, when all +seemed about to be compelled to yield, Sheridan appeared on the flank, +and Wilder's mounted brigade came up in the rear. Every division of the +Union army was in line except the reserve under Granger, which was some +miles away toward Ringgold, with orders to hold Red House bridge.</p> + +<p>The battle along Rosecrans's center and right waxed hotter and fiercer. +He seemed everywhere present and he was everywhere alert. Van Cleve +encountered the left of Stewart marching to relieve Cheatham, and a +fight muzzle to muzzle took place between Clayton of Stewart's and the +two brigades of Van Cleve, Sam Beatty and Dick.</p> + +<p>Reynolds, by magnificent generalship and fighting, restored the broken +line in his front, and firmly established himself there. His brigades, +under Turchin and Edward King, covered themselves with laurels as they +swayed back and forth on the tides of battles which rushed and swirled +over all that portion of the field.</p> + +<p>Davis, with the brigades of Carlin and Heg, delivered their fire at +short range, and stood their ground long and well, till borne back by +overwhelming forces. It was just as this slow retrograde movement began +that Wood had appeared, having marched rapidly from Lee and Gordon's +with Harker's and Buell's brigade of his own division and Barnes's of +Van Cleve's. They swept in on the right, and by splendid fighting +checked the rebel line and held it on their front in spite of its +vigorous and splendid fighting.</p> + +<p>At this point two exactly opposite movements were in progress along the +lines of the armies. Bragg, who seemed determined to push his right +between the Union left and Chattanooga, ordered Cleburne from Tedford's +Ford to the extreme right, the scene of the morning fighting. At the +same time General Thomas, convinced that no perilous attack could be +delivered at that hour from that extreme point, was bringing Brannan +from the left to the support of Reynolds just as the latter was fighting +to push the enemy from the Lafayette road. Brannan arrived in time to +help, and with Croxton's assistance Reynolds restored the lines on his +front and flank, and regained possession of the road. Negley also +arrived opportunely from the right and took active part at this point. +Wood repulsed Bushrod Johnson's division, though at great cost. Trigg, +of Preston's division, entirely fresh, moved in with splendid pluck and +movement to restore the line, but Sheridan, from McCook, with Bradley +and Laiboldt's brigades, met and checked this advance, and with its +recoil the heat of battle on the Union right began to subside.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<p>About 5 o'clock the field on both sides was still. But Cleburne and +Walker were moving again far on the rebel right, in obedience to Bragg's +order to again attack the Union left. The Confederate march was over the +field of the morning, where the dead of Walker were thickly strewed. It +was a depressing advance. Still those veterans formed and moved on +without a sign of shrinking, and about six o'clock the hour of silence +was broken by a terrific attack in the gathering dusk upon Johnson, near +the ground occupied by Baird in the morning. The assault fell also upon +Baird further to the left. Cleburne, with a front of a mile, filled by +three brigades, had suddenly burst upon Thomas's left. Cleburne had +three brigades—Polk, Wood, and Deshler. Walthall and Govan, of +Liddell's division, and three brigades of Cleburne—Strahl, Johnson, and +Preston Smith—supported him. The assault was tremendous. Night was +falling, and the aim of each side was directed by the flashes of the +guns.</p> + +<p>Willich, Dodge and Baldwin, of Johnson, fought their brigades with +undaunted pluck and endurance. Baldwin fell on his line. Baird, with +Scribner, King, and Starkweather, held their ground, though vigorously +attacked. Preston Smith, on the Confederate side, was killed here. +Darkness put an end to the movement and the fighting, and each army +sought rest.</p> + +<p>For the commanders of all grades it was a busy night. While the Union +line was continuous and measurably compact between the enemy and +practicable roads to Chattanooga, there was much realignment to be done +to better the position for the morrow. The Union troops obtained only +snatches of rest on ground white with frost. No fires were lighted, lest +the direction of the lines might be revealed. This made supper a dry +meal. But the fact that for most there had been no time for breakfast +and none at all for dinner, gave excellent relish even to a dry supper.</p> + +<p>Rosecrans's purpose of establishing his lines between the enemy and +Chattanooga had been accomplished. Bragg's plan of thrusting his army +between the Union advance and the city had been defeated. At the close +of this first day victory rested with Rosecrans. He had found himself +largely outnumbered, and had thrown every available man into the fight.</p> + +<p>Bragg had many brigades which were not engaged, and Longstreet, with the +greater part of his force, was yet to arrive. The spirit of the Union +army had risen to a high pitch under the splendid and most effective +fighting which it had done, and it looked forward to the morrow with a +confidence born of the consciousness of fighting and staying powers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<p>But hard as the work of the day had been, and stubborn and bitter as was +the fighting in each army, the coming Sunday was to witness a battle +eclipsing this and surpassing all the war for its pluck and deadliness. +While the weary commanders were preparing for this day, and tired +sentinels kept faithful watch, the wounded suffered and the armies +slept.</p> + +<p class="author">H. V. B.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>August</i> 17.—[Special.]—The second and final fight for the +possession of Chattanooga opened on Sunday, September 20. We have seen +how through the preceding day, in the white heat of battle, the Union +lines had established themselves on the field of Chickamauga, and that +at nightfall they were still between Bragg and the city for which they +were fighting.</p> + +<p>It was a cool and beautiful morning, though heavy fog hung over the +lower parts of the field, greatly impeding the preparations of each +commander. For an hour or two after daylight there were few indications +of the terrific scenes which were to be crowded into that Sabbath day.</p> + +<p>Both sides had improved the night to rectify and strengthen the +alignment. Bragg had received important re-enforcements. General +Longstreet arrived in the night and was placed in command of the left +wing. Polk was assigned to the right wing. With Longstreet came the bulk +of his two divisions from Virginia, Hood and McLaws. Three brigades only +of the former had taken part with Hood in the first day's fight. Gist's +brigade of Walker's corps also arrived from Meridian. The Army of the +Tennessee, with all the warnings and requests of Rosecrans to the +authorities at Washington, had done nothing to prevent a general exodus +of rebel forces from Mississippi. Even a portion of Pemberton's paroled +men came, and two brigades, relieved by paroled prisoners, were in time +for the first day's battle. Bragg readjusted his lines during the night. +The most important change was to bring Breckinridge from his extreme +left, east of the Chickamauga, to the extreme right. Cleburne and +Cheatham were both moved close to Breckinridge. Forrest, with two +divisions, one to fight on foot, was placed still to the right of +Breckinridge, to observe the Lafayette road. With this heavy force, +strengthened on its extreme left with Stewart, he intended to attack the +Union left at daylight.</p> + +<p>Rosecrans, on the other hand, had no re-enforcements with which to +relieve or help his lines, and most of his army had marched a night and +fought a day without rest and with little food, and every available man +had been engaged. Burnside had been for weeks where he could easily have +formed a junction. In fact, slowly as he had moved, his infantry had +reached Kingston about the time Rosecrans had finished concentrating his +army. It was the duty and the business of Halleck and others at +Washington to have had it on the field for the first day's battle.</p> + +<p>It was grim business for this contracted line of Union heroes to face +the eleven divisions of infantry and two of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> cavalry, one of the +latter fighting as infantry, which Bragg had before them. Their only +advantage was in their shorter lines and the fact that it was necessary +for Bragg to attack, while for the most part they could remain on the +defensive. They were besides in excellent spirits and confident of their +powers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 308px;"> +<a href="images/i041_large.png"><img src="images/i041.png" width="308" height="435" alt="CHICKAMAUGA—SECOND DAY'S BATTLE." title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">CHICKAMAUGA—SECOND DAY'S BATTLE.</span> +</div> + +<p>A glance at the map will show the rearrangement of the Union line. +Beginning on the left, which covered Bragg's objective—namely, the +control of the Lafayette road to Chattanooga—Baird, Johnson, Palmer, +and Reynolds were withdrawn slightly from the ground on which they had +fought the day before, and placed in strong position in the edge of the +woods which skirted the Kelly farm. Brannan remained near the position +to which he had been called to support Reynolds the night before. The +divisions of Negley, Wood, Davis, and Sheridan and the brigade of Wilder +had all been drawn back of the Lafayette road, their lines being +slightly advanced from the road, leading from Crawfish Springs to the +Lafayette road at Kelly's farm.</p> + +<p>The order of the Confederate line, from its right to a point in front of +Brannan's has already been stated. Here Stewart, of Buckner's corps, +formed the right of Longstreet, who commanded the left wing, and, +counting toward the enemy's left, the succeeding divisions were Bushrod +Johnson, with Law and Kershaw in reserve, Hindman and Preston Buckner's +corps was present with this wing by the courtesy of Burnside and the +Washington authorities, while the latter alone were responsible for the +inaction at the East which allowed Longstreet's corps to be present. By +the same courtesy Walker's division from Mississippi was present with +Hill's corps, and was to fight again, splendidly but unsuccessfully, on +Bragg's right, as it had all the day before.</p> + +<p>Under cover the fog in the shelter of the woods, and in the painful +quiet of that Sabbath morning, the two armies had brought their lines +face to face. At 9 o'clock there was scarcely any point the length of a +tiger's spring between them.</p> + +<p>Bragg had 212 regiments, organized into 42 brigades, and these in 7 +divisions. There were in all 173 infantry regiments and 11 of cavalry, +which were dismounted and fought as infantry, 28 cavalry regiments and +50 batteries. Rosecrans had 158 regiments, 33 brigades, 14 divisions, +and 5 corps. There were 141 regiments of infantry and 18 of cavalry and +36 batteries.</p> + +<p>Of Bragg's corps two were cavalry—Wheeler and Forrest. One division of +Forrest's fought as infantry. Rosecrans had one cavalry corps of two +divisions. This tremendous array<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> was pushed close against a Union front +of only two miles and a half.</p> + +<p>At 9 o'clock that Sabbath service of all the gods of war began. It broke +full-toned with its infernal music over the Union left, and that morning +service continued there till noon.</p> + +<p>Let us look a moment at the Union line. John Beatty's brigade had been +stretched as a thin line from Baird's left to the Lafayette road and +across it. King's regulars formed the left of Baird, Scribner his +center, and Starkweather his right. He had no reserve. Johnston's +division was on the right of Baird; Dodge and Baldwin, of his brigades, +on the front, and Willich in reserve. Next was Palmer, with Cruft and +Hazen on the line, and Grose in reserve. Reynolds, on Palmer's right, +reached the Lafayette road again. He had Turchin in line and King in +reserve. The Union line was protected by log barricades. It thus ran +around the Kelley farm and was established from fifty to a hundred yards +within the woods which skirted the great open space in their rear. This +field, which lay along the State road for half a mile and was a quarter +of a mile wide, became the scene of almost continuous and ever brilliant +fighting. Beside the great battle along the main lines surrounding it, +there were during the day five distinct brigade charges over it, one of +Stanley, one of Van Derveer, one of Grose, a fourth by Willich, and a +fifth by Turchin.</p> + +<p>Bragg's orders were to attack successively by divisions, from right to +left. Breckinridge struck first. He came on in single line, swinging +around towards the State road to gain Baird's rear. Adams was on his +right, Stovall in the center, and Helm on the left. This latter brigade +struck Scribner's breastworks, and was instantly shattered there. Helm +rode bravely among his troops, enthusiastically urging them forward, and +fell dead while thus engaged. Two of his colonels were killed, and two +were wounded.</p> + +<p>Stovall pushed in with dauntless pluck against the regulars on the left +of Scribner, but King's men fought splendidly. The rebels assaulted +bravely but uselessly. Adams had swept in on John Beatty's thin line, +and broken it. Still it fought with undaunted courage, yielding +doggedly, and by the inch, and finally Adams, retarded by the disaster +on his left, was at bay. At this juncture came Stanley's brigade, from +Negley, near the center, with deployed lines, and the sun on its +banners. It swept over the Kelly field, from near the house, and plunged +into the woods in the rear of Beatty. Well might those who were +witnessing that threatening move toward the Union rear hold their +breaths as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> Stanley disappeared, and thus wait for his volleys and their +effect. In a moment they came, then his rattling line fire, then the +cheer of a charge. The first attack of Breckinridge had ended in a sore +defeat.</p> + +<p>But Cleburne had in turn advanced. He, like Breckinridge, came in single +line. Polk, of Cleburne, assaulted Starkweather's front, while Wood of +the same command extended the attack as far as the right of Baldwin. The +remnants of Helm, under Colonel Lewis, still assisted against Scribner, +but soon Cleburne's division was repelled at every point with terrible +loss. The Confederate officers engaged describe the effect of the Union +artillery throughout this attack as the most destructive in their +experience. Thus Bragg's first attack had wholly failed. The Union +forces were exultant, and so strong were their skirmish demonstrations +that Hill, who was under orders to organize a second and much stronger +attack, paused, to first prepare his own lines against assault.</p> + +<p>Walker's reserve corps of two divisions was brought up, and its five +brigades distributed along the shattered points of Breckinridge's and +Cleburne's lines. The organizations of rebel divisions being thus +destroyed, the attack became largely one of brigades acting +independently, each rushing at the Union works. There were ten rebel +brigades engaged in the movement from the Union left to Palmer's +position, and beyond this point Stewart's division co-operated by +assaulting Reynold's narrow front and Brannan's lines. Wood, of +Cleburne, who had previously stormed the angle of the Union works on +Johnson's right and been repulsed, assisted by Deshler, of the same +division, thinking this angle the flank of the barricades, again struck +obliquely and with fury with the idea of turning them. Instead, these +dashing Confederates went to pieces on Baldwin's brigade, of Johnson, +and on Palmer's front. Walthall assaulted the corresponding angle at +Scribner's position, and though he carried his men within pistol range +of the crests, he was beaten back with heavy loss. Gist, acting with +Helm's (now Lewis') broken line, attacked with power, but in turn was +driven back. Colquitt, still further to the right, came upon the regular +brigade of King. But his line had missed direction, and was at once +exposed to a withering flank fire, and overwhelmed. Colquitt fell. +Several of his most prominent officers were killed. Ector and Wilson, of +Walker's second division (Liddell's), advanced to help, but without +effect. Govan, however, of this same division, was successful, and by +hot fighting and the weight of numbers, he bore back John Beatty's +weakened line, and the situation on the Union left became at once most +serious.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> Everything but this along the line of the second attack by +Bragg's right had failed. It began to look as if rebel victory was +dawning here, and that the triumph of Bragg's plan of turning the Union +left had come.</p> + +<p>For Breckinridge, in the second advance, had swung his lines much +farther to his right, and by a wide left wheel had brought his right +across the State road, and so between the Union left and Rossville. His +left reached and slightly overlapped Beatty's left. Thus formed with +lines perpendicular to the State road, he began a march directly toward +the Kelly house and the rear of Reynolds, just beyond it. While the +remnants of the left, so badly broken, first under Helm and then under +his successor, were entangled with Beatty and Stanley, his two other +brigades, Adams on the right and Stovall to the left, burst out of the +woods on the north side of the Kelly field, quickly rectified their +lines, threw out a heavy skirmish force, and bore rapidly down toward +Reynolds. It was half a mile to his position over smooth and open +ground. From the start the skirmishers could throw their bullets into +Reynolds rear. It was a movement threatening dire disaster. The moment +it developed in the rear of Baird, Walker's corps and Cleburne's +brigades reopened their fire on the front of the barricades, while +Stewart advanced on Reynolds and Brannan. Thus, taken on flank, front, +and full in the rear, and outnumbered at every point, it seemed as if +there was no salvation for the Union left. But it came, and at that +point where Confederate victory seemed sure, full defeat fell suddenly +upon them. Thomas watching the progress of Breckinridge's flank attack, +had sent to Rosecrans for Brannan. At that moment the battle had not +extended to the latter. But just as Rosecrans' order to go to Thomas +reached Brannan signs of heavy and immediate attack on his front became +apparent. He well used his discretion, and remained on the line until he +could report the situation to Rosecrans. But in the mean time, in +partial compliance with the order, he sent Fred Van Derveer's brigade, +which constituted his reserve, to the help of the left. This brigade +deployed, marched rapidly in to line toward the Kelly house, and came +into the field less than two hundred yards in advance of Breckinridge's +line. Though presenting its flank to the enemy when he was first +discovered, it changed front in the open ground under fire, charged the +rebel line, broke it, following it back into the woods, and after an +hours' fighting drove these two brigades with their artillery entirely +clear of the Union left. It then returned to a point near the Kelly +house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>Govan, of Walker, next on the left of Breckinridge, had, however, gained +a lodgment on the line which Beatty had so stubbornly held. Then came +another Union charge over the Kelly field. Palmer, under Thomas's +orders, sent Grose with his reserve brigade to clear Baird's immediate +left. Moving from the edge of the woods back into the open field, Grose +formed in double lines, moved at double-quick across the rear of Johnson +and Baird, and rushed with cheers into the woods on the north side of +the field. In a few moments his volleys were pouring into the face of +Govan. The latter's troops fought desperately, but their supports on +each flank had been previously broken, and soon, after bitter loss, gave +way. The Union left was then further strengthened by placing Barnes, of +Van Cleve, on the left of Beatty. It was then noon. So badly shattered +was Bragg's right that it was nearly 5 o'clock before another attack +could be organized on this ground. Thenceforth the Union left was safe.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously with the appearance of Breckinridge in the Kelly field +events were hastening to an appalling consummation on the Union center. +Stewart, the right of Longstreet's wing, moved to the assault in +Reynold's front. With three brigades he rushed upon Turchin, who formed +Reynold's advance, and Hazen, of Palmer, next on the left, while his +left also involved Brannan's left. On his right he also had the +co-operation of Wood's and Deshler's brigades, of Cleburne. Deshler was +killed as the movement began, and Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, succeeded +him.</p> + +<p>As this was the opening of the memorable attack which led to the break +in the Union center it is worthy of close attention. General Stewart, in +his report, thus describes it:</p> + +<p>"For several hundred yards both lines pressed on under the most terrific +fire it has ever been my fortune to witness. The enemy retired, and our +men, though mowed down at every step, rushed on at double-quick, until +at length the brigade on the right of Brown broke in confusion, exposing +him to an enfilading fire. He continued on, however, some fifty to +seventy-five yards further, when his two right regiments gave way in +disorder and retired to their original position. His center and left, +however, followed by the gallant Clayton and indomitable Bate, pressed +on, passing the cornfield in front of the burnt house, and to a distance +of two hundred to three hundred yards beyond the Chattanooga road, +driving the enemy within his line of intrenchments and passing a battery +of four guns, which were afterward taken possession of by a regiment +from another division. Here new batteries being opened by the enemy on +our front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> and flank, heavily supported by infantry, it became necessary +to retire, the command reforming on the ground occupied before the +advance."</p> + +<p>All this was going on in the front of Reynolds and Palmer, while +Breckinridge, as already described, was entering the open field from the +north in plain sight from their rear. Yet not a single Union soldier +left the line. Standing steadfast, they first resisted, as Stewart +describes, and then were incited to still greater action by the +brilliant fighting of Van Derveer in their rear, which so unexpectedly +brought them the much-needed relief.</p> + +<p>Here the story reaches the event of the break in the Union lines, which +is widely misunderstood, and has been most unjustly used to throw +discredit on General Rosecrans. Just as Longstreet's attack was +developing upon Wood's front, the latter received an order from General +Rosecrans to "close upon Reynolds as fast as possible and support him." +As Brannan was between himself and Reynolds, Wood saw no other way of +executing the order, which he deemed imperative, except to withdraw from +line, and pass to the rear of Brannan. This he did, although the attack +was just bursting on his front.</p> + +<p>It has been persistently claimed, to General Rosecrans's detriment, that +in the excitement of the height of battle he had issued a blundering +order. Nothing could be more unjust. The explanation is perfectly +simple. General Thomas had sent for Brannan to meet Breckinridge's flank +attack. Stewart's attack had struck Reynolds with force and was rapidly +developing on Brannan's front. The latter hastily consulted with +Reynolds as to the propriety of withdrawing, and both being clear that +to obey the order would open the line to the enemy, Brannan dispatched +Van Derveer, his reserve, to the left, in partial compliance with its +terms, and then reported to Rosecrans that he had deemed it vitally +important to maintain his line till the commanding officer could be +advised of the situation. He instantly approved Brannan's action. But +just before his message arrived, upon the supposition that he had obeyed +the order and gone to Thomas, the noted order to Wood to close to the +left on Reynolds had been dispatched. When it reached Wood, the attack, +rolling along Brannan's front, had reached his own. Had he exercised the +same discretion which Brannan had so wisely displayed, all would have +been well, and that nearly fatal break in the Union lines would not have +occurred. But instantly on reading it, Wood rapidly withdrew his +division and started in the rear of Brannan toward Reynolds. Longstreet, +who had waited most impatiently till 11 o'clock be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>fore he could move a +man to the attack, had solidified his lines before the Union center and +left, and the moment Wood left this wide gap for him, Longstreet thrust +into it the eight brigades of his central column of attack. They were +formed in three lines, and advancing rapidly they opened on Brannan's +right and rear and Davis' left, and greatly widened the gap. Brannan +threw back his right, losing something from Connell's brigade on that +flank, but, stubbornly resisting Longstreet's advance as he retired that +wing of his division, he soon re-established it on Horseshoe Ridge, near +the Snodgrass House, on a line nearly perpendicular to the one he had +occupied when Longstreet pushed through the gap left by wood. The latter +had passed rapidly to the rear of Brannan, and though subjected to heavy +attack after passing Brannan's left, he was able to establish his line +on a lower ridge in the prolongation of Brannan's new position, and +reaching in the direction of Reynolds. The latter officer soon retired +his right slightly, and the line was again continuous, except a break +between Wood and Reynolds, from Brannan's right to Barnes on Baird's +left. Into this vacant space Hazen moved later under orders from Thomas, +and then the line on that part of the field was firmly established.</p> + +<p>All to the right of Brannan had gone. Negley, with one brigade of his +division, which was caught in the gap, had drifted toward Brannan. Here, +gathering up much artillery, which he was ordered by Thomas to post on +the crest overlooking the field in front of Baird's left, he took it +instead to Brannan's right, and soon, without waiting to be attacked in +his strong position, and although he had promised Brannan to hold it, +abandoned it, and retired in haste toward Rossville, ordering all the +artillery to follow him.</p> + +<p>Davis had moved rapidly into the breastworks which Negley had occupied, +and there placed his weak force of two brigades across Longstreet's +advance. But after his terrific fighting of the day before he had only +twelve hundred men for action, and though Carlin, and Heg's men under +Martin, fought with desperation, they could do nothing but yield. They +were driven in disorder to the right and rear.</p> + +<p>At the same time Van Cleve, with his two remaining brigades in motion +towards Thomas, was thrown into great disorder, though a considerable +portion of them rallied with Wood.</p> + +<p>As Davis was borne back, McCook, of the Twentieth Corps, in person led +Laiboldt's brigade, of Sheridan's division, against Longstreet's +advancing columns. The attack was delivered with spirit and power, but +it failed in the face of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> overwhelming numbers, and the brigade was +utterly routed. McCook was carried to the rear with it.</p> + +<p>Next came Sheridan, with his two remaining brigades under Lytle and +Bradley. The former, with splendid bearing and courage, rallied his +columns, and though they were taken at every disadvantage, under the +inspiration which he imparted they faced the resistless advance with +desperate valor. Lytle fell where death was thickest for his comrades. +His brigade, and that of Bradley, with Wilder, who had also fought to +the extremity to assist, were all borne to the rear and forced to join +the fugitive columns falling off from the Union right toward Rossville. +General Rosecrans had just ridden the lines from the left, and had +passed in the rear of McCook's position, when the line was severed. +Finding the roads in rear of the right filled with retreating columns +representing all corps of the army, for Negley was there from Thomas, he +deemed it prudent to ride to Chattanooga and decide upon a new position +in front of the place. General Crittenden's whole command, that is, +three divisions, having been ordered in succession to Thomas before the +break, Crittenden himself, being without command, rode into Chattanooga +after Rosecrans, as did also McCook. Sheridan's division was in good +order by the time it reached Rossville, and most of the troops which +left the field were about that place and McFarland's Gap in fighting +condition throughout the afternoon. Their numbers at 2 o'clock were from +seven to ten thousand. They could easily have been led to Baird's left +or Brannan's right, as the way to either flank was open. This was proved +by the fact that General Garfield, Colonel Gates Thurston, and Surgeons +Gross and Perkins, the medical directors of the Fourteenth and Twentieth +Corps, rode back and joined General Thomas. It is one of the myths of +current Chickamauga history that Sheridan marched with his division back +to the fighting line, but this is an error. He received a request at +McFarland's Gap from Gen. Thomas to return to the field, but decided +instead to retire to Rossville. Upon reaching the latter point he moved +out on the Lafayette road toward Gen. Thomas, but did not form a +junction with him. He reached the Cloud House at 7 p. m. and soon after +withdrew to Rossville.</p> + +<p>Six Confederate divisions under Longstreet had taken part in breaking +the Union center and sweeping its right off the field. These were +Stewart, Bushrod Johnson, and Preston, of Buckner's corps: Hood and +McLaws, of Longstreet's Virginia troops, and Hindman's division of +Polk's corps. Eight brigades of this force had first entered the gap +left by Wood, and from that time till Rosecrans, McCook, Crittenden, +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> Sheridan had gone, and Brannan had established himself on +Horseshoe Ridge, each of these six divisions had advanced and fought +with vigor. Finally Hindman, finding no resistance on his left, wheeled +to the right to assist Longstreet's center and right, which had been +checked by Brannan and Wood. This brought Longstreet's six divisions +together in the vicinity of Horseshoe ridge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 307px;"> +<a href="images/i052_large.png"><img src="images/i052.png" width="307" height="445" alt="THE CONCENTRATION." title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">THE CONCENTRATION.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 329px;"> +<a href="images/i053_large.png"><img src="images/i053.png" width="329" height="375" alt="KELLEY'S FARM—HORSESHOE RIDGE." title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">KELLEY'S FARM—HORSESHOE RIDGE.</span> +</div> + +<p>Shortly after 2 o'clock Longstreet ordered a general assault by his +wing. It was delivered with confidence and tremendous power. To meet +these six divisions Brannan on the right had Croxton's brigade and part +of Connell's; Wood, on the left, had Harker's brigade. With these +organized commands were a part of John Beatty's, a good part of +Stanley's and the Twenty-first Ohio, of Sirwell's, all of Negley; parts +of the Ninth and the Seventeenth Kentucky; Forty-fourth Indiana and +Thirteenth Ohio, of Van Cleve's division, with the Fifty-eighth Indiana, +of Buell's brigade—in all about 4,000 men.</p> + +<p>Against this line, hastily formed and without reserves, Longstreet +launched his solid columns. They came on magnificently, wave behind +wave. They met sheeted fire from the summits, and yet pressed on to hand +encounters, but from these they soon recoiled. The whole line retired +from the foot of the slopes, and covered by the forests organized for a +second attack. It was delivered soon after 3 o'clock. Like the first, it +fell on the fronts of Wood and Brannan. But while Hindman assaulted the +latter in front he also sent a brigade through the gap to Brannan's +right to scale the ridge and gain his rear. Negley, who had held this +point with abundant artillery and infantry supports, and who had +promised to stay there, had promptly fled before any attack had reached +him and was even then in Rossville. There was absolutely nothing to send +against Hindman's left, towering there with its fringe of bayonets on +the commanding ridge, and forming to sweep down on Brannan's right and +rear. Longstreet and all his general officers were exultant, and though +their second attack had failed everywhere, except as this lodgment was +obtained on the ridge beyond Brannan, they rapidly arranged their lines +for what they believed would be a final assault leading to sure victory.</p> + +<p>But not a Union soldier moved from his place. The men clutched their +guns tighter. Officers everywhere moved closer to the lines to encourage +and steady them. The color-bearers set their flags firmer. And then, as +if to repay such courage, help came as unexpectedly as if the hand of +the Lord had been visibly extended to save. Suddenly a Union column +appeared, moving with speed across the fields from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> the direction of the +McDaniel house. It was Granger, of the reserve, with two brigades of +Steedman's division. Being stationed four miles away toward Ringgold, +Granger, agreeing with Steedman that they must be sorely needed on the +field, had started without orders, and though shelled by Forrest on his +flank for two miles of the way, had not allowed his columns to be +greatly delayed. And now Steedman was sweeping up to the foot of the +hill below the Snodgrass House. As he reported to Thomas, coming in from +toward the Kelly farm was another well-ordered column. It proved to be +Van Derveer returning from the charge upon Breckinridge in the Kelly +field. The map shows how he had left Brannan's line just before the +break and hastened with deployed lines toward the left; how thus +deployed he had marched from the woods to be enfiladed from +Breckinridge's front as the latter emerged from the woods and burst upon +the Union rear. Here, under this fire, he whirled his brigade to the +left, delivered a full volley at pistol range into the enemy's faces, +charged into their lines on a run, drove them back on their batteries, +and pursued both infantry and artillery to a point beyond the Union +left, where Grose, coming from the rear of Palmer, completed the work. +The dotted line shows Van Derveer's return. He, too, had moved without +orders to the sound of tremendous firing about the Snodgrass house. Just +as Steedman had hastily formed and assaulted Hindman's forces beyond the +right of Brannan, Van Derveer joined his brigade to Steedman's left and +moved also to the assault. Steedman seized a regimental flag and rode +with it in his hands to the top. His command was the brigades of those +splendid soldiers, John G. Mitchell and Walter C. Whittaker.</p> + +<p>One (Whittaker's) plunged into the gorge through which Hindman's left +was pouring, the rest of the line, with Van Derveer on its left, charged +for the ridge. In twenty minutes it was carried and all of Hindman's +forces were driven from it and out of the ravine. Whittaker had been +wounded and four of his five staff officers either killed or mortally +wounded. One-fifth of Steedman's force had been disabled in the charge. +Van Derveer's loss was considerable, but less in proportion, as he was +not fairly in front of Hindman, as Steedman was. Twice Hindman turned +his recoiling troops to recapture the position, but finally abandoned +the effort and relinquished the ridge to Steedman. The center and right +of Longstreet's third assault was in like manner repelled. In this +movement the Fourth Kentucky, Col. R. M. Kelley, joined Van Derveer and +fought with him till night.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>The coming of Steedman was more than an inspiration. It was more than +the holding of the right. He brought 100,000 rounds of cartridges and +artillery ammunition—far more welcome than diamonds. Regiments in the +line had been fighting, even at that early hour, with the bayonet and +clubbed muskets. Now, when Longstreet's right came on in aid of the +attempt of Hindman to hold his position on the west they were received +with terrific and continuing fire, and as the lines of gray, with +desperate valor, neared the summit Wood's men and Brannan's rushed at +them with the bayonet and broke their ranks, rolled them down the +slopes, and on Wood's front, with help of a direct fire from Aleshire's +battery on the left and a terrible enfilading fire from Battery I, +Fourth Regular Artillery, on Brannan's left, under those splendid young +soldiers, Lieutenants Frank G. Smith and George B. Rodney, drove them in +disorder beyond their artillery.</p> + +<p>At this time both Confederate wings were calling for re-enforcements. +Bragg's reply to Longstreet was that the right was so badly shattered +that it could not help him.</p> + +<p>When Steedman's coming with four thousand men had so changed the whole +current of the battle, what if the seven thousand men under Sheridan and +Negley about McFarland's and Rossville, much nearer than Steedman was, +had been brought up? How the officers who were there could stay +themselves, or manage to keep the men, is a mystery sickening to think +about.</p> + +<p>Hindman thus tells of the attack by which he carried the ridge to the +right of Brannan, before Steedman arrived:</p> + +<p>"In a few minutes a terrific contest ensued, which continued, at close +quarters, without any intermission, over four hours. Our troops attacked +again and again with a courage worthy of their past achievements. The +enemy fought with determined obstinacy and repeatedly repulsed us, but +only to be again assailed. As showing the fierceness of the fight, the +fact is mentioned that on our extreme left the bayonet was used and men +were also killed and wounded with clubbed muskets."</p> + +<p>Of the attack of Steedman's men in the ravine, where they rushed on the +Confederate line with the bayonet, pushed in among the guns and killed +gunners at their posts, Hindman further says: "I have never known +Federal troops to fight so well. It is just to say, also, that I never +saw Confederate soldiers fight better." Of the second attack upon +Brannan's position, which was repulsed, Kershaw, commanding in +Longstreet's troops from Virginia, said: "This was one of the heaviest +attacks of the war on a single point."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>Up to the time of Steedman's arrival there had been a break between +Reynolds and Wood, but the flank of the former in advance of the latter +somewhat covered it. Upon this point Longstreet now organized a heavy +attack. But the lull on the left, arising from the rebels there having +been, as Bragg expressed it, "so badly beaten back" that they could be +of no service on his left, made it practicable to strengthen the Union +center. Hazen was found to have ammunition, and was moved with celerity +into the gap, and Grose, Johnson's reserve, replaced him. Hazen arrived +none too soon. His lines were hardly established before Longstreet's +right was upon him, lapping over upon Reynold's front, and then, from +Reynolds to Steedman, there was one continuing hell of battle. Garfield, +who had come up with an escort, having ridden from Rossville, after +reporting to Thomas, moved along the ranks of his old brigade (Harker, +of Wood), encouraging the men, and giving evidence against all loiterers +at the gaps in the rear that every officer and man of them could easily +have reached the field.</p> + +<p>Longstreet's columns assault at every point, as rapidly as his lines +rolled back from the crest could be reformed. He had ten brigades in +front of Brannan and Steedman, while these officers had only four +unbroken in organization, and fragments of two others. One brigade of +Preston, which assaulted Wood and Hazen's line, had over 2,000 men in +the movement. The successive movements, rather the tremendous dashes of +these lines against the hill, was like the advance of breakers with +which ocean storms attack the shore. But, as surely, each wave with its +crest of steel, its spray of smoke, and its glitter of fire broke and +swept back with dead and wounded in its terrible undertow. It was +treason, but magnificent. Such was the scene which these soldiers of +Thomas saw on the Snodgrass Hill throughout the afternoon till dusk.</p> + +<p>To relieve the left Polk was ordered at 3 o'clock, to attack in force +with the whole right wing. But it required much time to organize those +battered lines for assault, but when done, it was, indeed, formidable. +The second map will make it plain. Cleburne, with four brigades, was +deployed before Palmer and Johnson. Jackson and Polk's brigades lapped +over Baird. Cheatham was in a second line. The map gives his position +wrongly, though it is taken from the original official map in the War +Department. Ranged further to the right, and crossing the State and +Lafayette road at McDaniel's, and thus massed against the Union left, +were the divisions of Breckinridge and Liddell, Armstrong's dismounted +cavalry division of Forrest, and Forrest's artillery.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> While Grose, of +Preston, was assaulting Hazen and Wood this attack on the Union left +began. But, as before, the brigades that moved up to the log breastworks +were speedily shattered, though this time they took their artillery +through the thickets with them, pushing it by hand.</p> + +<p>Once more, as the assault was made on Baird's left, there came a Union +charge across the Kelly field, the fourth for the day. This time it was +Willich, the reserve of Johnson. Withdrawing from line and facing north, +he swept along on the run and with cheers. His lines dashed into the +woods at the point where Stanley and Grose had charged before, and +without a halt sprang into the faces of the advancing Confederates. +King's regulars and Barnes gave brave help, and once more the immediate +left was cleared. The force on the road by the McDaniel house, though +unbroken, was not advanced. Later, an assault on Reynolds and Palmer was +ordered, but, naturally, it was feeble after so many repulses at the +breastworks. At half-past 5 there was quiet again along the Union left. +Longstreet, however, in front of the right, was active for another hour, +though at every point unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>At half-after 5 General Thomas, having full discretion, decided to +withdraw to occupy the passes in his rear at McFarland and Rossville, +which controlled the roads to Chattanooga. His line was solid at every +point. Both wings of the Confederates were at bay. Their right was too +much broken to successfully assault the Union left. The Union right, +though its ammunition ran low, and its officers were constantly +searching the boxes of the killed and wounded for cartridges, was +becoming practiced in the use of the bayonet against assaulting lines, +and in spite of the persistence of Longstreet's men, had begun to feel +comfortable in its position. The whole line could have been held until +night. But daylight was wanted to set the army in orderly motion toward +the gaps which controlled the city. After that was accomplished the +darkness afforded the needed cover to complete the movement. It was +because Chattanooga, and not the Chickamauga woods, was the objective of +the campaign that the army withdrew to Rossville. It was in no sense a +military retreat.</p> + +<p>If Thomas had not occupied these passes in the night, Bragg could have +done so, and the object he had in view would then have been +accomplished. Had Thomas allowed it, Bragg would have been only too glad +to have withdrawn from the field and "retreated" on Rossville. Thomas +did not permit it, but went there first, and Chattanooga was won.</p> + +<p>The withdrawal involved some fighting. The movement began on the right +of Reynolds. Palmer, Johnson, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> Baird were to follow in succession, +all leaving their skirmishers in their works.</p> + +<p>Reynolds formed his brigades by the flank on each side of the Lafayette +road, King on the right and Turchin on the left. Thus he advanced +northward along the Kelly field toward Rossville. General Thomas +followed at the head of the column. As they passed a short distance +beyond the south line of the field they encountered the advancing troops +which had taken part in the last rebel attack. Instantly Thomas ordered +Reynolds to cause Turchin to file to the left, and after thus changing +front to "charge and clear them out." The line of Turchin's charge is +shown on the map. Filing into the wood to the left at double-quick, he +faced to the front while thus moving, and his lines darted at a run into +the faces of the enemy. It was one of the bravest and most brilliant, +most important and effective charges of the day—the fifth over those +Kelly fields. At the same moment King, forcing his way along the road, +fell on the flank of Liddell's division and broke it. Dan McCook, who +had been active during the day on the flank of Forrest, advanced and +opened with his artillery on the rebel rear, and after short but sharp +fighting the formidable array was driven back and the way to Rossville +was open.</p> + +<p>Turchin and King moved by the roads to McFarland's Gap. Baird, Johnson, +and Palmer followed over the same roads. They were attacked as they left +their works and crossed the Kelly field, but order in their columns was +restored as soon as they gained the shelter of the woods on the west of +the road. Hazen and Wood then followed without molestation. Steedman +withdrew at six o'clock from the extreme right, and Brannan was left +alone on Horseshoe Ridge. The sun was down. The shadows were thickening +in the woods before him, and yet Longstreet's men remained on the +slopes, and several times appeared in detachments close along his lines. +Suddenly a line of Hindman's men were found on the slope where Steedman +had been. By some strange oversight Brannan had not been notified that +his right was unprotected. A hasty examination in the gathering dusk +showed another rebel line on the slope directly in the rear, and which +had come round through the gap where Steedman's right had been, and was +evidently forming for an assault. The Thirty-fifth Ohio, of Van +Derveer's brigade, was thrown back to face both these lines. Fragments +of five regiments more, which had opportunely arrived, were given to the +commander of the Thirty-fifth. His own regiment had one round and one in +the guns. This was placed in front. The others, with fixed bayonets, +were formed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> the rear. Just before dark a rebel officer rode in on +the line and asked what troops were here. He was shot by the near +outposts.</p> + +<p>Then came a scattering fire from the flank of the rebel line along the +ridge, next a volley from the Thirty-fifth, and a silent awaiting +results behind its line of bayonets. The volley had scattered the enemy +on the ridge, and the force in the rear had withdrawn. These were the +last shots on the right. Following them there was absolute quiet +everywhere on the field. The stillness was painful and awful. Brannan's +officers and men, peering down into the dim and smoking ravine, saw long +lines of fire creeping over the leaves, and in and out among the wounded +and the dead. It was a sight far more horrible than any of the pictured +presentations of Dante's Inferno. From this scene, with the low wailings +of the sufferers in their ears, they turned in triumph and exultant to +form the rear guard of Thomas's advance to Rossville. Turchin and +Willich fought last on the left and formed the rear guard there; Van +Derveer covered the right. And thus the Army of the Cumberland at +midnight occupied the passes which made the possession of Chattanooga +secure.</p> + +<p>There had been no such disordered rush of the broken portions of the +army on Chattanooga as the panic-stricken correspondent of an Eastern +paper depicted, who gave visions of his own early flight to the country +as news. Only a small part of the broken wing drifted to Chattanooga. +From 7,000 to 10,000 stopped at Rossville, and were fairly organized +there. When Thomas's forces arrived the whole army was placed in +position on Missionary Ridge, and in front of it, and remained in line +of battle throughout the whole of the 21st.</p> + +<p>At nightfall the army advanced to Chattanooga—advanced is the word; the +term "retreated," so persistently used in regard to this movement has no +place in the truthful history of this campaign. The Army of the +Cumberland was on its way to Chattanooga, the city it set out to +capture. It had halted at Chickamauga, on its line of advance, to fight +for its objective. On the night of the 21st it began its last march for +the city. Every foot of it was a march in advance, and not retreat. At +sunrise of the 22d Brannan's division, which was the rear guard, reached +the city, and the campaign for Chattanooga was at an end. Until that +morning broke the great bulk of the Army of the Cumberland had never +seen the place.</p> + +<p>Thus, crowned with success, though won at terrible cost, closed the last +campaign of General Rosecrans. It was matchless in its strategy, +unequaled in the skill and energy with which his outnumbered army was +concentrated for bat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>tle. Its stubborn, desperate, and heroic fighting +throughout the two days' battle was not surpassed, and, judged by its +returns of dead and wounded, not equaled in any one of the great battles +of the war. It secured the city which it marched to capture. The loss +was no greater than the country would have expected at any time in +attaining that result. If Rosecrans had crossed the river in front of +the city and captured it with even greater loss, the country would have +gone wild with enthusiasm. Had he been properly supported from +Washington he would have entered it without a battle, since, if there +had been even a show of activity elsewhere, Bragg's army would not have +been nearly doubled with re-enforcements and thus enabled to march back +on Chattanooga after its retreat from the city. The reverse on the field +on Sunday was not the disaster which at the time it was declared to be, +and which it has ever since suited several writers of military fiction +to persistently represent. The account herewith presented shows that +after General Thomas consolidated his lines at 1 o'clock on Sunday not a +single position was carried and held by the enemy. The withdrawal, which +began soon after 5 o'clock, was not in any sense forced. There is not an +officer or soldier who fought on those lines but knows that they could +have been held throughout till dark.</p> + +<p>The accepted version of Sunday's break on Rosecrans's right is that the +two corps of Crittenden and McCook were swept off the field; but only +five brigades of McCook's entire corps left the field, and the fragments +which went from Crittenden would not exceed two brigades. Palmer's and +Johnson's divisions, which fought splendidly to the end under Thomas on +the left, were respectively from Crittenden's and McCook's corps. Wood +belonged to Crittenden. Barnes's brigade, which fought on the extreme +left, and part of Dick's and Samuel Beatty's were all of Van Cleve's +division of Crittenden's corps. In other words, the large part of +Crittenden's force fought to the last. Four regiments of Wilder's +brigade of Reynolds's division were detached and cut off with the right, +and a considerable part of Negley's division of Thomas went to the rear, +chiefly through the bad conduct of its commander. We have seen, however, +how persistently and effectively Stanley's and John Beatty's brigades of +that division fought, and Beatty and General Charles Grosvenor and +Sirwell and Stoughton, of these brigades, were all found fighting like +private soldiers on the hill with Wood and Brannan to the last. The +battle of Sunday was, then, not the fight of any one corps, but of the +Army of the Cumberland. There was no disorderly retreat of the army on +Chattanooga, and nothing approaching it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> The greater portion of the +right wing, which was cut off and certainly thrown into much confusion, +was reorganized at Rossville, and occupied its place in line at that +point throughout the next day and until the army moved on in the night +to occupy Chattanooga. The battle was desperate from the moment it +opened till its close. For the most part the lines fought at close range +and, in the countless assaults, often hand to hand. On the first day +there were no field works of any kind. On the second Thomas was +protected by such rude log works as could be hastily thrown together. +Brannan and Steedman were without a semblance of works. The battle in +the main, on both sides, was dogged, stand-up fighting far within the +limit of point blank range. For the second day, on the Confederate side, +the contest was one continued series of brave and magnificent assaults.</p> + +<p>General Rosecrans had crossed the Tennessee with an effective force of +all arms equipped for duty of a few hundred more than 60,000. Of this +number Wagner's brigade, with 2,061 effectives, held Chattanooga, +leaving the Union force in front of Bragg slightly less than 58,000. It +was several thousand less at the battle, Post's brigade of Davis' +division and three regiments of infantry and one battery being engaged +in guarding supply trains.</p> + +<p>In a letter from General Lee to President Davis, dated September 14, +1863, the following figures of Bragg's actual and prospective strength +are thus stated:</p> + +<p>"If the report sent to me by General Cooper since my return from +Richmond is correct, General Bragg had, on the 20th of August last, +51,101 effective men; General Buckner, 16,118. He was to receive from +General Johnson 9,000. His total force will, therefore, be 76,219, as +large a number as I presume he can operate with. This is independent of +the local troops, which, you may recollect, he reported as exceeding his +expectations."</p> + +<p>It will be well to remember, in connection with these official figures, +that Bragg, after the battle, reported Longstreet's force, which was not +included by Lee, at 5,000. This, according to the figures furnished +General Lee, gave Bragg 81,219. According to General Johnson's +correspondence, after he had sent 9,000 to Bragg, he subsequently +dispatched him two small brigades, and these, later, reached him the day +before the battle.</p> + +<p>A reference to the losses on each side will show that there has been no +exaggeration in the description of the fighting. Rosecrans's loss was +16,179. This included 4,774 missing, of which a large number were killed +or wounded. Bragg's losses, as compiled and estimated at the War Records +Office,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> were 17,804. Thus the entire loss for each army was over +twenty-five per cent. of the entire force of each. Hill's corps of the +Confederate right wing lost 2,990 out of a total 8,884. Of the 22,885 in +Longstreet's left wing the loss was 7,856, with one brigade heavily +engaged not reported. Longstreet's loss on Sunday afternoon was +thirty-six per cent, of those engaged.</p> + +<p>The casualties in Jackson's brigade of Cleburne's division, which +assaulted on Baird's front, was 35 per cent., while the Fifth Georgia, +of that brigade, lost 55 per cent., and the First Confederate Regulars +43 per cent. Gregg's brigade, of Buckner's corps, lost 652 out of 1,425. +Helm's Kentucky brigade, on the Union left, lost 75 per cent. of its +strength. Bate's brigade lost 7 officers killed and 61 officers wounded, +and the total casualties were 607 out of 1,316. All his field officers +except three were killed or wounded. The losses in Govan's brigade, of +Walker's corps, exceeded 50 per cent. Deas, who fought in front of +Steedman's assault, lost 745 out of 1,942. Walthall, of Walker, lost 705 +out of 1,727. On the Union side Steedman in four hours lost 1,787 out of +3,700, and all were killed and wounded but one. Brannan's division had +5,998 engaged. Its casualties were 2,174, or 38 per cent. The loss in +Van Derveer's brigade, of this division, in four regiments and one +battery, was 840 out of 1,788 engaged, or 49 per cent. Croxton's +brigade, of the same division, made up of five regiments, lost 938. Of +Van Derveer's regiments the Ninth Ohio lost 50 per cent.; the +Thirty-fifth Ohio, a small fraction less than 50 per cent.; the Second +Minnesota 192, or exactly 50 per cent., and the Eighty-seventh Indiana +about half of its number. General Wood lost 1,070 in two brigades.</p> + +<p>These figures become the more significant when compared with the +statement of losses in the world's noted battles. General Wheeler, the +distinguished Confederate cavalry commander, thus vividly presented this +question at the gathering of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland +and Confederates, at Chattanooga, in 1881:</p> + +<p>"Waterloo was one of the most desperate and bloody fields chronicled in +European history and yet Wellington's casualties were less than 12 per +cent., his losses being 2,432 killed and 9,528 wounded out of 90,000 +men, while at Shiloh, the first great battle in which General Grant was +engaged, one side lost in killed and wounded 9,740 out of 34,000, while +their opponents reported their killed and wounded at 9,616, making the +casualties about 30 per cent. At the great battle of Wagram Napoleon +lost but about 5 per cent. At Wurzburg the French lost but 3½ per +cent., and yet the army gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> up the field and retreated to the Rhine. +At Racour Marshal Saxe lost but 2½ per cent. At Zurich Massena lost +but 8 per cent. At Lagriz Frederick lost but 6½ per cent. At +Malplaquet Marlborough lost but 10 per cent., and at Ramillies the same +intrepid commander lost but 6 per cent. At Contras Henry of Navarre was +reported as cut to pieces, yet his loss was less than 10 per cent. At +Lodi Napoleon lost 1¼ per cent. At Valmy Frederick lost but 3 per +cent., and at the great battles of Marengo and Austerlitz, sanguinary as +they were, Napoleon lost an average of less than 14½ per cent. At +Magenta and Solferino, in 1859, the average loss of both armies was less +than 9 per cent. At Konigrattz, in 1866, it was 6 per cent. At Werth, +Specheran, Mars la Tour, Gravelotte, and Sedan, in 1870, the average +loss was 12 percent. At Linden General Moreau lost but 4 per cent., and +the Archduke John lost but 7 per cent. in killed and wounded. Americans +can scarcely call this a lively skirmish.</p> + +<p>"At Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Gettysburg, Mission +Ridge, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania the loss frequently reached and +sometimes exceeded forty per cent., and the average of killed and +wounded on one side or the other was over thirty per cent."</p> + +<p>Those who remained at Chickamauga and fought till the night of Sunday +came, when, for many regiments, every other comrade was dead or wounded, +were satisfied with the result, and have always maintained that +Chickamauga was fought for Chattanooga, and have so regarded it as a +great and notable victory. General D. H. Hill in a recent <i>Century</i> +article thus sums up the result for the Confederate side: "A breathing +space was allowed him; the panic among his troops subsided, and +Chattanooga—the objective point of the campaign—was held. 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 on a +hundred fields was gone forever. He was too intelligent not to know that +the cutting in two of Georgia meant death to all his hopes. He knew that +Longstreet's absence was imperiling Lee's safety, and that what had to +be done must be done quickly. The delay to strike was exasperating to +him; the failure to strike after the success was crushing to all his +longings for an independent South. 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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>The authorities at Washington, to cover their own shortcomings and +inexcusable neglect, chose to deepen the erroneous impression that the +Army of the Cumberland had been routed and driven back to Chattanooga in +confusion. The removal of General Rosecrans was determined upon. In +fact, it had been only a question of opportunity since the campaign +opened. There was only needed the misrepresentations about Chickamauga +to furnish this.</p> + +<p>In the mean time General Rosecrans thoroughly fortified Chattanooga and +was actually engaged in preparations to open the river for supplies, +exactly as it was afterwards done, when he was removed. In fact, his +plan was partially perfected before he crossed the river, as is shown by +the fact that he made written contracts with Northern firms to have +bridges completed by October 1 for the Tennessee at Bridgeport, and the +Running Water at Wauhatchie. He had ordered the thorough reconnoitering +of the river bank opposite the north end of Missionary Ridge—where +Sherman afterward crossed with a view of a flank attack there. It was, +therefore, altogether fitting and proper that the order for his relief +should arrive while he was absent making a personal examination of the +vicinity of Brown's Ferry, where he intended to throw a bridge to unite +with Hooker from Bridgeport and open the river exactly as was afterward +done. He had even notified Harker of the plan three days before and +ordered him to be ready to execute his part of it. General Thomas, at +first, insisted that he would resign rather than appear to acquiesce in +Rosecrans's removal by accepting the command. It was at Rosecrans's +earnest solicitation that he reconsidered this determination. But he did +not hesitate to say that the order was cruelly unjust. When General +Garfield left for Washington soon after the battle he immediately +charged him to do all he could to have Rosecrans righted. These will be +new statements to most, but they are true.</p> + +<p>The survivors of the Army of the Cumberland should awake to great pride +in this notable field of Chickamauga. Why should it not, as well as +Eastern fields, be marked by monuments, and its lines accurately +preserved for history? There was no more magnificent fighting during the +war than both armies did there. Both sides might well unite in +preserving the field where both, in a military sense, won such renown.</p> + +<p class="author">H. V. B.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note<a name="tnotes" id="tnotes"></a></h3> + +<p>The following changes have been made to the text:</p> + + +<p>Page 5: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga".</p> + +<p>Page 5: "vordict" changed to "verdict".</p> + +<p>Page 6: "maneuvred" changed to "maneuvered".</p> + +<p>Page 12: "Wilder swan" changed to "Wilder swam".</p> + +<p>Page 13: "precipitious" changed to "precipitous".</p> + +<p>Page 13: "resit" changed to "resist".</p> + +<p>Page 13: "Raccoon Mountains" changed to "Raccoon Mountain".</p> + +<p>Page 13: "similar" changed to "similar".</p> + +<p>Page 13: "Lookoot" changed to "Lookout".</p> + +<p>Page 15: "basis" changed to "bases".</p> + +<p>Page 16: "culimnated" changed to "culminated".</p> + +<p>Page 16: "through" changed to "though".</p> + +<p>Page 16: "Lookout Mountains" changed to "Lookout Mountain".</p> + +<p>Page 16: "Pigeon Mountains" changed to "Pigeon Mountain".</p> + +<p>Page 17: "fortanate" changed to "fortunate".</p> + +<p>Page 17: "Rosecran's" changed to "Rosecrans'".</p> + +<p>Page 19: "re enforcing" changed to "re-enforcing".</p> + +<p>Page 19: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga".</p> + +<p>Page 20: "Tenessee" changed to "Tennessee".</p> + +<p>Page 20: "struggte" changed to "struggle".</p> + +<p>Page 20: "Johston" changed to "Johnston".</p> + +<p>Page 22: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga".</p> + +<p>Page 22: "Infantry" changed to "infantry".</p> + +<p>Page 22: "Braggs's plan" changed to "Bragg's plan".</p> + +<p>Page 26: "Telford's" changed to "Tedford's".</p> + +<p>Page 26: "reconnoissance" changed to "reconnaissance".</p> + +<p>Page 29: "presentoed" changed to "presented".</p> + +<p>Page 30: "Layfayette" changed to "Lafayette".</p> + +<p>Page 30: "earrying" changed to "carrying".</p> + +<p>Page 31: "David was" changed to "Davis was".</p> + +<p>Page 32: "Starkweathar" changed to "Starkweather".</p> + +<p>Page 34: "Breckrinridge, to" changed to "Breckinridge, to".</p> + +<p>Page 35: "Layfayette" changed to "Lafayette".</p> + +<p>Page 35: "plainful quiet" changed to "painful quiet".</p> + +<p>Page 36: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge".</p> + +<p>Page 37: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge".</p> + +<p>Page 37: "Breckenridge's" changed to "Breckinridge's".</p> + +<p>Page 38: "Stoval" changed to "Stovall".</p> + +<p>Page 38: "noth" changed to "north".</p> + +<p>Page 40: "Brechinridge" changed to "Breckinrdige".</p> + +<p>Page 40: "unexpectly" changed to "unexpectedly".</p> + +<p>Page 40: "detrimeat" changed to "detriment".</p> + +<p>Page 40: "occurred" changed to "occurred".</p> + +<p>Page 41: "through a considerable" changed to "though a considerable".</p> + +<p>Page 41: "Laibolt's" changed to "Laiboldt's".</p> + +<p>Page 41: "Longstreets'" changed to "Longstreet's".</p> + +<p>Page 43: "final assanlt" changed to "final assault".</p> + +<p>Page 44: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge".</p> + +<p>Page 45: "direet fire" changed to "direct fire".</p> + +<p>Page 47: "assauit was made" changed to "assault was made".</p> + +<p>Page 50: "begun soon" changed to "began soon".</p> + +<p>Page 53: "Navarra" changed to "Navarre".</p> + +<p>Page 53: "enthusiam" changed to "enthusiasm".</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chattanooga and Chickamauga, by Henry V. 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Boynton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chattanooga and Chickamauga + Reprint of Gen. H. V. Boynton's letters to the Cincinnati + Commercial Gazette, August, 1888. + +Author: Henry V. Boynton + +Release Date: May 9, 2011 [EBook #36067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHATTANOOGA AND CHICKAMAUGA *** + + + + +Produced by Carla Foust and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + CHATTANOOGA + + AND + + CHICKAMAUGA. + + REPRINT OF + + GEN. H. V. BOYNTON'S LETTERS + + TO THE + + Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, + + AUGUST, 1888. + + Second Edition, with Corrections. + + WASHINGTON, D. C.: + GEO. R. GRAY, PRINTER. + 1891. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +_Comrades of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland:_ + +When General H. V. Boynton's letters recently appeared in the Cincinnati +_Commercial Gazette_, so vividly portraying the achievements and heroism +of the Army of the Cumberland in its campaign for the possession of +Chattanooga, including the inevitable incident thereto, the battle of +Chickamauga, I thought how agreeable it would be for each member of the +society to have a copy for perusal at our approaching reunion on the +twenty-fifth anniversary of Chickamauga. + +Accordingly I asked General Boynton's permission to print these letters +in pamphlet form, as advance sheets of any volume in which he may +determine to put them with other matter. To this he most cheerfully +assented in the following letter: + + WASHINGTON, _Sept._ 1, 1888. + + MY DEAR GENERAL: You are welcome to the Chickamauga letters for + any use you choose to make of them. While the salient features + of both days' battle are easily understood, the details of + movements by brigades are in many cases intricate. For this + reason various errors may have been made in the text. If those + who observe them will take the trouble to correct them before + the public, they would thus assist in establishing the correct + history of a battle in which the Army of the Cumberland should + take great pride. + + Very truly yours, + H. V. BOYNTON. + + General W. S. Rosecrans. + + With this explanation, the letters are given in the order of their + respective dates. + + W. S. ROSECRANS. + + + + +WASHINGTON, _August 3_. [Special.]--In two preliminary letters about +Chickamauga the attempt was made to describe the field as it appears +to-day, and to present some of the scenes of the battle which came +rushing back over the plains of memory with a power suggestive of the +departed legions that once clothed these farms, forests, and ridges with +the terrible magnificence of battle. + +In a sense, to write of Chickamauga is to try to excite interest in a +subject which far too many regard as worn; but to the veterans who +fought there it will never be a threadbare story. For that generation +which has been born and has come to manhood since Chattanooga was won by +the Union arms, there is no campaign which can be studied with greater +profit, or which will more richly repay the reader. History has not yet +done justice to Chickamauga, but its verdict is sure. Many of the +misconceptions of the days following the battle still exist in the +popular mind. It may be years before they are cleared away; but +eventually the Chickamauga campaign will stand in the history of our war +as unequaled in its strategy by any other movement of the contest, and +as unsurpassed, and probably not equaled, for the stubbornness and +deadliness which marked the splendid fighting of Unionist and rebel +alike; and, furthermore, it will stand as a substantial Union victory. + +Just in proportion as the credit due is awarded to those who planned and +executed the campaign will well-merited condemnation be meted out to +those at Washington who insisted upon forcing the movement without +regard to proper and vital preparation, who withheld re-enforcements, +and who, in spite of public and private warnings which it was criminal +not to heed, made rebel concentrations against Rosecrans possible from +in front of Washington itself, and from Charleston, Mobile, and +Mississippi. + +It will be the purpose of a few letters to go over some of the +well-known ground of this campaign with a view of enforcing the ideas +expressed in general terms above, and attempting to present a clear +account of this most involved, and still seriously misunderstood battle. +The strategy--matchless in our war--which compelled Bragg to abandon +Chattanooga; the life and death struggle for concentrating the Union +army when Rosecrans, against the protests of Washington authorities that +it could not be true, found his widely separated corps confronted with +re-enforcements from every part of the Confederacy; and, lastly, the +great battle in the Chickamauga forests for the possession of +Chattanooga, are each most fruitful and interesting themes. The present +letter will relate to the first-named subject, the strategy of the +Chickamauga campaign. + +Marching from Murfreesboro on the 23d of June, 1863, General Rosecrans +had advanced against Bragg, who was strongly fortified, and whose lines, +besides, occupied gaps and ranges of great natural strength. By +brilliant strategy, with the loss of only 586 killed and wounded, and +thirteen captured or missing, the Army of the Cumberland, with its nine +divisions and twenty brigades, operating through sixteen days of +continuous rain, maneuvered Bragg, with his seven divisions and +twenty-three brigades, out of his natural and artificial strongholds, +and forced him across the Tennessee. Up to that time there had been no +strategic campaign to equal this, and it was soon to be far surpassed, +except in the one element of loss, by the campaign to follow it. So +brilliant had been the conception and the execution that all the corps +commanders, headed by General Thomas, hastened to call on General +Rosecrans and offer the warmest congratulations. + +At the close of the Tullahoma campaign Bragg occupied Chattanooga and +the mountain passes above and below it. Rosecrans's army lay along the +western base of the Cumberland Mountains, its right above Winchester and +its left at McMinnville. Here General Rosecrans at once began the most +vigorous preparations for another campaign for the occupation of +Chattanooga. Because the necessities of the case compelled secrecy as +one of the main elements of success, there was soon at Washington a +manifestation of unreasoning impatience over what was criticized as the +inaction of the Union commander; but those who were on the ground know +well the unceasing activity and energy with which the work progressed of +accumulating sufficient supplies of food, material, and ammunition, +preparing the means for crossing the Tennessee and obtaining the +necessary knowledge of the mountain passes, roads, and trails by which +the army must move. Rosecrans's supplies reached him over a badly +equipped line of worn railroad, a hundred and thirteen miles in length, +and, as can be readily understood, when the daily wants of a great army +preparing for extended movement and battle are considered, the matter of +accumulating a surplus of supplies was not the task of a day or a week. +With every effort the railroad was not repaired until July 25, and the +forward movement began on the 14th of August. + +[Illustration] + +A glance at the map will disclose the great natural obstacles which lay +between General Rosecrans and Chattanooga. As his army faced toward the +latter point, the Cumberland Mountains, with a general elevation of +2,200 feet, rose before it. The escarpment was everywhere precipitous, +and destitute of every means of approach except narrow mountain roads +and trails, with the one exception that a short railroad ran from Cowan +to Tracy City, on the summit of the range. To the eastward this range +dropped by like precipitous and difficult slopes into the valley of the +Sequatchee River. Beyond that stream rose the equally sharp cliffs of +Walden's Ridge, with a general elevation of 1,300 feet. This fell off +along the eastern and southern edge of the plateau into the valley of +the Tennessee, and overlooked it from the mouth of the Sequatchee River +to a point far above Chattanooga. It was fifty miles as the crow flies +from the lines of Rosecrans's army across this continuous mountain +region to the valley of the Tennessee. This river was broad and deep, +and presented in itself the most serious natural obstacle which the +Union army had encountered since it left the Ohio River. It was 2,700 +feet wide at Bridgeport, and 1,254 feet at Caperton, the points where +the bridges were subsequently thrown. + +On the left bank of the river, the stronghold of Chattanooga lying +behind the river, and the great ranges to the westward between +Rosecrans's position and his own, might well seem to Bragg impregnable, +in fact almost unassailable. First, toward the west, came the Lookout +range, rising abruptly from the river to the height of 2,200 feet, and +stretching southwestwardly far into Georgia and Alabama. Its western +precipices looked down into the narrow valley of Lookout Creek. Beyond +the latter rose the equally precipitous cliffs of the Raccoon Mountains, +the latter having the same general elevation as the Lookout range. + +The gorge of the Tennessee where it breaks through these mountain ranges +is so narrow and so thoroughly commanded from the heights on both sides +as to render it impracticable to so move an army as to attack it from +the front or river side. + +With these giant obstacles to the progress of his columns, most serious +even if they had been within the Union lines, but almost insuperable +when found in an enemy's territory, and while he was bending every +energy to complete preparations for carrying out a brilliant plan of his +own for overcoming them, General Rosecrans was astonished at receiving +on August 4, only ten days after his railroad had been repaired to the +Tennessee River, a dispatch from Halleck saying: "Your forces must move +forward without delay. You will daily report the movement of each corps +till you cross the Tennessee River." + +To a commander who was building boats, opening mountain roads, rushing +the accumulation of stores, getting out material for four thousand feet +of bridges, preparing to leave his base carrying provisions for +twenty-five days, and ammunition for two battles, and crossing three +mountain ranges and a deep and broad river, in an enemy's country, and +in the face of an army, this dispatch was not only astounding, but +discouraging and exasperating to the last degree. + +It had become a habit at Washington to sneer at the slowness of General +Rosecrans, as it was later to denounce General Thomas in similar terms +at Nashville. There was no more reason or justice in the one case than +in the other. The verdict of history has been reached in the case of +General Thomas. It is sure to come, and to be the same in this matter, +for Rosecrans. + +To this dispatch, which can only be excused on the ground of wholly +inexcusable ignorance of the active preparations in progress and the +natural difficulties of an advance, General Rosecrans replied with his +accustomed clearness and spirit: "Your dispatch ordering me to move +forward without delay, reporting the movements of each corps till I +cross the Tennessee, is received. As I have determined to cross the +river as soon as practicable, and have been making all preparations and +getting such information as may enable me to do so without being driven +back, like Hooker, I wish to know if your order is intended to take away +my discretion as to the time and manner of moving my troops." To this +Halleck responded: "The orders for the advance of your army, and that it +be reported daily, are peremptory." General Rosecrans immediately wrote +the following reply, and, calling his corps commanders together, read +the dispatches given above. There was no dissent from the proposition +that at that stage of their preparations it was impossible to move. He +then read his reply as follows, and all approved and agreed that they +should support him: + +"GENERAL HALLECK: My arrangements for beginning a continuous movement +will be completed and the execution begun Monday next. We have +information to show that crossing the Tennessee between Bridgeport and +Chattanooga is impracticable, but not enough to show whether we had +better cross above Chattanooga and strike Cleveland, or below Bridgeport +and strike in their rear. The preliminary movement of troops for the two +cases are very different. It is necessary to have our means of crossing +the river completed, and our supplies provided to cross sixty miles of +mountains and sustain ourselves during the operations of crossing and +fighting, before we move. To obey your order literally would be to push +our troops into the mountains on narrow and difficult roads, destitute +of pasture and forage, and short of water, where they would not be able +to maneuver as exigencies may demand, and would certainly cause ultimate +delay and probable disaster. If, therefore, the movement which I propose +cannot be regarded as obedience to your order, I respectfully request a +modification of it or to be relieved from the command." + +On the following day Halleck replied as follows: + +"I have communicated to you the wishes of the Government in plain and +unequivocal terms. The objective has been stated, and you have been +directed to lose no time in reaching it. The means you are to employ and +the roads you are to follow are left to your own discretion. If you wish +to promptly carry out the wishes of the Government you will not stop to +discuss mere details. In such matters I do not interfere." + +This was answered the same day by General Rosecrans as follows: + +"Your dispatch received. I can only repeat the assurance given before +the issuance of the order. This army shall move with all dispatch +compatible with the successful execution of our work. We are pressing +everything to bring up forage for our animals. The present rolling-stock +of the road will barely suffice to keep us day by day here, but I have +bought fifty more freight cars, which are arriving. Will advise you +daily." + +This was the last of interference from Washington, but, accustomed as +all there were to interfering at will, and directing affairs according +to the situation as they saw it, they could not brook such manifestly +proper independence as was shown by Rosecrans, and from that time +forward there was needed only an excuse to insure his removal. + +Had there been a tithe of the attention given to preventing the rebels +from concentrating on his front from every part of the Confederacy--in +fact, bringing Longstreet's veterans from the lines under Halleck's own +eyes--that there was to the kind of interference which has been noticed, +Bragg would have been destroyed in front of Chattanooga. But this +subject properly belongs in a succeeding letter. The dispatches given +above are well known, but their reproduction will prove a convenience to +readers who may not carry their exact terms in mind. + +Ten days later, namely, on August 14, the movement to secure Chattanooga +began. A glance at the map will reveal its strategy. + +Rosecrans had decided to cross the Tennessee in the vicinity of +Bridgeport, and subsequently the Raccoon and Lookout Mountain ranges at +points south of Chattanooga, and thus compel Bragg to evacuate the place +or to come out of it and fight for his line of communications. It is +easily seen that if after crossing the river the enemy, warned in time, +should be found in force on the western slopes of these ranges further +progress in that direction would have been impossible, and a return to +the north bank of the river obligatory. It was, therefore, necessary to +wholly deceive Bragg as to the points of crossing. + +Burnside was marching from Kentucky into East Tennessee. Any apparent +movement of the Army of the Cumberland in force in that direction would +naturally lead Bragg to believe that a junction of the Union forces was +contemplated on his right. + +Everything being ready, Crittenden opened the campaign with the +Twenty-first Corps. Leaving his camps at Hillsboro, Manchester, and +McMinnville on the 16th of August, he crossed the Cumberland Mountains +and occupied the Sequachee Valley from a point between Jasper and Dunlap +to Pikeville. Van Cleve held the latter place, Palmer was established at +Dunlap, and Wood at Anderson, between Dunlap and Jasper. All built +extensive camp fires and moved about in such ways as to convey to +observers from the heights the impression that the whole army was +moving. Meantime Minty's active cavalry had moved through Sparta and +driven Dibrell's cavalry eastward through Crossville, on to the +Tennessee, and over it, and Dibrell, having come to reconnoiter and see +what was going on, naturally got the idea that Rosecrans's army was +coming. The crossing of the Cumberland was but the first step of the +imposing diversion. Though the mountain roads were few and very +difficult, Crittenden's movements over them had been completed exactly +on time. The advance over Walden's Ridge, equally difficult, though it +was not quite as high as the main range, was immediately undertaken. +Minty, on the extreme left, appeared on the Tennessee more than thirty +miles above Blythe's Ferry, where he made most energetic commotion. +Hazen reached the river in the vicinity of Dallas. Two brigades were +strung out along the edge of the cliffs on the top of Walden's Ridge, +where they overlooked Blythe's Ferry, and could be seen from the other +side of the river. Minty, with his troopers, swept down the valley of +the Tennessee to near Chattanooga. Wilder and Wagner also appeared in +the valley. While a show of building boats was made in the small streams +about Blythe's Ferry, Wilder from the heights of Walden's Ridge, +opposite Chattanooga, opened fire on the town with artillery. Bragg was +thoroughly deceived. Forrest was ordered far up the Tennessee to +Kingston to watch for the expected crossing. Buckner was ordered from +East Tennessee toward Blythe's Ferry. + +As may be supposed, Wilder's cannonading produced the wildest excitement +in Chattanooga. The rolling-stock of the railroads was hastened out of +reach. The depots of supplies were moved out of the range of the +unexpected bombardment. D. H. Hill's corps was hurried off to guard the +river above, and other heavy forces were moved in the same direction. +Everything done by Bragg was based upon the idea that Rosecrans was +moving in force to points on the river above the city. + +Meantime the real movement was going on quietly sixty to eighty miles in +the opposite direction, in the vicinity of Bridgeport and Stevenson. A +force of cavalry for the purposes of observation, and to convey the idea +by quick movements that Rosecrans was feigning below, while really +expecting to cross above the city, was sent as far westward as Decatur. +Thus Rosecrans was operating along the river through a hundred miles of +mountain region and fifty miles of low country beyond, and in spite of +the natural difficulties every part of the plan was working with +precision. + +Thomas and McCook on the right moved at the same time with Crittenden. +Reynolds, of Thomas's corps, had marched in advance and repaired the +roads by way of University, and down the eastern slope of the mountain +to Jasper. Brannan followed him, and both were at first kept well out of +sight of the river. Baird and Negley came down nearer to Bridgeport, and +McCook descended back of Stevenson. With the exception of Sheridan, at +Bridgeport, all were kept well out of sight from the enemy's cavalry on +the left bank. + +Sheridan alone made a show of his presence and openly began the +construction of a trestle through the shoal water, in order to lessen +the length of the floating bridge. As this was without a decided show of +strength it deepened the impression that the movements on this wing were +the feint and those toward the upper river the real move. In fact, after +watching Sheridan's trestle building for a while from the other side of +the river, Anderson's brigade of infantry, the only infantry force +available to oppose a passage of the river, was withdrawn and sent to +Chattanooga. + +The bridge for Caperton's Ferry was brought down on a train, which was +halted out of sight, and a road cut for its transportation through the +woods to a point near its destination, where the troops which were to +lay it were drilled in their work. + +Early on the 29th fifty boats, each carrying fifty men, were brought out +of the woods near Caperton's, rushed across an open field, launched, and +quickly rowed to the opposite shore. The Confederate cavalry pickets +were driven off and twenty-five hundred men held the south bank. The +bridge was promptly laid. Davis was soon over, and then McCook's entire +corps, with cavalry, started promptly for Valley Head, forty miles down +the Lookout range. Reynolds collected boats at Shellmound, Brannan had +built rafts and cut out canoes at the mouth of Battle Creek. The long +bridge was successfully laid at Bridgeport, and before Bragg had +recovered from his surprise, in fact before he had comprehended the +extent of the movement, Rosecrans, with two corps, was over the river +and moving on his communications. + +As soon as the crossing was assured, Crittenden marched with celerity by +way of the Sequatchee Valley towards the bridges and was soon across +with the main body and advancing on the left of it directly towards +Chattanooga. + +This crossing of the Tennessee was a great feat. The bridges were not +sufficient for the army. Reynolds gathered small boats and improvised +his own means of crossing. Brannan's men had cut out canoes from immense +poplars and launched them in Battle Creek out of sight. Some of them +would hold fifty men. They also built rafts, one of them large enough to +carry artillery. These, with an abandoned rebel pontoon boat, +constituted Brannan's flotilla. When the signal was given the whole +swept out from behind the bushes which concealed the mouth of Battle +Creek and made for the opposite shore. The rebel pickets withdrew and +the crossing was secured. Then all his men who could swim, piling their +guns, clothing, and accouterments on a few fence rails, pushed these +before them and thus gained the opposite bank. Later, Wilder swam his +mounted brigade across the river and joined Crittenden south of +Chattanooga. Halleck must have had this ability for crossing a river in +the presence of an enemy in mind when he telegraphed Rosecrans, a few +weeks before, to move at once and keep moving. + +But this crossing, and the grand diversion which made it possible, were +only the preliminary, and by no means the formidable parts of the +movement. To complete it, Rosecrans was to cut loose from his base, +carry twenty-five day's supplies and sufficient ammunition for two +battles, cross two precipitous and difficult mountain ranges wholly +within the enemy's territory, and their passes presumably strengthened +and defended, and, after crossing the last range at widely separated +points, to descend into the valley in the rear of that enemy's +stronghold, prepared for battle or any other contingencies which might +arise on this distant and isolated theater of action. + +When Bragg discovered the real point of crossing and the lines of actual +movement it was too late to recall the forces dispatched up the +Tennessee or to post columns of sufficient strength on the slopes before +Rosecrans to impede his advance in force. How strong the positions thus +turned by the Union forces were will appear from the statement that so +precipitous and otherwise difficult were the roads over these ranges +that at several of them it required a day and a night for a division +with its artillery and reduced trains to make the ascent. + +The Union commander had delayed his movement until the corn was ripe in +order that it might not be necessary to carry grain for his animals, +which would have largely increased his trains--so careful, thoughtful, +and wise was he in every detail of preparation. + +Bragg's failure to resist in the vicinity of Rosecrans's crossings and at +the crossings of Raccoon Mountain was due in part to the fact that even +after he knew that the heads of columns were over the river he was still +inclined to look upon their movements as a feint, and to regard the real +point of danger to lie above the city. Rosecrans, even after crossing, +sought successfully to strengthen such impressions in Bragg's mind. He +directed Wagner's, Wilder's, and Minty's brigades to report to Hazen, +and with this force, some 7,000 strong, the latter was ordered to make a +conspicuous show of crossing the river far above Chattanooga. This +active and efficient officer admirably executed his orders. By extended +fires, by marchings and countermarchings, by moving his artillery +continuously across openings in sight from the opposite bank, by buglers +at widely separated points, and other similar devices, he easily created +the belief that an army was encamped on the right bank intending to +cross. + +With the exception of this force, all of Rosecrans's army was south of +the river on September 4, and on the move. The right was already well on +its way. On the 6th his army had descended from Raccoon Mountain and +occupied the valley between that range and the western slope of Lookout +from a point seven miles from Chattanooga to Valley Head, forty-two +miles from the city. The next day McCook and Thomas began to ascend +Lookout at points respectively forty-two and twenty-six miles from +Chattanooga. On the 8th McCook's troops were in motion down the eastern +slope of the mountain toward Alpine, and Thomas was descending from +Steven's and Frick's Gap, both of which were near where the road from +Trenton, after running southwardly, is represented as leading over +Lookout. Crittenden had pushed small portions of his command up mere +mountain trails, and on the 9th these gained position where they could +look down upon Chattanooga. They saw no flags, and soon discovered that +Bragg had evacuated. The day before Wagner, still watching from the +north bank of the river, had reported to Rosecrans that the enemy was +leaving. The news came in the night, and Rosecrans ordered Crittenden to +ascertain the situation. His detachments on the mountain had already +discovered that the city was deserted. Crittenden was at once ordered to +march around the north point of Lookout, and follow Bragg toward +Ringgold. At night on the 9th Palmer and Van Cleve's divisions were +established at Rossville, five miles south of Chattanooga. + +Thus, in three weeks from the time his diversion towards Bragg's right +began, and in five days from the time his army was over the river, +Rosecrans had repeated the Tullahoma campaign on a far greater scale, +and in the face of much more formidable obstacles, and absolutely +without fighting, except as Minty had been slightly engaged with Dibrell +near Sparta in the outset of the movement, had driven Bragg from the +mountain stronghold of Chattanooga, the objective of the campaign. It +was well said later by General Meigs, who came from Washington to +Chattanooga after its final occupation by the Union army, and spent some +days in studying the movements by which it had been secured: "It is not +only the greatest operation in our war, but a great thing when compared +with any war." + +But the occupation of Chattanooga, in a military sense, was not +accomplished by sending Crittenden's two divisions beyond it and one +brigade into it. Bragg had only withdrawn to save his communications and +supplies, and to await the re-enforcements he knew to be hastening from +Virginia, from Mobile, and from Mississippi. The battle for Chattanooga +was yet to be fought. Bragg had retired with deliberation. He +established his headquarters at Lafayette, behind Pigeon Mountains, but +his rear guard never passed beyond Lee and Gordon's Mills. + +The news that Rosecrans' troops were in Chattanooga, and that he had +pushed out after the retreating Bragg, made a tremendous impression upon +the North. It was accepted as a capture, and a military occupation of +that long-coveted stronghold. It is true it was occupied, but not in a +military sense, since the Union army had not been brought into it, or +concentrated between it and the enemy. + +Hence arose that misconception, which is widespread still, that the Army +of the Cumberland had occupied Chattanooga, and thence marching out to +attack Bragg, had been defeated by the latter at Chickamauga, and driven +back in disorder into Chattanooga. + +But, instead, Chickamauga was the battle for Chattanooga, fought by +Rosecrans while on the way to take military possession of it, and while +he was concentrating his army between Bragg and that city, the objective +of the Union campaign. The battle was not for the Chickamauga woods, but +for the passes behind them which controlled the way to Chattanooga. +These were secured as the immediate result of the battle, and the +successful occupation of Chattanooga in the military sense followed--an +occupation which lasted till the close of the war. + +In connection with the fact of Crittenden's unopposed movement into +Chattanooga another point of general misapprehension arose, which, +through the years, has formed the basis of unfair and unthinking, if not +ignorant criticism of General Rosecrans' brilliant strategy. Why did not +Rosecrans face Thomas and McCook about in the valley west of Lookout, +where their movements would have been concealed, and hurry them after +Crittenden into Chattanooga? It was simply because with McCook's advance +nearly fifty miles from Chattanooga by the roads west of Lookout, and +Thomas's head of column already down and over Missionary Ridge, full +thirty miles away, to withdraw and send them in succession after +Crittenden would have been to have invited attack in detail from Bragg +upon each head of column as it followed Crittenden, with all the chances +in favor of Bragg's success. Besides, the shortest and surest, in fact +the only practicable line of concentration looking to the safety of the +widely-separated corps was through a movement to the left along the +eastern bases of Lookout and Missionary Ridge. It was this movement of +Rosecrans for concentrating on Crittenden's position south of Rossville +that led to the battle of Chickamauga. Bragg, having been heavily +re-enforced, started at the same time from Lafayette to interpose +between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, the Union objective of the whole +campaign. + +Subsequent letters will follow this exciting concentration, and the +desperate contests of each army for position, and the bloody battles +which ensued, and by which Chattanooga was finally won. + + H. V. B. + + + + +WASHINGTON, August 7.--[_Special._]--In the movements of the Union +armies none, from first to last, presented such brilliant strategy as +the two which brought General Rosecrans from Murfreesboro', to the rear +of Chattanooga. Almost equally wonderful was the successful +concentration of his widely scattered corps. This was accomplished in +the face of an enemy that had been heavily re-enforced with veteran +troops, and largely outnumbered General Rosecrans. The concentration, +moreover, united the Army of the Cumberland for battle between this +confident enemy and the city which was the objective of the Union +forces. + +The story is crowded with brilliant and successful operations of +detached corps against greatly superior forces and of minor strategy, +which blend harmoniously with the more striking features of the great +campaign. It covers a period of intense anxiety for General Rosecrans +and his subordinate commanders, of most skillful action, and continued +danger to destruction in detail. It culminated in the delivery of a +battle, which, though still widely misunderstood, unquestionably ranks +for the stubbornness and effectiveness of its fighting and the +importance of its results with the most notable battles of the war. + +A previous letter left the Army of the Cumberland where its strategy had +thrown it across three mountain ranges and the Tennessee River, and +brought it without loss to the rear of Chattanooga, at the foot of the +eastern base of the Lookout Mountain. This had compelled Bragg to +withdraw toward Lafayette. The left of the Union army, under General +Crittenden, had passed around the north end of Lookout, marched through +Chattanooga after Bragg, and occupied Rossville Gap. General McCook, +forty-two miles to the right, had descended to Alpine, while the center, +under General Thomas, was at Steven's Gap, directly opposite Bragg's +center, at Lafayette. + +Finding that the enemy had withdrawn behind Pigeon Mountain, General +Rosecrans having been assured from Washington that no re-enforcements +had been sent from Lee's army, determined to push Bragg vigorously at +all points for the purpose of gaining every advantage which a retreat +presented, and of inflicting all the damage possible. Beyond question, +this put his army in serious peril, since Bragg had only retired to meet +re-enforcements promised and actually arriving from all quarters, and +was even then concentrated and ready to strike. McCook, on the right, +pushed in from Alpine and Summerville with Stanley's cavalry to +within seven miles of Lafayette without finding any signs of retreat. +He therefore wisely kept his trains and main force near the mountain. + +[Illustration] + +Negley, of Thomas, marched out from Steven's Gap beyond the Chickamauga +and his skirmishers deployed in front of Dug Gap. This advanced position +he held during the 10th, and early next morning was supported in it by +Baird's division. Here Bragg attempted his initiative, and developed his +preparations for advance. Two corps of infantry, Hill's and Walker's, a +division from Polk's command, and a division of cavalry, were in the +gaps of Pigeon Mountains, or the woods behind them, under orders to +advance on Negley. By a fortunate delay their combinations for attack +were not completed until Baird had arrived. The bold front displayed by +both of these officers still further held back those overwhelming forces +of Bragg. When the latter were ready to move, the skill, sharp fighting, +and able maneuvering under fire enabled these Union officers to bring +their troops back to the shelter of the mountain with comparatively +little loss. It was a thrilling and difficult situation, and the day a +most anxious one for Generals Rosecrans and Thomas. + +The disappointment was great to Bragg when he learned that his heavy +converging columns from Catlett's Gap on his right, Dug Gap in the +center, and Blue Bird Gap on his left had met on the ground held by +Negley and Baird, only to find them retiring with such show of strength +and with such well ordered lines as enabled them to elude even serious +attack. Both these officers deserve far greater credit than they have +ever received for their courage, coolness, and ability. At night they +were supported by the arrival of Brannan and Reynolds from the west side +of the mountain, and the position of Thomas at Steven's Gap was secure. + +Rosecrans' anxiety and Bragg's attention were instantly turned to the +Union left. The discovery on the 11th that the rebel rear guard under +Cheatham had not moved south of Lee & Gordon's showed Rosecrans that +whatever Bragg's intention may have been, he was then concentrating for +battle. As General Rosecrans himself declares in his official report, +the concentration of the Army of the Cumberland became a matter of life +and death. + +Crittenden, from the 9th to the 12th, had carried on most vigorous +operations. Palmer and Van Cleve had advanced to Ringgold. Wood was +close at hand. Hazen, Minty, and Wilder, fresh from their part in the +brilliant feint north of the river, had joined Crittenden, and some +lively minor battles were the result. The discovery that the rebel rear +guard was still at Lee & Gordon's suddenly stopped these operations, +and on the 12th, under an order to concentrate with the utmost celerity +north of the Chickamauga, Crittenden established himself along that +river near and above Lee & Gordon's. + +On the 13th Bragg had ordered an attack upon him by Polk with two corps +and the promise of the support of a third, hoping to overthrow this +wing, in continuance of his plan of defeating the Union corps in detail, +before the center or right could afford relief. In the face of such +threatening, with McCook over fifty miles away, and Thomas unable to +move from the center till McCook should be within supporting distance, +Rosecrans undertook the concentration of his army. + +At this point, that justice may be done, it is well to contrast the +attitude which the governments at Washington and Richmond had assumed +toward this movement on the rebel center. + +For weeks before General Rosecrans had moved forward he had tried to +impress upon the authorities at Washington the importance of giving him +strong support. Promising offers to raise veteran mounted troops from +several Eastern governors were laid before the War Department and +refused with insulting warmth. Two weeks later came the order from +Halleck to move at once and keep moving, which is treated of at length +in a former letter. + +This gross ignorance at Washington of the gigantic difficulties of the +situation was equaled, if not surpassed, by a telegram of September 11, +the very day that Bragg's re-enforced army was moving against Rosecrans' +center and organizing for an attack on his left, and while Rosecrans and +Thomas and McCook were straining every nerve in a life and death effort +to concentrate their army. Said Halleck, by telegraph of this date: + +"After holding the mountain passes on the west and Dalton, or some point +on the railroad, to prevent the return of Bragg's army, it will be +decided whether your army shall move further South into Georgia and +Alabama. It is reported here that a part of Bragg's army is re-enforcing +Lee. It is important that the truth of this should be ascertained as +early as possible." + +This showed that Halleck shared the general and ignorant belief that +Rosecrans had occupied Chattanooga in a military sense. + +At this time Longstreet's advance had been gone a week from under +Halleck's eyes near Washington, and two divisions of Johnston's troops +from Mississippi, and Buckner, from East Tennessee, had already joined +Bragg, and others were on the way. + +The failure to give Rosecrans effective flanking supports was +inexcusable. The only explanation for it is found in the irritation and +dislike which his straightforward and independent dealings had aroused +in Washington, and a failure to understand the natural obstacles of the +position and the contemplated advance. Meade was in a state of enforced +inactivity before Lee. Grant's army was doing nothing to occupy Johnston +in Mississippi, and there was no such Union activity in front of Mobile +and Charleston as prevented troops being spared to Bragg from those +points. And so, while the Washington authorities were finding fault with +Rosecrans while he was pushing some of the most brilliant and effectual +moves of the war, and were not even lifting a finger to encourage or +even to protect him, the Richmond government was neglecting no means to +strengthen Bragg to the extent of its powers. As a result, in one week +from the date of Halleck's telegram inquiring whether Bragg was +re-enforcing Lee, Longstreet and Johnston and Walker and Buckner had +reached Bragg from the extremes of the Confederacy, and he had moved to +attack Rosecrans with 70,000 men. + +In this criminal neglect of Rosecrans the authorities were without +excuse. No friend of Stanton's or Halleck's have even yet attempted to +explain, much less defend it. These and other high officers, at one time +or another, arraigned General Rosecrans as solely responsible for what +they chose to designate as the disaster and defeat of Chickamauga. It +was the shortest way for some of them to divert attention from the +terrible neglect and responsibility which rested on their heads. But +even if the favorable chances for the concentration of Confederate +forces against Rosecrans had escaped unwilling observation at +Washington, the authorities there were without excuse, since the case +was very pointedly placed before them in an editorial of the Cincinnati +Commercial, which excited so much attention that the editor was +officially notified that such articles were highly indiscreet. This was +as early as September 1. In view of what occurred a few weeks later, and +of the evidence it gives of ample warning, it is interesting to +reproduce this editorial of Mr. Halstead, printed on the date named, +under a title, a "Point of Danger." Said the editor: + +"Jeff Davis and his generals are as well informed as we are of the +presence of a considerable part of the army of the Potomac in New York +City to enforce the draft, and that consequently an advance on Richmond +need not be apprehended for some weeks. They have also heard of the +presence of Admiral Farragut in New York, and infer from the +circumstance that there is no immediate danger of an attack on Mobile. +They know the situation at Charleston, and are not mistaken in the +opinion that the advance upon that city must be slow, by process of +engineering, digging, and heavy cannonading. They do not need large +bodies of troops to make the defense; negro laborers, engineer officers +and gunners being all that are required. General Grant's army, as is +well known, is, for the most part, resting from its labors in undisputed +possession of an enormous territory. The real aggressive movement of the +Federal forces is upon the rebel center; that is to say, East Tennessee, +and it is extremely unlikely that the rebels are deficient in +information as to the strength and intentions of Generals Rosecrans and +Burnside. + +"The important question is whether they will improve the opportunity by +concentrating upon their center. The reports that General Joe Johnston +has joined his forces to those recently under Bragg, and has thus +gathered a force almost if not quite equal numerically to those in the +hands of General Rosecrans, have in addition the immense advantages of +the occupation of mountain passes, and that are to be found in pursuing +a defensive system of warfare. General Lee is reported to have sent +troops to East Tennessee, and it is probable that he has done so, as, +thanks to the New York riots, he has some divisions temporarily to spare +from Virginia. If the rebels do give up East Tennessee and Northern +Georgia without a struggle, that is to say, if Generals Rosecrans and +Burnside complete the operations in which they are engaged without +meeting serious resistance, it may be taken as conclusive evidence of +the exhaustion of the rebellion." + +Several subsequent editorials enforced these ideas, and were even so +definite as to point out Johnston, Longstreet, and Buckner as the +commands which were likely to re-enforce Bragg. + +General Rosecrans had had these general points of danger in mind, and +made them known to the Government nearly a month before he crossed the +Tennessee. But his request for more men and flanking supports was +refused at the War Department with much warmth and most inconsiderate +emphasis. This Commercial editorial, therefore, startled him, and his +records show that he sent Mr. Halstead a sharp letter intimating that +such an editorial was little better than a call to the Jeff Davis +government to fall on him. It was, however, the clear common sense of +the situation; and if the Washington authorities had heeded it, instead +as was their custom, sneering at "newspaper generals" and newspaper ways +of carrying on the war, many lives would have been saved at Chickamauga +which were lost because of the unequal contest, and there would never +have been any questioning of that costly, but no less decided victory. + +It is further true that General Peck, stationed in North Carolina, sent +word to General Rosecrans, under date of September 6, that Longstreet's +corps was passing southward over the railroads. Colonel Jacques, of the +Seventy-third Illinois, who had come up from the South, tried in vain +for ten days to gain admittance in Washington, to communicate this fact +of Longstreet's movement to Halleck and Stanton, and then, without +accomplishing it, started West, and reached his command in time to fight +with the regiment at Chickamauga. There had been time enough, after +General Rosecrans's explanations of his proposed plan, to force +Burnside, with twenty thousand men, down from East Tennessee, and to +have brought all needed strength for the other flank from the Army of +the Tennessee on the Mississippi. Even when ordered up, after the +battle, this latter loitered to a degree that its commander will never +be able to satisfactorily explain. + +To return from this digression, Bragg on the 13th had ordered an attack +by three corps on Crittenden. The latter, by his great activity and by +the bold operations of Van Cleve, Wood, Palmer, and the brigades of +Hazen, Minty, and Wilder, had created the impression of much greater +strength than they really had, and Polk moved cautiously. Finally, just +as he was ready to attack, his column on the Lafayette road encountered +Van Cleve moving on him with a single brigade of infantry. So vigorously +did this officer attack that he forced Polk's advance back for three +miles, and created the impression of a general Union advance. This +disconcerted Polk, and instead of ordering his forces forward, he +halted, took up a defensive position, and sent to Bragg for +re-enforcements. Thus Negley and Baird, by their pluck and skill in +front of overwhelming forces, and Palmer and Crittenden's active +divisions and attached brigades on the left, by their unhesitating +attacks wherever they developed the enemy, and by this last one +delivered in the face of an advance of three full corps on one, had made +the concentration of the army possible, and had saved it. The next day +Steedman, that lion of battle, had reached Rossville, in immediate +support of Crittenden, with two brigades of his own command and two +regiments and two batteries temporarily attached, having marched from +Bridgeport, a distance of forty miles, in twenty-eight hours. + +The appearance and wonderful activity of Hazen, Wilder, and Minty's +brigades on the left of Crittenden's, and Steedman's forces of the +reserve corps at Rossville, with the fact that McCook was nearing +Thomas, and that the latter had extended his left to within near +supporting distance of Crittenden, seem to have restrained Bragg from +attack in any direction after the failure of his orders to Polk to +attack on the 13th until his orders of the night of the 17th for an +attack the next day upon Crittenden's left and rear. + +During this period of comparative inaction against the Union front, +Rosecrans insured the concentration of his army in time for battle. +McCook, not understanding the roads along the top of the mountain, and +not deeming it prudent to consume the time necessary to explore them, +had crossed Lookout twice, at the cost of more than a full day, and +appeared with his head of column at General Thomas's camps during the +16th. On the 17th the latter closed the heads of his columns toward +Crittenden. + +The days of concentration had been a period of the most intense anxiety, +of unceasing watchfulness, of unbending determination, of brilliant +minor affairs, of unflinching courage, and, withal, of cool calculation +and precise execution for every part of the army. + +While, on the morning of the 18th, the three corps of the Union army and +its reserve were in position where each could support the other if +attacked, its supreme effort for position was to come. Bragg's order for +battle contemplated crossing the Chickamauga some miles below Lee and +Gordon's and driving the Union left under Crittenden back on the center +and right under Thomas and McCook, and thus, by thrusting his columns +between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, recover that place and force the +Union army back into the mountains, from which position it is doubtful +if it could have extricated itself. + +Bragg's order for attack on the 18th could not be executed. His army was +concentrated between Lee and Gordon's and Lafayette. He moved with five +infantry and two cavalry corps. Narrow roads, small bridges, difficult +fords, and dense forests delayed operations, so that at nightfall of the +18th his troops were not in position to attack. In fact, he was scarcely +ready to deliver battle under his plan on the morning of the 19th, when +Thomas's unexpected attack, far on the rebel right, deranged Bragg's +plan, and forced him to battle several miles from the point where he was +about to open it on Crittenden, who he supposed still constituted the +Union left. + +It was nothing less than the inversion of the Union army under cover of +a night that had thus disconcerted Bragg and enabled Rosecrans to array +himself for battle between Bragg and Chattanooga, and across the roads +and in front of the passes which led to that city. It was this night +march of two corps which constituted the supreme movement of the +concentration, and which at the same time defeated Bragg's purpose to +fight with the back of his own army to Chattanooga with a view to its +recovery. + +The map given below will make this inversion and final concentration +clear, and show the position of the two armies at daylight on the 19th, +when the battle began. + +[Illustration: MAP OF FIRST DAY'S BATTLE.] + +On the 17th General Thomas's corps was in the vicinity of Pond Spring, +Negley on the left, and so nearest to a junction with Crittenden at Lee +& Gordon's, Baird next to the right, and Brannan next. Reynolds was +thrown to the front. The left of McCook had closed on Thomas at Fond +Spring. + +During the day Bragg, strongly threatening Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's +with two divisions, held him fast, and started the rest of his army down +the Chickamauga to cross and sweep in on Crittenden's left and rear, +expecting to find him still constituting the left of the Union army, and +to double this left back on Thomas and McCook. + +Bushrod Johnson had crossed at Reed's Bridge, driven Wilder nearly to +the State road at Vineyard's, and bivouacked a mile and a half from +Crittenden's left. Walker had also crossed at Lambert's Ford with three +divisions and Forrest's cavalry division, and halted for the night about +a mile in the rear of Hood. For the most part Bragg's army had the full +night for rest. + +On the other hand, the Union columns were alive with motion. That night +was to cover the inversion of an army. About 4 o'clock Thomas started +his whole corps from Pond Spring toward Crittenden, McCook following +him. This was doubtless interpreted by Bragg as a closing in on +Crittenden. But it was far more than that. + +As soon as night shut the columns in they were pressed rapidly to the +left. Negley, as he drew near to Crittenden, was moved to the +Chickamauga in front of Crawfish Springs. This prevented a night attempt +to cut the column by occupying the roads intersecting at that point. +Meantime Thomas, with his other three divisions, pushed on. It was a +long, weary night. Heavy trains of supplies and ammunition occupied the +road. The troops moved mostly through the adjacent fields, both for +celerity of marching and as guards to the trains. Heavy flanking forces +streamed along parallel to the road, and well out toward the river. +There were constant interruptions to continuous movement, causing +frequent halts of the infantry. The night was cool, and, as the commands +stopped, the men warmed themselves by starting fires in the fences. The +result was that toward midnight the trains were everywhere driving +between two continuous lines of fires, and the men on either side, or in +the road, had constant facilities for warming themselves. It was a +tedious and most fatiguing night, but at daylight the vitally important +task was done. Thomas's head of column, Baird in advance, reached the +Kelly farm at daylight, with Brannan well closed up and Reynolds a short +distance in the rear. Brannan was on the State or Lafayette road, near +the intersection of the road leading into it from Reed's bridge. McCook +had reached a point to the right and rear of Crittenden, near Crawfish +Springs. And so at sunrise the Union right, instead of resting far up +the Chickamauga from Crittenden's position, as Bragg expected to find +it, had become the left of Rosecrans' army and Crittenden was the right. +More than this, Rosecrans had established his lines two miles beyond +Bragg's right, and between it and Chattanooga. The victory of +concentration had been followed by the equally important success of +inverting the army and thus thrusting its columns between the enemy and +the objective of the campaign. These second stages of the movement +deserve to take rank with the matchless strategy with which it was +inaugurated. + +But the battle for the firm and final possession of Chattanooga was +still to come. It opened suddenly for both sides, and for Bragg in a +wholly unexpected quarter. The weary Union troops had scarcely time to +cook their coffee after the night march, and some of them no time at +all, before the storm broke and the army was summoned to the battle +which Thomas had opened. + + H. V. B. + + + + +WASHINGTON, _August 14_.--[Special.]--The last letter in this series +left the Army of the Cumberland on the morning of the 19th of September, +concentrated for battle on the field of Chickamauga. By an energetic +night march the army had been thrown forward on its left by inversion +into line, and thrust between the enemy and Chattanooga, the objective +of the campaign. It was a difficult and dangerous movement, where two +armies, intent on battle, were only separated by such a stream as the +Chickamauga, which was everywhere easily fordable above Lee & Gordon's. +But General Thomas, who led this column, is the one commander of a great +army of whom it can be said with accuracy that from the first of the war +to the close no movement of his miscarried. At daylight of the 19th he +held the Lafayette and Chattanooga road at the Kelly farm. + +Bragg's army, though re-enforced from all parts of the Confederacy, and +though it had been well concentrated between Lafayette and Gordon's +mills for several preceding days, had been skillfully foiled by General +Rosecrans in the efforts to strike his isolated corps. During the 18th +it had been pressed by Bragg down the winding and thickly-wooded valley +of the Chickamauga in execution of an order for battle. This order was +based upon the idea that Crittenden's corps at Lee & Gordon's was the +left of the Union army. While he was to be held there by strong force +threatening attack from the other side of the stream, the bulk of +Bragg's army was to cross at the various fords and bridges below, and, +turning up stream, was then to join in sweeping Crittenden back on +Thomas and McCook, whom Bragg supposed still to constitute the Union +center and right. In execution of this plan Bushrod Johnson had crossed +at Reed's bridge, and pushed up to within a mile and a half of Lee & +Gordon's, and westward to within a mile of the Lafayette road, where +night overtook him. Walker's corps had crossed below Alexander's Bridge, +and bivouacked after a short advance toward Crittenden. Minty and +Wilder, with their mounted men, and Dan McCook, with his brigade, had +stoutly resisted and greatly delayed these columns. The most of Bragg's +army had rested through the night. Two corps of Rosecrans's forces had +marched continuously since four o'clock the preceding afternoon. They +were about to move into battle without time for breakfast or further +rest. Bragg, upon Longstreet's arrival, would have 70,000 men available +for the fight. Rosecrans's strength for battle was not over 56,000. + +At daylight all of Bragg's army, wholly concealed by the forests, was in +motion. A considerable portion of it was still crossing the river at the +various fords and bridges from Tedford's to Reed's bridge, and deploying +on the other side toward Crittenden, who was still supposed to hold the +Union left. + +Suddenly, about 9 o'clock, there came to Bragg's ears the sounds of +heavy and unexpected battle far down the Chickamauga and well toward +Rossville. Thomas, whose head of column rested at the Kelly farm, for +the double purpose of exploring the forests in his front and to test the +truth of a report that an isolated brigade of the enemy was on the west +side of the river near Reed's bridge, moved Brannan and Baird directly +into the forest on the road towards Reed's. At this time two-thirds of +Bragg's army, concealed by the forests, had crossed the Chickamauga and +was directing its columns up that stream toward Crittenden. Just at the +time when Bragg expected that his right would have swung across the +Lafayette road, and that his center divisions would have opened on +Crittenden's position at Lee & Gordon's, these portentous sounds of +battle from Thomas's line astonished and perplexed him. After vainly +waiting for them to cease, under the first impression that the affair +was a movement of his forces in reconnaissance, and that some Union +cavalry had been encountered, he found it so serious as to derange his +whole plan of battle, and force him to meet an enemy who had turned his +right. To do this he was obliged to move a portion of his troops that +had not crossed the river down stream to Reed's. By the circuitous roads +which they were obliged to travel, it required a march of six miles to +reach the left of Thomas. + +This destruction of the rebel plan was due to Thomas opening the battle +with the divisions of Brannan and Baird in the vicinity of Reed's +bridge. At 6.30 o'clock Brannan left Kelly's, and moving north, turned +in from the Lafayette road at McDaniel's toward Reed's. A quarter of a +mile from McDaniel's he deployed his division. Van Derveer was on the +left, and thus became the left of the Union army. Connell's brigade was +in the center, and Croxton on the right. In like manner Baird advanced +with a front line of two brigades. King, with the regulars, was on the +left, next to Brannan, and Scribner on the right of King, while +Starkweather marched by the flank behind Scribner's right. + +The last disposition was promptly made by Baird upon his discovering +that the enemy was in strong force to his right. + +Thus while neither army was aware that the other was in heavy force in +the woods which surrounded them, and while Bragg's forces were forming +to move up the Chickamauga, and so away from Thomas's line of march, +both Brannan and Baird came in force on Bragg's right, in front of +Reed's bridge, at a point near Jay's Mills, and opened the battle of +Chickamauga. Croxton struck first with a vigorous attack on Forrest, +who, with the two divisions of his corps, was guarding the Confederate +right. The cavalrymen were forced back to the sawmill, where they +rallied, dismounted, and began to fight as infantry. Croxton held his +own, and even advanced slightly. Forrest sent for infantry, and Wilson's +brigade of Walker's division hurried from Alexander's and rushed into +the fight. + +Meantime re-enforcements were turning from all portions of Bragg's line +toward the sound of furious battle. Shortly the advance toward +Crittenden ceased, so vigorous had Thomas's battle become. Connell and +Van Derveer at first meeting no enemy on their fronts pressed toward the +vortex of Croxton's fighting. Forrest, relieved by Walker's infantry, +met this advance of Brannan's left with his whole force and fought for +the most part on foot. Croxton, out of ammunition, was obliged to retire +somewhat before Walker, when Baird pushed King in to support him, while +Van Derveer and Connell moved in first on Forrest and next on Ector's +brigade of Walker's reserve. The battle became terrific. Forrest hurried +in person after infantry supports, and for portions of his own command +left near Alexander's. + +At 11 o'clock Bragg had become convinced that Rosecrans had forced +battle upon him on the extreme rebel right. With such vigor did Thomas's +two divisions fight that Walker was ordered at that hour to go to +Forrest with all his force, and Cheatham, of Polk's corps, who had the +strongest division of the army, consisting of five brigades, then +stationed as the reserve of Bragg's left. Hardly had Cheatham started +before Stewart, of Buckner's corps, which was near Tedford's Ford, ready +to move toward Crittenden, was also dispatched in haste to the +Confederate right, and at 1 o'clock Cleburne, of Hill's corps, posted +near the extreme left of the Confederate line, was ordered to the scene +of action before Brannan and Baird. These movements show how Bragg's +plan of battle had been wholly overturned, and how fierce the fighting +of these two divisions of Thomas must have been to decide Bragg to send +four infantry divisions to the assistance of Forrest's corps of two +divisions. + +Meantime Walker had moved Govan's brigade obliquely on the right flank +of Scribner and forced him back. Simultaneously Walthall's brigade +struck King in flank and drove him in disorder over Van Derveer's +brigade. Guenther's regular battery, one of the best and most efficient +in the service, was captured. We shall see how it was shortly after +retaken by the splendid Ninth Ohio. + +Thus, while Baird's lines were shaken by the overwhelming concentration +against them, and Brannan was facing and fighting superior numbers, +matters were hot for Thomas, who was slowly moving to and fro along his +divisions and closely watching them. Baird was restoring his lines under +fire and in the face of a flank attack. Croxton's men, with fresh +ammunition, were holding their place. Connell's brigade was immovable, +and poured its fire into the very faces of the enemy. Van Derveer, on +the left, was busily maneuvering to meet flank attacks, and fighting +desperately, but with unvarying success. + +At this moment, when Baird was scarcely able to maintain position, and +must have soon yielded to numbers, Johnson, of McCook's corps, came on +the field from Crawfish Springs, and was led by Thomas to the right of +Baird. Here, with the brigades of Willich and Baldwin on the front and +Dodge in reserve, Johnson, by heavy fighting, relieved the pressure on +Baird, restored the line, and checked Bragg's new center. + +Following came Palmer, most opportunely ordered forward by Crittenden +from Lee & Gordon's, who saw plainly from the development of furious +battle on the Union left that troops would surely be wanted there. +Palmer followed Johnson into line, and under the personal direction of +Rosecrans the brigades of Hazen, Cruft, and Grose were formed in echelon +and ordered forward, immediately encountering Cheatham's men and +becoming fiercely engaged. Hazen on the left fell with great vigor on +Walker's left and relieved Starkweather, of Baird, from precarious +position. At the same time Van Derveer was thrown by Brannan on the +right of Walker and by terrific fighting crushed Walthall's line and +drove it well back into the forests. + +It was here that the Ninth Ohio, the German Turner regiment of Bob +McCook--both regiment and commander of glorious memory--recaptured the +regular battery and brought it into the Union lines. The regiment had +been with the trains during the night march and it was chafing far in +the rear when Van Derveer sent for it. Sore was his need. The repeated +attacks of the enemy on his front and flank in the attempt to crush the +Union left and reach the Lafayette road in its rear were becoming so +frequent and heavy that, in spite of the fact that every man under him +was fighting where he stood and yielding no inch of ground, it seemed as +if the limit of human endurance even for iron veterans must soon be +reached. Then from the near distance came the well-known hurrah of the +Ninth advancing from the right. As all waited to welcome the head of its +column, its charging shout was heard to the front of its line of +advance, followed at once by rapid musketry, and then their great +"hurrah" of victory. The story is brief. Colonel Kammerling at the head +of his regiment, coming on at double-quick, saw to his right and front +the captured artillery of the regulars, just taken by Govan. Without +orders he halted his line, fronted it, and with the command "Links +Schwengket," swung it to the left, faced toward the hill where the +battery stood in the hands of its captors, and with a sweeping charge +drove the rebels back, bayoneting some among the guns, and rushed with +guns and many prisoners back to the Union line. A few minutes after he +came in on the run to Van Derveer, just in time to take part in the last +and supreme effort of the enemy to crush that unyielding left. Forrest's +men had passed beyond Van Derveer's left and formed for assault on his +front, and also directly on his flank. But the vigilant skirmishers and +prisoners taken by them made known the movement. The left was thrown +back in time, and the line presented an obtuse angle opening toward the +enemy. Into this, and heavily against the left of it, Forrest hurled his +columns, four deep. On came these men in gray in magnificent lines, +which showed clearly through the open forest bending their faces before +the sleet of the storm, and firing hotly as they advanced. As they came +within the range of the oblique fire from Van Derveer's right they +halted within forty yards of his left and for a few moments poured in a +destructive fire. A wheel of Smith's regular battery, and of a section +of Church's guns which had reported, brought them where they poured a +nearly enfilading fire of cannister down those long lines, standing +bravely there and fighting almost under the mouths of the guns. Thomas +and Brannan and Van Derveer were looking on and encouraging the line. It +had seemed almost beyond the probabilities to hold it till those well +served batteries opened. An instant later it seemed as if the lines of +gray had sunk into the earth. When the smoke lifted from the third round +the front was clear of everything but the heaps of dead and wounded, and +the work of the day at that point of the Union left was done. + +The fight still raged bitterly, however, along the lines of Johnson, and +of Palmer to the right of him. Brannan and Baird were withdrawn from the +front which they had held, the former being sent toward the center to +provide against contingencies there, and the latter posted to prevent +any movement toward the Lafayette road at McDaniel's. Forrest and +Cheatham's brigades of infantry next attacked Johnson (of McCook), who +then held the advanced portion of the Union left. Here the contest soon +became furious again, partly on the ground of Baird's morning battle. +Maney's splendid brigade rushed to a hand-to-hand fight, but was borne +back. Wright, Strahl, Jackson, and Smith, with their brigades, all under +Cheatham, each delivered bold and most courageous attacks, but without +carrying the Union line. Rosecrans's army, under the successive +hammering of the Confederate onslaughts, was fast being solidly formed +from left to right. Willich, Baldwin, and Dodge, of Johnson, and Hazen, +Cruft, and Grose, of Palmer, were fairly aligned, having fought +themselves forward into good positions. + +The battle next fell heavily on the right of Palmer, as Bragg at last +had his whole army in rapid motion toward his right. As Palmer's +ammunition began to fail, Reynolds moved up to his right and rear, and +made most excellent dispositions just east of the Lafayette road. Upon +call, he pushed Willich and Edward King in on Palmer's right, and at +once became hotly engaged. Crittenden sent Van Cleve with Samuel +Beatty's and Dick's brigades to the right of Reynold's, leaving Barnes's +brigade with General Wood at Lee & Gordon's. + +As fast as the Union line could be extended to the left it became sorely +pressed by Bragg's troops, then well massed west of the Chickamauga. +General Davis, from McCook, pressed rapidly to the left and was sent in +near Vineyard's. At 3 o'clock Wood was ordered from Lee & Gordon's to +the field of the growing fight. As Bragg still had some forces opposite +this point, General Lytle's brigade, of Sheridan's division, was +directed to relieve Wood and hold the crossing. Thus in six hours from +the time Bragg was directing his army on Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's, a +single brigade, posted there only from prudence, served for all demands +against Confederate movement from that direction. This indicates how +completely Bragg had been driven from his plan. + +Wood and Davis had not been dispatched a moment too soon. Van Cleve, +Davis, and Wood were confronted with solid masses of Bragg's +concentrated troops, and the scenes and splendid fighting of the morning +at the left were repeated hereby these divisions. Stewart, Johnson, and +Preston, of Buckner's corps, and Hindman, of Longstreet's advance, were +assaulting these lines. Davis had been ordered to wheel in on the +enemy's left flank, and this movement led to one of the bravest and +bloodiest contests of the day in front of Vineyard's. Wood advanced his +lines into the vortex just when Davis was hardest pressed, and, when all +seemed about to be compelled to yield, Sheridan appeared on the flank, +and Wilder's mounted brigade came up in the rear. Every division of the +Union army was in line except the reserve under Granger, which was some +miles away toward Ringgold, with orders to hold Red House bridge. + +The battle along Rosecrans's center and right waxed hotter and fiercer. +He seemed everywhere present and he was everywhere alert. Van Cleve +encountered the left of Stewart marching to relieve Cheatham, and a +fight muzzle to muzzle took place between Clayton of Stewart's and the +two brigades of Van Cleve, Sam Beatty and Dick. + +Reynolds, by magnificent generalship and fighting, restored the broken +line in his front, and firmly established himself there. His brigades, +under Turchin and Edward King, covered themselves with laurels as they +swayed back and forth on the tides of battles which rushed and swirled +over all that portion of the field. + +Davis, with the brigades of Carlin and Heg, delivered their fire at +short range, and stood their ground long and well, till borne back by +overwhelming forces. It was just as this slow retrograde movement began +that Wood had appeared, having marched rapidly from Lee and Gordon's +with Harker's and Buell's brigade of his own division and Barnes's of +Van Cleve's. They swept in on the right, and by splendid fighting +checked the rebel line and held it on their front in spite of its +vigorous and splendid fighting. + +At this point two exactly opposite movements were in progress along the +lines of the armies. Bragg, who seemed determined to push his right +between the Union left and Chattanooga, ordered Cleburne from Tedford's +Ford to the extreme right, the scene of the morning fighting. At the +same time General Thomas, convinced that no perilous attack could be +delivered at that hour from that extreme point, was bringing Brannan +from the left to the support of Reynolds just as the latter was fighting +to push the enemy from the Lafayette road. Brannan arrived in time to +help, and with Croxton's assistance Reynolds restored the lines on his +front and flank, and regained possession of the road. Negley also +arrived opportunely from the right and took active part at this point. +Wood repulsed Bushrod Johnson's division, though at great cost. Trigg, +of Preston's division, entirely fresh, moved in with splendid pluck and +movement to restore the line, but Sheridan, from McCook, with Bradley +and Laiboldt's brigades, met and checked this advance, and with its +recoil the heat of battle on the Union right began to subside. + +About 5 o'clock the field on both sides was still. But Cleburne and +Walker were moving again far on the rebel right, in obedience to Bragg's +order to again attack the Union left. The Confederate march was over the +field of the morning, where the dead of Walker were thickly strewed. It +was a depressing advance. Still those veterans formed and moved on +without a sign of shrinking, and about six o'clock the hour of silence +was broken by a terrific attack in the gathering dusk upon Johnson, near +the ground occupied by Baird in the morning. The assault fell also upon +Baird further to the left. Cleburne, with a front of a mile, filled by +three brigades, had suddenly burst upon Thomas's left. Cleburne had +three brigades--Polk, Wood, and Deshler. Walthall and Govan, of +Liddell's division, and three brigades of Cleburne--Strahl, Johnson, and +Preston Smith--supported him. The assault was tremendous. Night was +falling, and the aim of each side was directed by the flashes of the +guns. + +Willich, Dodge and Baldwin, of Johnson, fought their brigades with +undaunted pluck and endurance. Baldwin fell on his line. Baird, with +Scribner, King, and Starkweather, held their ground, though vigorously +attacked. Preston Smith, on the Confederate side, was killed here. +Darkness put an end to the movement and the fighting, and each army +sought rest. + +For the commanders of all grades it was a busy night. While the Union +line was continuous and measurably compact between the enemy and +practicable roads to Chattanooga, there was much realignment to be done +to better the position for the morrow. The Union troops obtained only +snatches of rest on ground white with frost. No fires were lighted, lest +the direction of the lines might be revealed. This made supper a dry +meal. But the fact that for most there had been no time for breakfast +and none at all for dinner, gave excellent relish even to a dry supper. + +Rosecrans's purpose of establishing his lines between the enemy and +Chattanooga had been accomplished. Bragg's plan of thrusting his army +between the Union advance and the city had been defeated. At the close +of this first day victory rested with Rosecrans. He had found himself +largely outnumbered, and had thrown every available man into the fight. + +Bragg had many brigades which were not engaged, and Longstreet, with the +greater part of his force, was yet to arrive. The spirit of the Union +army had risen to a high pitch under the splendid and most effective +fighting which it had done, and it looked forward to the morrow with a +confidence born of the consciousness of fighting and staying powers. + +But hard as the work of the day had been, and stubborn and bitter as was +the fighting in each army, the coming Sunday was to witness a battle +eclipsing this and surpassing all the war for its pluck and deadliness. +While the weary commanders were preparing for this day, and tired +sentinels kept faithful watch, the wounded suffered and the armies +slept. + + H. V. B. + + + + +WASHINGTON, _August_ 17.--[Special.]--The second and final fight for the +possession of Chattanooga opened on Sunday, September 20. We have seen +how through the preceding day, in the white heat of battle, the Union +lines had established themselves on the field of Chickamauga, and that +at nightfall they were still between Bragg and the city for which they +were fighting. + +It was a cool and beautiful morning, though heavy fog hung over the +lower parts of the field, greatly impeding the preparations of each +commander. For an hour or two after daylight there were few indications +of the terrific scenes which were to be crowded into that Sabbath day. + +Both sides had improved the night to rectify and strengthen the +alignment. Bragg had received important re-enforcements. General +Longstreet arrived in the night and was placed in command of the left +wing. Polk was assigned to the right wing. With Longstreet came the bulk +of his two divisions from Virginia, Hood and McLaws. Three brigades only +of the former had taken part with Hood in the first day's fight. Gist's +brigade of Walker's corps also arrived from Meridian. The Army of the +Tennessee, with all the warnings and requests of Rosecrans to the +authorities at Washington, had done nothing to prevent a general exodus +of rebel forces from Mississippi. Even a portion of Pemberton's paroled +men came, and two brigades, relieved by paroled prisoners, were in time +for the first day's battle. Bragg readjusted his lines during the night. +The most important change was to bring Breckinridge from his extreme +left, east of the Chickamauga, to the extreme right. Cleburne and +Cheatham were both moved close to Breckinridge. Forrest, with two +divisions, one to fight on foot, was placed still to the right of +Breckinridge, to observe the Lafayette road. With this heavy force, +strengthened on its extreme left with Stewart, he intended to attack the +Union left at daylight. + +Rosecrans, on the other hand, had no re-enforcements with which to +relieve or help his lines, and most of his army had marched a night and +fought a day without rest and with little food, and every available man +had been engaged. Burnside had been for weeks where he could easily have +formed a junction. In fact, slowly as he had moved, his infantry had +reached Kingston about the time Rosecrans had finished concentrating his +army. It was the duty and the business of Halleck and others at +Washington to have had it on the field for the first day's battle. + +It was grim business for this contracted line of Union heroes to face +the eleven divisions of infantry and two of cavalry, one of the +latter fighting as infantry, which Bragg had before them. Their only +advantage was in their shorter lines and the fact that it was necessary +for Bragg to attack, while for the most part they could remain on the +defensive. They were besides in excellent spirits and confident of their +powers. + +[Illustration: CHICKAMAUGA--SECOND DAY'S BATTLE.] + +A glance at the map will show the rearrangement of the Union line. +Beginning on the left, which covered Bragg's objective--namely, the +control of the Lafayette road to Chattanooga--Baird, Johnson, Palmer, +and Reynolds were withdrawn slightly from the ground on which they had +fought the day before, and placed in strong position in the edge of the +woods which skirted the Kelly farm. Brannan remained near the position +to which he had been called to support Reynolds the night before. The +divisions of Negley, Wood, Davis, and Sheridan and the brigade of Wilder +had all been drawn back of the Lafayette road, their lines being +slightly advanced from the road, leading from Crawfish Springs to the +Lafayette road at Kelly's farm. + +The order of the Confederate line, from its right to a point in front of +Brannan's has already been stated. Here Stewart, of Buckner's corps, +formed the right of Longstreet, who commanded the left wing, and, +counting toward the enemy's left, the succeeding divisions were Bushrod +Johnson, with Law and Kershaw in reserve, Hindman and Preston Buckner's +corps was present with this wing by the courtesy of Burnside and the +Washington authorities, while the latter alone were responsible for the +inaction at the East which allowed Longstreet's corps to be present. By +the same courtesy Walker's division from Mississippi was present with +Hill's corps, and was to fight again, splendidly but unsuccessfully, on +Bragg's right, as it had all the day before. + +Under cover the fog in the shelter of the woods, and in the painful +quiet of that Sabbath morning, the two armies had brought their lines +face to face. At 9 o'clock there was scarcely any point the length of a +tiger's spring between them. + +Bragg had 212 regiments, organized into 42 brigades, and these in 7 +divisions. There were in all 173 infantry regiments and 11 of cavalry, +which were dismounted and fought as infantry, 28 cavalry regiments and +50 batteries. Rosecrans had 158 regiments, 33 brigades, 14 divisions, +and 5 corps. There were 141 regiments of infantry and 18 of cavalry and +36 batteries. + +Of Bragg's corps two were cavalry--Wheeler and Forrest. One division of +Forrest's fought as infantry. Rosecrans had one cavalry corps of two +divisions. This tremendous array was pushed close against a Union front +of only two miles and a half. + +At 9 o'clock that Sabbath service of all the gods of war began. It broke +full-toned with its infernal music over the Union left, and that morning +service continued there till noon. + +Let us look a moment at the Union line. John Beatty's brigade had been +stretched as a thin line from Baird's left to the Lafayette road and +across it. King's regulars formed the left of Baird, Scribner his +center, and Starkweather his right. He had no reserve. Johnston's +division was on the right of Baird; Dodge and Baldwin, of his brigades, +on the front, and Willich in reserve. Next was Palmer, with Cruft and +Hazen on the line, and Grose in reserve. Reynolds, on Palmer's right, +reached the Lafayette road again. He had Turchin in line and King in +reserve. The Union line was protected by log barricades. It thus ran +around the Kelley farm and was established from fifty to a hundred yards +within the woods which skirted the great open space in their rear. This +field, which lay along the State road for half a mile and was a quarter +of a mile wide, became the scene of almost continuous and ever brilliant +fighting. Beside the great battle along the main lines surrounding it, +there were during the day five distinct brigade charges over it, one of +Stanley, one of Van Derveer, one of Grose, a fourth by Willich, and a +fifth by Turchin. + +Bragg's orders were to attack successively by divisions, from right to +left. Breckinridge struck first. He came on in single line, swinging +around towards the State road to gain Baird's rear. Adams was on his +right, Stovall in the center, and Helm on the left. This latter brigade +struck Scribner's breastworks, and was instantly shattered there. Helm +rode bravely among his troops, enthusiastically urging them forward, and +fell dead while thus engaged. Two of his colonels were killed, and two +were wounded. + +Stovall pushed in with dauntless pluck against the regulars on the left +of Scribner, but King's men fought splendidly. The rebels assaulted +bravely but uselessly. Adams had swept in on John Beatty's thin line, +and broken it. Still it fought with undaunted courage, yielding +doggedly, and by the inch, and finally Adams, retarded by the disaster +on his left, was at bay. At this juncture came Stanley's brigade, from +Negley, near the center, with deployed lines, and the sun on its +banners. It swept over the Kelly field, from near the house, and plunged +into the woods in the rear of Beatty. Well might those who were +witnessing that threatening move toward the Union rear hold their +breaths as Stanley disappeared, and thus wait for his volleys and their +effect. In a moment they came, then his rattling line fire, then the +cheer of a charge. The first attack of Breckinridge had ended in a sore +defeat. + +But Cleburne had in turn advanced. He, like Breckinridge, came in single +line. Polk, of Cleburne, assaulted Starkweather's front, while Wood of +the same command extended the attack as far as the right of Baldwin. The +remnants of Helm, under Colonel Lewis, still assisted against Scribner, +but soon Cleburne's division was repelled at every point with terrible +loss. The Confederate officers engaged describe the effect of the Union +artillery throughout this attack as the most destructive in their +experience. Thus Bragg's first attack had wholly failed. The Union +forces were exultant, and so strong were their skirmish demonstrations +that Hill, who was under orders to organize a second and much stronger +attack, paused, to first prepare his own lines against assault. + +Walker's reserve corps of two divisions was brought up, and its five +brigades distributed along the shattered points of Breckinridge's and +Cleburne's lines. The organizations of rebel divisions being thus +destroyed, the attack became largely one of brigades acting +independently, each rushing at the Union works. There were ten rebel +brigades engaged in the movement from the Union left to Palmer's +position, and beyond this point Stewart's division co-operated by +assaulting Reynold's narrow front and Brannan's lines. Wood, of +Cleburne, who had previously stormed the angle of the Union works on +Johnson's right and been repulsed, assisted by Deshler, of the same +division, thinking this angle the flank of the barricades, again struck +obliquely and with fury with the idea of turning them. Instead, these +dashing Confederates went to pieces on Baldwin's brigade, of Johnson, +and on Palmer's front. Walthall assaulted the corresponding angle at +Scribner's position, and though he carried his men within pistol range +of the crests, he was beaten back with heavy loss. Gist, acting with +Helm's (now Lewis') broken line, attacked with power, but in turn was +driven back. Colquitt, still further to the right, came upon the regular +brigade of King. But his line had missed direction, and was at once +exposed to a withering flank fire, and overwhelmed. Colquitt fell. +Several of his most prominent officers were killed. Ector and Wilson, of +Walker's second division (Liddell's), advanced to help, but without +effect. Govan, however, of this same division, was successful, and by +hot fighting and the weight of numbers, he bore back John Beatty's +weakened line, and the situation on the Union left became at once most +serious. Everything but this along the line of the second attack by +Bragg's right had failed. It began to look as if rebel victory was +dawning here, and that the triumph of Bragg's plan of turning the Union +left had come. + +For Breckinridge, in the second advance, had swung his lines much +farther to his right, and by a wide left wheel had brought his right +across the State road, and so between the Union left and Rossville. His +left reached and slightly overlapped Beatty's left. Thus formed with +lines perpendicular to the State road, he began a march directly toward +the Kelly house and the rear of Reynolds, just beyond it. While the +remnants of the left, so badly broken, first under Helm and then under +his successor, were entangled with Beatty and Stanley, his two other +brigades, Adams on the right and Stovall to the left, burst out of the +woods on the north side of the Kelly field, quickly rectified their +lines, threw out a heavy skirmish force, and bore rapidly down toward +Reynolds. It was half a mile to his position over smooth and open +ground. From the start the skirmishers could throw their bullets into +Reynolds rear. It was a movement threatening dire disaster. The moment +it developed in the rear of Baird, Walker's corps and Cleburne's +brigades reopened their fire on the front of the barricades, while +Stewart advanced on Reynolds and Brannan. Thus, taken on flank, front, +and full in the rear, and outnumbered at every point, it seemed as if +there was no salvation for the Union left. But it came, and at that +point where Confederate victory seemed sure, full defeat fell suddenly +upon them. Thomas watching the progress of Breckinridge's flank attack, +had sent to Rosecrans for Brannan. At that moment the battle had not +extended to the latter. But just as Rosecrans' order to go to Thomas +reached Brannan signs of heavy and immediate attack on his front became +apparent. He well used his discretion, and remained on the line until he +could report the situation to Rosecrans. But in the mean time, in +partial compliance with the order, he sent Fred Van Derveer's brigade, +which constituted his reserve, to the help of the left. This brigade +deployed, marched rapidly in to line toward the Kelly house, and came +into the field less than two hundred yards in advance of Breckinridge's +line. Though presenting its flank to the enemy when he was first +discovered, it changed front in the open ground under fire, charged the +rebel line, broke it, following it back into the woods, and after an +hours' fighting drove these two brigades with their artillery entirely +clear of the Union left. It then returned to a point near the Kelly +house. + +Govan, of Walker, next on the left of Breckinridge, had, however, gained +a lodgment on the line which Beatty had so stubbornly held. Then came +another Union charge over the Kelly field. Palmer, under Thomas's +orders, sent Grose with his reserve brigade to clear Baird's immediate +left. Moving from the edge of the woods back into the open field, Grose +formed in double lines, moved at double-quick across the rear of Johnson +and Baird, and rushed with cheers into the woods on the north side of +the field. In a few moments his volleys were pouring into the face of +Govan. The latter's troops fought desperately, but their supports on +each flank had been previously broken, and soon, after bitter loss, gave +way. The Union left was then further strengthened by placing Barnes, of +Van Cleve, on the left of Beatty. It was then noon. So badly shattered +was Bragg's right that it was nearly 5 o'clock before another attack +could be organized on this ground. Thenceforth the Union left was safe. + +Simultaneously with the appearance of Breckinridge in the Kelly field +events were hastening to an appalling consummation on the Union center. +Stewart, the right of Longstreet's wing, moved to the assault in +Reynold's front. With three brigades he rushed upon Turchin, who formed +Reynold's advance, and Hazen, of Palmer, next on the left, while his +left also involved Brannan's left. On his right he also had the +co-operation of Wood's and Deshler's brigades, of Cleburne. Deshler was +killed as the movement began, and Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, succeeded +him. + +As this was the opening of the memorable attack which led to the break +in the Union center it is worthy of close attention. General Stewart, in +his report, thus describes it: + +"For several hundred yards both lines pressed on under the most terrific +fire it has ever been my fortune to witness. The enemy retired, and our +men, though mowed down at every step, rushed on at double-quick, until +at length the brigade on the right of Brown broke in confusion, exposing +him to an enfilading fire. He continued on, however, some fifty to +seventy-five yards further, when his two right regiments gave way in +disorder and retired to their original position. His center and left, +however, followed by the gallant Clayton and indomitable Bate, pressed +on, passing the cornfield in front of the burnt house, and to a distance +of two hundred to three hundred yards beyond the Chattanooga road, +driving the enemy within his line of intrenchments and passing a battery +of four guns, which were afterward taken possession of by a regiment +from another division. Here new batteries being opened by the enemy on +our front and flank, heavily supported by infantry, it became necessary +to retire, the command reforming on the ground occupied before the +advance." + +All this was going on in the front of Reynolds and Palmer, while +Breckinridge, as already described, was entering the open field from the +north in plain sight from their rear. Yet not a single Union soldier +left the line. Standing steadfast, they first resisted, as Stewart +describes, and then were incited to still greater action by the +brilliant fighting of Van Derveer in their rear, which so unexpectedly +brought them the much-needed relief. + +Here the story reaches the event of the break in the Union lines, which +is widely misunderstood, and has been most unjustly used to throw +discredit on General Rosecrans. Just as Longstreet's attack was +developing upon Wood's front, the latter received an order from General +Rosecrans to "close upon Reynolds as fast as possible and support him." +As Brannan was between himself and Reynolds, Wood saw no other way of +executing the order, which he deemed imperative, except to withdraw from +line, and pass to the rear of Brannan. This he did, although the attack +was just bursting on his front. + +It has been persistently claimed, to General Rosecrans's detriment, that +in the excitement of the height of battle he had issued a blundering +order. Nothing could be more unjust. The explanation is perfectly +simple. General Thomas had sent for Brannan to meet Breckinridge's flank +attack. Stewart's attack had struck Reynolds with force and was rapidly +developing on Brannan's front. The latter hastily consulted with +Reynolds as to the propriety of withdrawing, and both being clear that +to obey the order would open the line to the enemy, Brannan dispatched +Van Derveer, his reserve, to the left, in partial compliance with its +terms, and then reported to Rosecrans that he had deemed it vitally +important to maintain his line till the commanding officer could be +advised of the situation. He instantly approved Brannan's action. But +just before his message arrived, upon the supposition that he had obeyed +the order and gone to Thomas, the noted order to Wood to close to the +left on Reynolds had been dispatched. When it reached Wood, the attack, +rolling along Brannan's front, had reached his own. Had he exercised the +same discretion which Brannan had so wisely displayed, all would have +been well, and that nearly fatal break in the Union lines would not have +occurred. But instantly on reading it, Wood rapidly withdrew his +division and started in the rear of Brannan toward Reynolds. Longstreet, +who had waited most impatiently till 11 o'clock before he could move a +man to the attack, had solidified his lines before the Union center and +left, and the moment Wood left this wide gap for him, Longstreet thrust +into it the eight brigades of his central column of attack. They were +formed in three lines, and advancing rapidly they opened on Brannan's +right and rear and Davis' left, and greatly widened the gap. Brannan +threw back his right, losing something from Connell's brigade on that +flank, but, stubbornly resisting Longstreet's advance as he retired that +wing of his division, he soon re-established it on Horseshoe Ridge, near +the Snodgrass House, on a line nearly perpendicular to the one he had +occupied when Longstreet pushed through the gap left by wood. The latter +had passed rapidly to the rear of Brannan, and though subjected to heavy +attack after passing Brannan's left, he was able to establish his line +on a lower ridge in the prolongation of Brannan's new position, and +reaching in the direction of Reynolds. The latter officer soon retired +his right slightly, and the line was again continuous, except a break +between Wood and Reynolds, from Brannan's right to Barnes on Baird's +left. Into this vacant space Hazen moved later under orders from Thomas, +and then the line on that part of the field was firmly established. + +All to the right of Brannan had gone. Negley, with one brigade of his +division, which was caught in the gap, had drifted toward Brannan. Here, +gathering up much artillery, which he was ordered by Thomas to post on +the crest overlooking the field in front of Baird's left, he took it +instead to Brannan's right, and soon, without waiting to be attacked in +his strong position, and although he had promised Brannan to hold it, +abandoned it, and retired in haste toward Rossville, ordering all the +artillery to follow him. + +Davis had moved rapidly into the breastworks which Negley had occupied, +and there placed his weak force of two brigades across Longstreet's +advance. But after his terrific fighting of the day before he had only +twelve hundred men for action, and though Carlin, and Heg's men under +Martin, fought with desperation, they could do nothing but yield. They +were driven in disorder to the right and rear. + +At the same time Van Cleve, with his two remaining brigades in motion +towards Thomas, was thrown into great disorder, though a considerable +portion of them rallied with Wood. + +As Davis was borne back, McCook, of the Twentieth Corps, in person led +Laiboldt's brigade, of Sheridan's division, against Longstreet's +advancing columns. The attack was delivered with spirit and power, but +it failed in the face of overwhelming numbers, and the brigade was +utterly routed. McCook was carried to the rear with it. + +Next came Sheridan, with his two remaining brigades under Lytle and +Bradley. The former, with splendid bearing and courage, rallied his +columns, and though they were taken at every disadvantage, under the +inspiration which he imparted they faced the resistless advance with +desperate valor. Lytle fell where death was thickest for his comrades. +His brigade, and that of Bradley, with Wilder, who had also fought to +the extremity to assist, were all borne to the rear and forced to join +the fugitive columns falling off from the Union right toward Rossville. +General Rosecrans had just ridden the lines from the left, and had +passed in the rear of McCook's position, when the line was severed. +Finding the roads in rear of the right filled with retreating columns +representing all corps of the army, for Negley was there from Thomas, he +deemed it prudent to ride to Chattanooga and decide upon a new position +in front of the place. General Crittenden's whole command, that is, +three divisions, having been ordered in succession to Thomas before the +break, Crittenden himself, being without command, rode into Chattanooga +after Rosecrans, as did also McCook. Sheridan's division was in good +order by the time it reached Rossville, and most of the troops which +left the field were about that place and McFarland's Gap in fighting +condition throughout the afternoon. Their numbers at 2 o'clock were from +seven to ten thousand. They could easily have been led to Baird's left +or Brannan's right, as the way to either flank was open. This was proved +by the fact that General Garfield, Colonel Gates Thurston, and Surgeons +Gross and Perkins, the medical directors of the Fourteenth and Twentieth +Corps, rode back and joined General Thomas. It is one of the myths of +current Chickamauga history that Sheridan marched with his division back +to the fighting line, but this is an error. He received a request at +McFarland's Gap from Gen. Thomas to return to the field, but decided +instead to retire to Rossville. Upon reaching the latter point he moved +out on the Lafayette road toward Gen. Thomas, but did not form a +junction with him. He reached the Cloud House at 7 p. m. and soon after +withdrew to Rossville. + +Six Confederate divisions under Longstreet had taken part in breaking +the Union center and sweeping its right off the field. These were +Stewart, Bushrod Johnson, and Preston, of Buckner's corps: Hood and +McLaws, of Longstreet's Virginia troops, and Hindman's division of +Polk's corps. Eight brigades of this force had first entered the gap +left by Wood, and from that time till Rosecrans, McCook, Crittenden, +and Sheridan had gone, and Brannan had established himself on +Horseshoe Ridge, each of these six divisions had advanced and fought +with vigor. Finally Hindman, finding no resistance on his left, wheeled +to the right to assist Longstreet's center and right, which had been +checked by Brannan and Wood. This brought Longstreet's six divisions +together in the vicinity of Horseshoe ridge. + +[Illustration: THE CONCENTRATION.] + +[Illustration: KELLEY'S FARM--HORSESHOE RIDGE.] + +Shortly after 2 o'clock Longstreet ordered a general assault by his +wing. It was delivered with confidence and tremendous power. To meet +these six divisions Brannan on the right had Croxton's brigade and part +of Connell's; Wood, on the left, had Harker's brigade. With these +organized commands were a part of John Beatty's, a good part of +Stanley's and the Twenty-first Ohio, of Sirwell's, all of Negley; parts +of the Ninth and the Seventeenth Kentucky; Forty-fourth Indiana and +Thirteenth Ohio, of Van Cleve's division, with the Fifty-eighth Indiana, +of Buell's brigade--in all about 4,000 men. + +Against this line, hastily formed and without reserves, Longstreet +launched his solid columns. They came on magnificently, wave behind +wave. They met sheeted fire from the summits, and yet pressed on to hand +encounters, but from these they soon recoiled. The whole line retired +from the foot of the slopes, and covered by the forests organized for a +second attack. It was delivered soon after 3 o'clock. Like the first, it +fell on the fronts of Wood and Brannan. But while Hindman assaulted the +latter in front he also sent a brigade through the gap to Brannan's +right to scale the ridge and gain his rear. Negley, who had held this +point with abundant artillery and infantry supports, and who had +promised to stay there, had promptly fled before any attack had reached +him and was even then in Rossville. There was absolutely nothing to send +against Hindman's left, towering there with its fringe of bayonets on +the commanding ridge, and forming to sweep down on Brannan's right and +rear. Longstreet and all his general officers were exultant, and though +their second attack had failed everywhere, except as this lodgment was +obtained on the ridge beyond Brannan, they rapidly arranged their lines +for what they believed would be a final assault leading to sure victory. + +But not a Union soldier moved from his place. The men clutched their +guns tighter. Officers everywhere moved closer to the lines to encourage +and steady them. The color-bearers set their flags firmer. And then, as +if to repay such courage, help came as unexpectedly as if the hand of +the Lord had been visibly extended to save. Suddenly a Union column +appeared, moving with speed across the fields from the direction of the +McDaniel house. It was Granger, of the reserve, with two brigades of +Steedman's division. Being stationed four miles away toward Ringgold, +Granger, agreeing with Steedman that they must be sorely needed on the +field, had started without orders, and though shelled by Forrest on his +flank for two miles of the way, had not allowed his columns to be +greatly delayed. And now Steedman was sweeping up to the foot of the +hill below the Snodgrass House. As he reported to Thomas, coming in from +toward the Kelly farm was another well-ordered column. It proved to be +Van Derveer returning from the charge upon Breckinridge in the Kelly +field. The map shows how he had left Brannan's line just before the +break and hastened with deployed lines toward the left; how thus +deployed he had marched from the woods to be enfiladed from +Breckinridge's front as the latter emerged from the woods and burst upon +the Union rear. Here, under this fire, he whirled his brigade to the +left, delivered a full volley at pistol range into the enemy's faces, +charged into their lines on a run, drove them back on their batteries, +and pursued both infantry and artillery to a point beyond the Union +left, where Grose, coming from the rear of Palmer, completed the work. +The dotted line shows Van Derveer's return. He, too, had moved without +orders to the sound of tremendous firing about the Snodgrass house. Just +as Steedman had hastily formed and assaulted Hindman's forces beyond the +right of Brannan, Van Derveer joined his brigade to Steedman's left and +moved also to the assault. Steedman seized a regimental flag and rode +with it in his hands to the top. His command was the brigades of those +splendid soldiers, John G. Mitchell and Walter C. Whittaker. + +One (Whittaker's) plunged into the gorge through which Hindman's left +was pouring, the rest of the line, with Van Derveer on its left, charged +for the ridge. In twenty minutes it was carried and all of Hindman's +forces were driven from it and out of the ravine. Whittaker had been +wounded and four of his five staff officers either killed or mortally +wounded. One-fifth of Steedman's force had been disabled in the charge. +Van Derveer's loss was considerable, but less in proportion, as he was +not fairly in front of Hindman, as Steedman was. Twice Hindman turned +his recoiling troops to recapture the position, but finally abandoned +the effort and relinquished the ridge to Steedman. The center and right +of Longstreet's third assault was in like manner repelled. In this +movement the Fourth Kentucky, Col. R. M. Kelley, joined Van Derveer and +fought with him till night. + +The coming of Steedman was more than an inspiration. It was more than +the holding of the right. He brought 100,000 rounds of cartridges and +artillery ammunition--far more welcome than diamonds. Regiments in the +line had been fighting, even at that early hour, with the bayonet and +clubbed muskets. Now, when Longstreet's right came on in aid of the +attempt of Hindman to hold his position on the west they were received +with terrific and continuing fire, and as the lines of gray, with +desperate valor, neared the summit Wood's men and Brannan's rushed at +them with the bayonet and broke their ranks, rolled them down the +slopes, and on Wood's front, with help of a direct fire from Aleshire's +battery on the left and a terrible enfilading fire from Battery I, +Fourth Regular Artillery, on Brannan's left, under those splendid young +soldiers, Lieutenants Frank G. Smith and George B. Rodney, drove them in +disorder beyond their artillery. + +At this time both Confederate wings were calling for re-enforcements. +Bragg's reply to Longstreet was that the right was so badly shattered +that it could not help him. + +When Steedman's coming with four thousand men had so changed the whole +current of the battle, what if the seven thousand men under Sheridan and +Negley about McFarland's and Rossville, much nearer than Steedman was, +had been brought up? How the officers who were there could stay +themselves, or manage to keep the men, is a mystery sickening to think +about. + +Hindman thus tells of the attack by which he carried the ridge to the +right of Brannan, before Steedman arrived: + +"In a few minutes a terrific contest ensued, which continued, at close +quarters, without any intermission, over four hours. Our troops attacked +again and again with a courage worthy of their past achievements. The +enemy fought with determined obstinacy and repeatedly repulsed us, but +only to be again assailed. As showing the fierceness of the fight, the +fact is mentioned that on our extreme left the bayonet was used and men +were also killed and wounded with clubbed muskets." + +Of the attack of Steedman's men in the ravine, where they rushed on the +Confederate line with the bayonet, pushed in among the guns and killed +gunners at their posts, Hindman further says: "I have never known +Federal troops to fight so well. It is just to say, also, that I never +saw Confederate soldiers fight better." Of the second attack upon +Brannan's position, which was repulsed, Kershaw, commanding in +Longstreet's troops from Virginia, said: "This was one of the heaviest +attacks of the war on a single point." + +Up to the time of Steedman's arrival there had been a break between +Reynolds and Wood, but the flank of the former in advance of the latter +somewhat covered it. Upon this point Longstreet now organized a heavy +attack. But the lull on the left, arising from the rebels there having +been, as Bragg expressed it, "so badly beaten back" that they could be +of no service on his left, made it practicable to strengthen the Union +center. Hazen was found to have ammunition, and was moved with celerity +into the gap, and Grose, Johnson's reserve, replaced him. Hazen arrived +none too soon. His lines were hardly established before Longstreet's +right was upon him, lapping over upon Reynold's front, and then, from +Reynolds to Steedman, there was one continuing hell of battle. Garfield, +who had come up with an escort, having ridden from Rossville, after +reporting to Thomas, moved along the ranks of his old brigade (Harker, +of Wood), encouraging the men, and giving evidence against all loiterers +at the gaps in the rear that every officer and man of them could easily +have reached the field. + +Longstreet's columns assault at every point, as rapidly as his lines +rolled back from the crest could be reformed. He had ten brigades in +front of Brannan and Steedman, while these officers had only four +unbroken in organization, and fragments of two others. One brigade of +Preston, which assaulted Wood and Hazen's line, had over 2,000 men in +the movement. The successive movements, rather the tremendous dashes of +these lines against the hill, was like the advance of breakers with +which ocean storms attack the shore. But, as surely, each wave with its +crest of steel, its spray of smoke, and its glitter of fire broke and +swept back with dead and wounded in its terrible undertow. It was +treason, but magnificent. Such was the scene which these soldiers of +Thomas saw on the Snodgrass Hill throughout the afternoon till dusk. + +To relieve the left Polk was ordered at 3 o'clock, to attack in force +with the whole right wing. But it required much time to organize those +battered lines for assault, but when done, it was, indeed, formidable. +The second map will make it plain. Cleburne, with four brigades, was +deployed before Palmer and Johnson. Jackson and Polk's brigades lapped +over Baird. Cheatham was in a second line. The map gives his position +wrongly, though it is taken from the original official map in the War +Department. Ranged further to the right, and crossing the State and +Lafayette road at McDaniel's, and thus massed against the Union left, +were the divisions of Breckinridge and Liddell, Armstrong's dismounted +cavalry division of Forrest, and Forrest's artillery. While Grose, of +Preston, was assaulting Hazen and Wood this attack on the Union left +began. But, as before, the brigades that moved up to the log breastworks +were speedily shattered, though this time they took their artillery +through the thickets with them, pushing it by hand. + +Once more, as the assault was made on Baird's left, there came a Union +charge across the Kelly field, the fourth for the day. This time it was +Willich, the reserve of Johnson. Withdrawing from line and facing north, +he swept along on the run and with cheers. His lines dashed into the +woods at the point where Stanley and Grose had charged before, and +without a halt sprang into the faces of the advancing Confederates. +King's regulars and Barnes gave brave help, and once more the immediate +left was cleared. The force on the road by the McDaniel house, though +unbroken, was not advanced. Later, an assault on Reynolds and Palmer was +ordered, but, naturally, it was feeble after so many repulses at the +breastworks. At half-past 5 there was quiet again along the Union left. +Longstreet, however, in front of the right, was active for another hour, +though at every point unsuccessful. + +At half-after 5 General Thomas, having full discretion, decided to +withdraw to occupy the passes in his rear at McFarland and Rossville, +which controlled the roads to Chattanooga. His line was solid at every +point. Both wings of the Confederates were at bay. Their right was too +much broken to successfully assault the Union left. The Union right, +though its ammunition ran low, and its officers were constantly +searching the boxes of the killed and wounded for cartridges, was +becoming practiced in the use of the bayonet against assaulting lines, +and in spite of the persistence of Longstreet's men, had begun to feel +comfortable in its position. The whole line could have been held until +night. But daylight was wanted to set the army in orderly motion toward +the gaps which controlled the city. After that was accomplished the +darkness afforded the needed cover to complete the movement. It was +because Chattanooga, and not the Chickamauga woods, was the objective of +the campaign that the army withdrew to Rossville. It was in no sense a +military retreat. + +If Thomas had not occupied these passes in the night, Bragg could have +done so, and the object he had in view would then have been +accomplished. Had Thomas allowed it, Bragg would have been only too glad +to have withdrawn from the field and "retreated" on Rossville. Thomas +did not permit it, but went there first, and Chattanooga was won. + +The withdrawal involved some fighting. The movement began on the right +of Reynolds. Palmer, Johnson, and Baird were to follow in succession, +all leaving their skirmishers in their works. + +Reynolds formed his brigades by the flank on each side of the Lafayette +road, King on the right and Turchin on the left. Thus he advanced +northward along the Kelly field toward Rossville. General Thomas +followed at the head of the column. As they passed a short distance +beyond the south line of the field they encountered the advancing troops +which had taken part in the last rebel attack. Instantly Thomas ordered +Reynolds to cause Turchin to file to the left, and after thus changing +front to "charge and clear them out." The line of Turchin's charge is +shown on the map. Filing into the wood to the left at double-quick, he +faced to the front while thus moving, and his lines darted at a run into +the faces of the enemy. It was one of the bravest and most brilliant, +most important and effective charges of the day--the fifth over those +Kelly fields. At the same moment King, forcing his way along the road, +fell on the flank of Liddell's division and broke it. Dan McCook, who +had been active during the day on the flank of Forrest, advanced and +opened with his artillery on the rebel rear, and after short but sharp +fighting the formidable array was driven back and the way to Rossville +was open. + +Turchin and King moved by the roads to McFarland's Gap. Baird, Johnson, +and Palmer followed over the same roads. They were attacked as they left +their works and crossed the Kelly field, but order in their columns was +restored as soon as they gained the shelter of the woods on the west of +the road. Hazen and Wood then followed without molestation. Steedman +withdrew at six o'clock from the extreme right, and Brannan was left +alone on Horseshoe Ridge. The sun was down. The shadows were thickening +in the woods before him, and yet Longstreet's men remained on the +slopes, and several times appeared in detachments close along his lines. +Suddenly a line of Hindman's men were found on the slope where Steedman +had been. By some strange oversight Brannan had not been notified that +his right was unprotected. A hasty examination in the gathering dusk +showed another rebel line on the slope directly in the rear, and which +had come round through the gap where Steedman's right had been, and was +evidently forming for an assault. The Thirty-fifth Ohio, of Van +Derveer's brigade, was thrown back to face both these lines. Fragments +of five regiments more, which had opportunely arrived, were given to the +commander of the Thirty-fifth. His own regiment had one round and one in +the guns. This was placed in front. The others, with fixed bayonets, +were formed in the rear. Just before dark a rebel officer rode in on +the line and asked what troops were here. He was shot by the near +outposts. + +Then came a scattering fire from the flank of the rebel line along the +ridge, next a volley from the Thirty-fifth, and a silent awaiting +results behind its line of bayonets. The volley had scattered the enemy +on the ridge, and the force in the rear had withdrawn. These were the +last shots on the right. Following them there was absolute quiet +everywhere on the field. The stillness was painful and awful. Brannan's +officers and men, peering down into the dim and smoking ravine, saw long +lines of fire creeping over the leaves, and in and out among the wounded +and the dead. It was a sight far more horrible than any of the pictured +presentations of Dante's Inferno. From this scene, with the low wailings +of the sufferers in their ears, they turned in triumph and exultant to +form the rear guard of Thomas's advance to Rossville. Turchin and +Willich fought last on the left and formed the rear guard there; Van +Derveer covered the right. And thus the Army of the Cumberland at +midnight occupied the passes which made the possession of Chattanooga +secure. + +There had been no such disordered rush of the broken portions of the +army on Chattanooga as the panic-stricken correspondent of an Eastern +paper depicted, who gave visions of his own early flight to the country +as news. Only a small part of the broken wing drifted to Chattanooga. +From 7,000 to 10,000 stopped at Rossville, and were fairly organized +there. When Thomas's forces arrived the whole army was placed in +position on Missionary Ridge, and in front of it, and remained in line +of battle throughout the whole of the 21st. + +At nightfall the army advanced to Chattanooga--advanced is the word; the +term "retreated," so persistently used in regard to this movement has no +place in the truthful history of this campaign. The Army of the +Cumberland was on its way to Chattanooga, the city it set out to +capture. It had halted at Chickamauga, on its line of advance, to fight +for its objective. On the night of the 21st it began its last march for +the city. Every foot of it was a march in advance, and not retreat. At +sunrise of the 22d Brannan's division, which was the rear guard, reached +the city, and the campaign for Chattanooga was at an end. Until that +morning broke the great bulk of the Army of the Cumberland had never +seen the place. + +Thus, crowned with success, though won at terrible cost, closed the last +campaign of General Rosecrans. It was matchless in its strategy, +unequaled in the skill and energy with which his outnumbered army was +concentrated for battle. Its stubborn, desperate, and heroic fighting +throughout the two days' battle was not surpassed, and, judged by its +returns of dead and wounded, not equaled in any one of the great battles +of the war. It secured the city which it marched to capture. The loss +was no greater than the country would have expected at any time in +attaining that result. If Rosecrans had crossed the river in front of +the city and captured it with even greater loss, the country would have +gone wild with enthusiasm. Had he been properly supported from +Washington he would have entered it without a battle, since, if there +had been even a show of activity elsewhere, Bragg's army would not have +been nearly doubled with re-enforcements and thus enabled to march back +on Chattanooga after its retreat from the city. The reverse on the field +on Sunday was not the disaster which at the time it was declared to be, +and which it has ever since suited several writers of military fiction +to persistently represent. The account herewith presented shows that +after General Thomas consolidated his lines at 1 o'clock on Sunday not a +single position was carried and held by the enemy. The withdrawal, which +began soon after 5 o'clock, was not in any sense forced. There is not an +officer or soldier who fought on those lines but knows that they could +have been held throughout till dark. + +The accepted version of Sunday's break on Rosecrans's right is that the +two corps of Crittenden and McCook were swept off the field; but only +five brigades of McCook's entire corps left the field, and the fragments +which went from Crittenden would not exceed two brigades. Palmer's and +Johnson's divisions, which fought splendidly to the end under Thomas on +the left, were respectively from Crittenden's and McCook's corps. Wood +belonged to Crittenden. Barnes's brigade, which fought on the extreme +left, and part of Dick's and Samuel Beatty's were all of Van Cleve's +division of Crittenden's corps. In other words, the large part of +Crittenden's force fought to the last. Four regiments of Wilder's +brigade of Reynolds's division were detached and cut off with the right, +and a considerable part of Negley's division of Thomas went to the rear, +chiefly through the bad conduct of its commander. We have seen, however, +how persistently and effectively Stanley's and John Beatty's brigades of +that division fought, and Beatty and General Charles Grosvenor and +Sirwell and Stoughton, of these brigades, were all found fighting like +private soldiers on the hill with Wood and Brannan to the last. The +battle of Sunday was, then, not the fight of any one corps, but of the +Army of the Cumberland. There was no disorderly retreat of the army on +Chattanooga, and nothing approaching it. The greater portion of the +right wing, which was cut off and certainly thrown into much confusion, +was reorganized at Rossville, and occupied its place in line at that +point throughout the next day and until the army moved on in the night +to occupy Chattanooga. The battle was desperate from the moment it +opened till its close. For the most part the lines fought at close range +and, in the countless assaults, often hand to hand. On the first day +there were no field works of any kind. On the second Thomas was +protected by such rude log works as could be hastily thrown together. +Brannan and Steedman were without a semblance of works. The battle in +the main, on both sides, was dogged, stand-up fighting far within the +limit of point blank range. For the second day, on the Confederate side, +the contest was one continued series of brave and magnificent assaults. + +General Rosecrans had crossed the Tennessee with an effective force of +all arms equipped for duty of a few hundred more than 60,000. Of this +number Wagner's brigade, with 2,061 effectives, held Chattanooga, +leaving the Union force in front of Bragg slightly less than 58,000. It +was several thousand less at the battle, Post's brigade of Davis' +division and three regiments of infantry and one battery being engaged +in guarding supply trains. + +In a letter from General Lee to President Davis, dated September 14, +1863, the following figures of Bragg's actual and prospective strength +are thus stated: + +"If the report sent to me by General Cooper since my return from +Richmond is correct, General Bragg had, on the 20th of August last, +51,101 effective men; General Buckner, 16,118. He was to receive from +General Johnson 9,000. His total force will, therefore, be 76,219, as +large a number as I presume he can operate with. This is independent of +the local troops, which, you may recollect, he reported as exceeding his +expectations." + +It will be well to remember, in connection with these official figures, +that Bragg, after the battle, reported Longstreet's force, which was not +included by Lee, at 5,000. This, according to the figures furnished +General Lee, gave Bragg 81,219. According to General Johnson's +correspondence, after he had sent 9,000 to Bragg, he subsequently +dispatched him two small brigades, and these, later, reached him the day +before the battle. + +A reference to the losses on each side will show that there has been no +exaggeration in the description of the fighting. Rosecrans's loss was +16,179. This included 4,774 missing, of which a large number were killed +or wounded. Bragg's losses, as compiled and estimated at the War Records +Office, were 17,804. Thus the entire loss for each army was over +twenty-five per cent. of the entire force of each. Hill's corps of the +Confederate right wing lost 2,990 out of a total 8,884. Of the 22,885 in +Longstreet's left wing the loss was 7,856, with one brigade heavily +engaged not reported. Longstreet's loss on Sunday afternoon was +thirty-six per cent, of those engaged. + +The casualties in Jackson's brigade of Cleburne's division, which +assaulted on Baird's front, was 35 per cent., while the Fifth Georgia, +of that brigade, lost 55 per cent., and the First Confederate Regulars +43 per cent. Gregg's brigade, of Buckner's corps, lost 652 out of 1,425. +Helm's Kentucky brigade, on the Union left, lost 75 per cent. of its +strength. Bate's brigade lost 7 officers killed and 61 officers wounded, +and the total casualties were 607 out of 1,316. All his field officers +except three were killed or wounded. The losses in Govan's brigade, of +Walker's corps, exceeded 50 per cent. Deas, who fought in front of +Steedman's assault, lost 745 out of 1,942. Walthall, of Walker, lost 705 +out of 1,727. On the Union side Steedman in four hours lost 1,787 out of +3,700, and all were killed and wounded but one. Brannan's division had +5,998 engaged. Its casualties were 2,174, or 38 per cent. The loss in +Van Derveer's brigade, of this division, in four regiments and one +battery, was 840 out of 1,788 engaged, or 49 per cent. Croxton's +brigade, of the same division, made up of five regiments, lost 938. Of +Van Derveer's regiments the Ninth Ohio lost 50 per cent.; the +Thirty-fifth Ohio, a small fraction less than 50 per cent.; the Second +Minnesota 192, or exactly 50 per cent., and the Eighty-seventh Indiana +about half of its number. General Wood lost 1,070 in two brigades. + +These figures become the more significant when compared with the +statement of losses in the world's noted battles. General Wheeler, the +distinguished Confederate cavalry commander, thus vividly presented this +question at the gathering of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland +and Confederates, at Chattanooga, in 1881: + +"Waterloo was one of the most desperate and bloody fields chronicled in +European history and yet Wellington's casualties were less than 12 per +cent., his losses being 2,432 killed and 9,528 wounded out of 90,000 +men, while at Shiloh, the first great battle in which General Grant was +engaged, one side lost in killed and wounded 9,740 out of 34,000, while +their opponents reported their killed and wounded at 9,616, making the +casualties about 30 per cent. At the great battle of Wagram Napoleon +lost but about 5 per cent. At Wurzburg the French lost but 3-1/2 per +cent., and yet the army gave up the field and retreated to the Rhine. +At Racour Marshal Saxe lost but 2-1/2 per cent. At Zurich Massena lost +but 8 per cent. At Lagriz Frederick lost but 6-1/2 per cent. At +Malplaquet Marlborough lost but 10 per cent., and at Ramillies the same +intrepid commander lost but 6 per cent. At Contras Henry of Navarre was +reported as cut to pieces, yet his loss was less than 10 per cent. At +Lodi Napoleon lost 1-1/4 per cent. At Valmy Frederick lost but 3 per +cent., and at the great battles of Marengo and Austerlitz, sanguinary as +they were, Napoleon lost an average of less than 14-1/2 per cent. At +Magenta and Solferino, in 1859, the average loss of both armies was less +than 9 per cent. At Konigrattz, in 1866, it was 6 per cent. At Werth, +Specheran, Mars la Tour, Gravelotte, and Sedan, in 1870, the average +loss was 12 percent. At Linden General Moreau lost but 4 per cent., and +the Archduke John lost but 7 per cent. in killed and wounded. Americans +can scarcely call this a lively skirmish. + +"At Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Gettysburg, Mission +Ridge, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania the loss frequently reached and +sometimes exceeded forty per cent., and the average of killed and +wounded on one side or the other was over thirty per cent." + +Those who remained at Chickamauga and fought till the night of Sunday +came, when, for many regiments, every other comrade was dead or wounded, +were satisfied with the result, and have always maintained that +Chickamauga was fought for Chattanooga, and have so regarded it as a +great and notable victory. General D. H. Hill in a recent _Century_ +article thus sums up the result for the Confederate side: "A breathing +space was allowed him; the panic among his troops subsided, and +Chattanooga--the objective point of the campaign--was held. 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 on a +hundred fields was gone forever. He was too intelligent not to know that +the cutting in two of Georgia meant death to all his hopes. He knew that +Longstreet's absence was imperiling Lee's safety, and that what had to +be done must be done quickly. The delay to strike was exasperating to +him; the failure to strike after the success was crushing to all his +longings for an independent South. 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." + +The authorities at Washington, to cover their own shortcomings and +inexcusable neglect, chose to deepen the erroneous impression that the +Army of the Cumberland had been routed and driven back to Chattanooga in +confusion. The removal of General Rosecrans was determined upon. In +fact, it had been only a question of opportunity since the campaign +opened. There was only needed the misrepresentations about Chickamauga +to furnish this. + +In the mean time General Rosecrans thoroughly fortified Chattanooga and +was actually engaged in preparations to open the river for supplies, +exactly as it was afterwards done, when he was removed. In fact, his +plan was partially perfected before he crossed the river, as is shown by +the fact that he made written contracts with Northern firms to have +bridges completed by October 1 for the Tennessee at Bridgeport, and the +Running Water at Wauhatchie. He had ordered the thorough reconnoitering +of the river bank opposite the north end of Missionary Ridge--where +Sherman afterward crossed with a view of a flank attack there. It was, +therefore, altogether fitting and proper that the order for his relief +should arrive while he was absent making a personal examination of the +vicinity of Brown's Ferry, where he intended to throw a bridge to unite +with Hooker from Bridgeport and open the river exactly as was afterward +done. He had even notified Harker of the plan three days before and +ordered him to be ready to execute his part of it. General Thomas, at +first, insisted that he would resign rather than appear to acquiesce in +Rosecrans's removal by accepting the command. It was at Rosecrans's +earnest solicitation that he reconsidered this determination. But he did +not hesitate to say that the order was cruelly unjust. When General +Garfield left for Washington soon after the battle he immediately +charged him to do all he could to have Rosecrans righted. These will be +new statements to most, but they are true. + +The survivors of the Army of the Cumberland should awake to great pride +in this notable field of Chickamauga. Why should it not, as well as +Eastern fields, be marked by monuments, and its lines accurately +preserved for history? There was no more magnificent fighting during the +war than both armies did there. Both sides might well unite in +preserving the field where both, in a military sense, won such renown. + + H. V. B. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note + + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer +errors have been changed and are listed below. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. + +Characters that could not be displayed directly in Latin-1 are +transcribed as follows: + + _ - Italics + + +Page 5: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga". + +Page 5: "vordict" changed to "verdict". + +Page 6: "maneuvred" changed to "maneuvered". + +Page 12: "Wilder swan" changed to "Wilder swam". + +Page 13: "precipitious" changed to "precipitous". + +Page 13: "resit" changed to "resist". + +Page 13: "Raccoon Mountains" changed to "Raccoon Mountain". + +Page 13: "similar" changed to "similar". + +Page 13: "Lookoot" changed to "Lookout". + +Page 15: "basis" changed to "bases". + +Page 16: "culimnated" changed to "culminated". + +Page 16: "through" changed to "though". + +Page 16: "Lookout Mountains" changed to "Lookout Mountain". + +Page 16: "Pigeon Mountains" changed to "Pigeon Mountain". + +Page 17: "fortanate" changed to "fortunate". + +Page 17: "Rosecran's" changed to "Rosecrans'". + +Page 19: "re enforcing" changed to "re-enforcing". + +Page 19: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga". + +Page 20: "Tenessee" changed to "Tennessee". + +Page 20: "struggte" changed to "struggle". + +Page 20: "Johston" changed to "Johnston". + +Page 22: "Chicamauga" changed to "Chickamauga". + +Page 22: "Infantry" changed to "infantry". + +Page 22: "Braggs's plan" changed to "Bragg's plan". + +Page 26: "Telford's" changed to "Tedford's". + +Page 26: "reconnoissance" changed to "reconnaissance". + +Page 29: "presentoed" changed to "presented". + +Page 30: "Layfayette" changed to "Lafayette". + +Page 30: "earrying" changed to "carrying". + +Page 31: "David was" changed to "Davis was". + +Page 32: "Starkweathar" changed to "Starkweather". + +Page 34: "Breckrinridge, to" changed to "Breckinridge, to". + +Page 35: "Layfayette" changed to "Lafayette". + +Page 35: "plainful quiet" changed to "painful quiet". + +Page 36: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge". + +Page 37: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge". + +Page 37: "Breckenridge's" changed to "Breckinridge's". + +Page 38: "Stoval" changed to "Stovall". + +Page 38: "noth" changed to "north". + +Page 40: "Brechinridge" changed to "Breckinrdige". + +Page 40: "unexpectly" changed to "unexpectedly". + +Page 40: "detrimeat" changed to "detriment". + +Page 40: "occurred" changed to "occurred". + +Page 41: "through a considerable" changed to "though a considerable". + +Page 41: "Laibolt's" changed to "Laiboldt's". + +Page 41: "Longstreets'" changed to "Longstreet's". + +Page 43: "final assanlt" changed to "final assault". + +Page 44: "Breckenridge" changed to "Breckinridge". + +Page 45: "direet fire" changed to "direct fire". + +Page 47: "assauit was made" changed to "assault was made". + +Page 50: "begun soon" changed to "began soon". + +Page 53: "Navarra" changed to "Navarre". + +Page 53: "enthusiam" changed to "enthusiasm". + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chattanooga and Chickamauga, by Henry V. 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