tion, reproached him for plotting against Burnside, and concluded by asking for victories. |
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Map 28 |
Jackson’s force, in a ten-mile-long column, moved out before daybreak
on May 2, marching southwest first then swinging northwest to get into position. The Federals noted that something was happening
off to the south but were unable to penetrate the defensive screen; Hooker soon began to think that Lee was actually retreating. In the late afternoon Jackson turned onto the Orange turnpike beyond Wilderness
Tavern. This move put him west of Hooker’s right flank; since the woods thinned out a little at this point, it was possible to form a line of battle. Because time was running short and the hour was late, Jackson deployed in column of divisions, each division formed with brigades abreast, the same kind of confusing formation General Albert S. Johnston had used at Shiloh. Shortly after 5:00 P.M. Jackson’s leading division, shrieking the "rebel yell" and driving startled rabbits and deer before it, came charging out of the woods, rolling up the different brigades
of Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s XI Corps. Despite a few heroic attempts to stand in the face of the rebel onslaught, the Union troops retreated in disarray. Jackson pressed forward, but fresh Union troops, the disorganization of his own men, and oncoming darkness stymied the attack. While searching for a road that would permit him to cut off Hooker from United States Ford across the Rappahannock, Jackson fell victim to friendly fire. The Confederate leader was wounded and died eight days later. During the night of May 2, Stuart, Jackson’s temporary
successor as corps commander, re-formed his lines. Against Stuart’s right Hooker launched local counterattacks that at first gained some success, but the next morning he withdrew his whole line. Once more Hooker yielded the initiative at a moment when he had a strong force between Lee’s two divided and weaker forces.
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THE DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON Soon after dark on the second day of fighting at Chancellorsville, a bullet fired by his own troops struck |
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embodied in a revised infantry manual published in 1863. Thus, by the third year of the war, battles had begun to take on certain definite characteristics.
The battle of Gettysburg in early July is a case in point. Gettysburg was, first of all, a generally unplanned battle—neither side knew that their forces would be brought together at that obscure crossroads for the greatest land battle on the North American continent. It stands out in American myth as one of the most dramatic battles with individual heroism and extraordinary valor on both sides as victory or defeat seemed separated by only a hair’s breadth. The three-day battle began as a meeting engagement, followed by each side’s attempting to bring a preponderance of troops onto the field as the battle raged. Some 43,500 Americans were casualties of this great battle, and Lincoln’s address over the cemetery of the dead was to be enshrined as a masterpiece of American historic prose. Gettysburg has become the most famous of the battles of that cruel war. After the great victory at Chancellorsville in May, the Confederate cause in the Eastern Theater had looked exceptionally bright. If 60,000 men could beat 134,000, then the Confederacy’s inferiority in manpower was surely offset by superior generalship and skill at arms. Vicksburg was not yet under siege, although Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had ferried his army over to the east bank of the Mississippi. If Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Lee were overly optimistic, they could hardly be blamed. Both felt it important to take the battle into the enemy’s territory to relieve the threat against Richmond, gather subsistence for the troops from the rich Northern farmland, and perhaps, just perhaps, garner another astounding victory that might capture Washington itself or force the Union to sue for peace. It was a gamble, of course, but Lee was a gambler and Davis only slightly less so. Lee made ready to move into Pennsylvania. By this time the Union objectives in the east were clearly defined: to continue operations against Confederate seaports—an attempt to seize Fort Sumter on April 7 had failed—and to destroy Lee’s army. President Lincoln’s orders made clear that the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia was the major objective of the Army of the Potomac. The capture of Richmond was to be only incidental. On June 30, 1863, the Army of the Potomac numbered 115,256 officers and enlisted men with 362 guns. It consisted of 51 infantry brigades organized into 19 divisions, which in turn formed 7 infantry corps. The cavalry corps had 3 divisions. The field artillery, 67 batteries, was assigned by brigades to the corps, except for army reserve artillery, restoring much of the power of the chief of artillery and redressing the problem of decentralized misuse of artillery noted at Chancellorsville. The Army of Northern Virginia, having numbered 76,224 men and 272 guns in late May, now was organized into 3 infantry corps, each led by a lieutenant general and larger than its Union counterpart. The death of Jackson had forced this change, with Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose P. Hill joining James Longstreet as lieutenant generals and commanders of the reorganized corps. Stuart’s cavalry retained its role, directly answering to Lee. In each corps were 3 divisions, and most divisions had 4 brigades. Of the 15 field artillery battalions of 4 batteries each, 5 battalions were attached to each corps under command of the corps’ artillery chiefs, leaving no artillery in army reserve. |
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JAMES LONGSTREET (1821–1904) Known as Old Pete and Lee’s War Horse, Longstreet became one of the Civil War’s most controversial |
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In early June Lee began moving his units away from Fredericksburg.
In his advance he used the Shenandoah and Cumberland Valleys, for by holding the east-west mountain passes he could readily cover his approach route and lines of communications. Hooker got wind of the move; he noted the weakening of the Fredericksburg defenses, and on June 9 his cavalry, commanded by Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, surprised
Stuart at Brandy Station, Virginia. Here on an open plain was fought one of the few mounted, saber-swinging, cut-and-thrust cavalry combats of the Civil War. Up to now the Confederate cavalry had been superior; but at Brandy Station, the Union horsemen "came of age," and Stuart was lucky to hold his position. |
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that he would not throw away a gun because it has misfired once. But Hooker soon became embroiled with Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck over whether or not he had the authority to move troops out of Harpers Ferry to reinforce his army and, in a moment of pique, requested his own relief. Lincoln, losing all confidence in Hooker’s judgment, promptly took him up on his offer. Hooker was replaced by one of his corps commanders, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, who was awakened unexpectedly before dawn on June 28 to receive word of his promotion. He immediately faced the challenge of assuming command of an Army that had only limited time to find, fix, and defeat a dangerous foe. Meade, who was to command the Army of the Potomac for the rest of the war, started north on a broad front at once but within two days began planning to fight a defensive action in Maryland and issued orders to that effect. However, not all his commanders received the order, and events overruled him. During the afternoon of June 30 outposts of both armies clashed north and west of the quiet little Pennsylvania market town of Gettysburg.
The terrain in the area included rolling hills and broad, shallow valleys. Gettysburg was the junction of twelve roads that led to Harrisburg,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and the mountain passes to the west that Lee controlled. As initial elements of both forces collided, the local commanders sent reports and recommendations to their superiors,
who relayed them upward; both armies, still widely dispersed, started moving toward Gettysburg. (See Map 29.) |
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Map 29 |
bine, were often deployed as mounted infantrymen who rode to battle but fought on foot. The range and accuracy of the infantry’s rifled muskets
made it next to impossible for mounted men to attack foot soldiers in position, but in this instance the infantry was attacking dismounted troopers in defensive positions. With their superior speed, mobility, and firepower, cavalrymen, as witnessed in the Gettysburg campaign, were especially useful for screening and reconnaissance but also for advance guard actions in which they seized or held important hills, river crossings,
and road junctions pending the arrival of infantry. During the morning hours of July 1, this was the role Union horsemen played on the ridges north and west of Gettysburg. Buford, with a keen eye for terrain and confidence in his troops, identified the key terrain of Cemetery
Hill and held the enemy in place until the arrival of Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds’ I Corps at ten o’clock in the morning and Howard’s XI Corps by noon. By midday on the first, two corps of the Army of the Potomac were locked in battle with Hill’s Confederate Corps, with elements of Ewell’s Corps moving up to support it. The latter, advancing from the north and northeast, broke the stretched lines of the XI Corps and drove the Federals back through Gettysburg in confusion. The Union infantry rallied behind artillery positioned on Cemetery Hill south of the town. Lee, who reached the field about 2:00 P.M., ordered Ewell at about 4:30 or 5:00 to take Cemetery Hill, "if he found it practicable." However, before preparations were complete for an attack, it began to get dark and Ewell failed to press his advantage. By nightfall the Confederates settled into positions extending in a great curve from northeast of Culp’s Hill, westward through Gettysburg, thence south on Seminary Ridge. During the night the Federals, enjoying interior lines, moved troops in strength onto the key points of Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Cemetery Ridge, forming a great inverted "fishhook." Meade arrived on the battlefield at midnight and, despite the confusion inherent in arriving in the midst of operations, quickly had a grasp of the battle. He decided to fight on that ground and not retreat. Accordingly, he put his forces in movement for a major defensive battle and completed his dispositions by the morning of July 2. The Union line was strong except in two places. In the confusion of battle, Little Round Top was unoccupied except for a series of small signal detachments. And the commander of the III Corps, Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, on his own responsibility moved his line forward from the south end of Cemetery Ridge to higher ground near the Peach Orchard; his corps lay in an exposed salient. He believed he was moving forward onto higher and more easily defensible ground, but he completely failed to coordinate his action. By early afternoon, five corps were arrayed along the Union battle line with one in reserve and one more still marching to reach Gettysburg. On the Confederate side, Lee still retained the power of choice. He could continue the attack, despite the unfavorable ground and the fact that not all his troops were yet in place. He could play it safe and wait, bring up the rest of Longstreet’s corps, or even try to get the Union Army to attack him in his own strong position on Seminary Ridge. Or he could break contact and retreat, hoping to bring the Union Army out of its positions and maneuver against it as it attempted to pursue |
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JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN (1828–1914) A former Bowdoin College professor, Colonel Chamberlain had led the 20th Maine for only a month |
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him. However, Lee was not in the mood to retreat or passively defend; he wanted to attack despite his disadvantages. |
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attempted to coordinate his units so that they would attack progressively
from right to left, and one of Hill’s divisions assaulted Cemetery Ridge in piecemeal fashion but was driven off. In the north, Ewell attacked
about 8:00 P.M. and captured some abandoned trenches near Culp’s Hill, but Federals posted behind stone walls proved too strong. As the day ended the Federals held all their main positions. The Confederates
had fought hard and with great bravery, but the Union Army, operating in interior lines, had been able to move troops in a timely fashion to all threatened spots in the line and had stubbornly defended against the Confederate assaults.
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"PICKETT’S" CHARGE For every Southern boy fourteen years old," William Faulkner wrote, "not once but whenever he wants |
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The Union artillery, while taking a beating, was not knocked out; artillery
reinforcements were quickly rushed to the threatened center. Union guns did slow their rate of firing, in part to conserve ammunition, and the silence seemed to be a signal that the Confederates should begin their attack. |
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Map 30 |
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fully, they would have to get to the high, dry ground east of town. This would put them in Confederate territory between two enemy forces. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton commanded some 30,000 men in Vicksburg, while the Confederate area commander, General Joseph E. Johnston (now recovered from his wound at Fair Oaks), concentrated the other scattered Confederate forces in Mississippi at Jackson, the state capital, 40 miles east of Vicksburg. During late winter and early spring, with the rains falling, the streams high, and the roads at their wettest and muddiest, overland movement was impossible. Primarily to placate discontented politicians and a critical press, Grant made four attempts to reach high ground east of Vicksburg. All four were unsuccessful, foiled either by Confederate resistance or by natural obstacles. One of the more spectacular efforts was digging canals. These projects had as their objective the clearing of an approach by which troops could sail to a point near the high ground without being fired on by Vicksburg’s guns. All failed. That Grant kept on trying in the face of such discouragement is a tribute to his dogged persistence, and that Lincoln supported him is a tribute to his confidence in the general. The trouble was that Grant had been on the river for two months, and by early spring Vicksburg was no nearer falling than when he came. On April 4 in a letter to Halleck, Grant divulged his latest plan to capture Vicksburg. Working closely with the local naval commander, Rear Adm. David D. Porter, Grant evolved a stroke of great boldness. He decided to use part of his force above Vicksburg to divert the Confederates. The main body would march southward on the west side of the Mississippi, cross to the east bank below the city, and, with only five days’ rations, strike inland to live off a hostile country without a line of supply or retreat. As he told Sherman, the Union troops would carry "what rations of hard bread, coffee, and salt we can and make the country furnish the balance." Porter’s gunboats and other craft, which up to now were on the river north of Vicksburg, were to run past the batteries during darkness and then ferry the troops over the river. Sherman thought the campaign too risky, but the events of the next two months were to prove him wrong. While Sherman demonstrated near Vicksburg in March, McClernand’s and McPherson’s corps started their advance south. The rains let up in April, the waters receded slightly, and overland movement became somewhat easier. On the night of April 16 Porter led his river fleet past Vicksburg, whose guns, once the move was discovered, lit up the black night with an eerie bombardment. All but one transport made it safely; and starting on April 30, Porter’s craft ferried the troops eastward over the river at Bruinsburg below Grand Gulf. The final march against Vicksburg was ready to begin. At this time the Confederates had more troops in the vicinity than Grant had but never could make proper use of them. Grant’s swift move had bewildered Pemberton. Then too, just before marching downstream, Grant had ordered a brigade of cavalry to come down from the Tennessee border, riding between the parallel north-south railroad lines of the Mississippi Central and Mobile and Ohio. Led by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, this force sliced the length of the state, cutting railroads, fighting detachments of Confederate cavalry, and finally reaching Union |
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lines at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Most important, for the few days that counted most, it drew Pemberton’s attention away from Grant and kept the Confederate general from discerning the Union’s objectives. Once more, divided counsel hampered the coordination of Confederate strategy. Davis had sent Johnston west in December 1862 to take overall command of the theater, an imposing task, for Pemberton’s army in Mississippi and Bragg’s in Tennessee were widely separated. Things were further confused by Davis’ directive to Pemberton to hold Vicksburg at all costs while Johnston recognized the potential trap and ordered him to move directly against Grant. In such a situation Pemberton could do little that was right. He tried to defend too great an area; he had not concentrated but dispersed his forces at Vicksburg, the Big Black River, and along the railroad line to Jackson, where Johnston was gathering more troops. As is often the case, whoever tries to defend everything often ends up losing everything. Grant took Port Gibson on May 1, and Sherman’s corps rejoined the main force. Now the Union commander decided that he must defeat Johnston before turning on Vicksburg. He moved northeastward and fought his way into Raymond on May 12, a move that put him squarely between Johnston and Pemberton and in a position to cut the Confederate line of communications. The next day Sherman and McPherson marched against the city of Jackson with McClernand following in reserve ready to hold off Pemberton if he attacked. The leading corps took Jackson on May 14 and drove its garrison eastward. While Sherman occupied the state capital to fend off Johnston, the other two corps turned west against Pemberton and Vicksburg. Pemberton tried too late to catch Grant in open country. He suffered severe defeats at Champion’s Hill (May 16) and Big Black River Bridge (May 17) and was shut up in Vicksburg. In eighteen days Grant’s army had marched 200 miles, had won four victories, and had finally secured the high ground along the Yazoo River that had been the goal of all the winter’s fruitless campaigning. In this lightning operation, Grant had proven himself a master of maneuver warfare and a bold risk-taker. Grant assaulted the Vicksburg lines on May 15 and 22, but as Sherman noted of the attacks: "The heads of columns have been swept away as chaff from the hand on a windy day." The only recourse now was a siege. Grant settled down and removed McClernand from command after the attack of May 22, during which the corps commander sent a misleading report, then later slighted the efforts of the other corps and publicly criticized the army commander. Grant replaced him with Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord and ordered the army to dig trenches around the city and place powerful batteries of artillery to command the enemy positions. The rest was now a matter of time, as Sherman easily kept Johnston away and the Federals advanced their siege works toward the Confederate fortifications. Food became scarce, and the troops and civilians inside Vicksburg were soon reduced to eating mules and horses. Shells pounded the city, and the Federal lines were drawn so tight that one Confederate soldier admitted "a cat could not have crept out of Vicksburg without being discovered." The front lines were so close that the Federals threw primitive hand grenades into the Confederate works. By July 1 the Union troops had completed their approaches and were ready |
Food became scarce, and the
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for another assault. But Vicksburg was starving, and Pemberton asked for terms. Grant offered to parole all prisoners, and the city surrendered on Independence Day. Since Grant was out of telegraphic contact with Washington, the news reached the President via naval channels on July 7, the day before General Banks’ 15,000-man army, having advanced upriver from New Orleans, captured Port Hudson. The Union now repossessed the whole river and had sliced the Confederacy in two. Once more Grant had removed an entire Confederate army—40,000 men—from the war, losing only one-tenth that number in the process. One week before the surrender of Vicksburg and the Union victory at Gettysburg, General Rosecrans moved out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
and headed for Chattanooga, one of the most important cities in the south because of its location. (Map 31) It was a main junction on the rail line linking Richmond with Knoxville and Memphis. President Lincoln had long recognized the importance of railroads in this area. In 1862 he said, "To take and hold the railroad at or east of Cleveland [near Chattanooga], in East Tennessee, I think fully as important as the taking and holding of Richmond." Furthermore, at Chattanooga, the Tennessee River cuts through the parallel ridges of the Appalachian Mountains and forms a natural gateway to north or south. By holding
the city, the Confederates could threaten Kentucky and prevent a Union penetration of the southeastern part of the Confederacy. If the Union armies pushed through Chattanooga, they would be in position to attack Atlanta, Savannah, or even the Carolinas and Richmond from the rear. As Lincoln told Rosecrans in 1863, "If we can hold Chattanooga
and East Tennessee I think the rebellion must dwindle and die."
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RAILROADS IN THE CIVIL WAR During the decade before the Civil War U.S. railroads expanded from 9,000 miles of track to over |
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a force under Burnside, who now commanded the Department of the Ohio, which was not part of Rosecrans’ command, had penetrated the Cumberland Gap and had driven the Confederates from Knoxville. Longstreet had to go around by way of Augusta and Atlanta and did not reach Bragg until September 18. The rail network was rickety, and Longstreet’s soldiers quipped that such poor rolling stock had never been intended to carry such good soldiers. Movement of Longstreet’s troops from Virginia was nevertheless an outstanding logistical achievement
for the Confederacy and a bold operational move. Rosecrans meanwhile began planning how to use his numerical superiority (he had 65,000 available troops to Bragg’s 46,250) to maneuver Bragg out of his positions in eastern Tennessee and move against Chattanooga. Faced with Confederates in strong positions around his base at Murfreesboro, Rosecrans decided to conduct a series of feints to mislead the enemy. Starting on June 24, he dispatched one division to the southwest of the city and a corps to the east to distract Bragg while moving the bulk of his army under corps commanders Maj. Gens. George H. Thomas and Alexander M. McCook to the southeast in a main attack on a critical mountain gap. Despite torrential rainfall and problems with muddy roads, the Union troops successfully seized Hoover’s Gap, unhinging the Confederate defensive line. Forced to retreat, Bragg fell back on Tullahoma to defend his supply lines. However, after a few days of recovery it was apparent to him that Rosecrans intended to use his superior forces to continue trying to outflank his position. Rather than be trapped, Bragg retreated again and, abandoning eastern Tennessee, he moved back over the rain-swollen Tennessee River on July 6. He returned to Chattanooga and prepared to defend that key city. In a few weeks of rapid maneuvering, Rosecrans had driven Bragg’s forces back to where they had started their offensive almost a year before. After months of delay Rosecrans had accomplished the feat of completely outmaneuvering Bragg without a major battle. He next demonstrated across the river from Chattanooga as a diversion while actually sending the bulk of his army to cross the Tennessee River miles to the southwest. He planned to get in behind Bragg and bottle him up in Chattanooga. However, the Confederate general saw through the scheme and slipped away southward, abandoning the city while carefully planting rumors that his army was demoralized and in flight. Rosecrans then resolved to pursue, a decision that would have been wise if Bragg had been retreating in disorder. There were few passes through the mountains and no good lateral roads. In full pursuit mode, Rosecrans dispersed his army in three columns over a forty-mile front to make use of the various passes. Watching Rosecrans carefully, Bragg stopped his retreat and concentrated his army about September 9 at La Fayette, Georgia, twenty miles south of Chattanooga. As his force was three times as large as any one of the Union columns, Bragg anticipated that he could hit each column in turn and defeat Rosecrans in detail. But his intelligence service failed him: he thought there were two, rather than three, Union columns and prepared plans accordingly. He first planned to strike what he thought was Rosecrans’ right (actually Thomas’ corps in the center) at McLemore’s Cove on September 10. However, his subordinates moved slowly, and |
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the attacks were made in desultory fashion. By the time Bragg’s forces could converge, Thomas had pulled his troops back into safe positions. Bragg next planned to strike at Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden’s corps on the Union left flank. Again, poor coordination prevented him from catching the enemy; Crittenden also pulled back behind the safety of Missionary Ridge. Thus, twice in three days Bragg missed a fine opportunity
to inflict a serious reverse upon the Federals because of his subordinates’ failure to carry out orders.
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THE NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS On July 13−17, 1863, several thousand rioters, mostly working-class Irish Catholics, smashed and |
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except for the tactical shifting of small units in response to crisis. By the evening of the nineteenth neither side had gained much terrain and the troops lay exhausted in the dense woods. The Union troops labored all night to cut down trees to fortify their positions as the Confederates gathered and reorganized for the next day’s attacks. |
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The only major Union units left on the field of battle by early afternoon
of September 20 were the hard-pressed divisions of Thomas’ corps. Adding to these units as they stood their ground were bits and pieces of regiments fleeing from the disaster on the Union right flank. These units and survivors pulled back onto a small piece of high ground called Snodgrass Hill to the rear of Thomas’ original defensive position. Arriving at this site in the early afternoon, Thomas saw that only a strong defense would preserve what was left of the army. If the position
fell, he stood a good chance of losing the entire army and the city of Chattanooga. He began shifting units from different parts of his hasty defensive line to deal with successive Confederate attacks. When Longstreet brought his divisions on line against him, he must have despaired
of holding; but the timely arrival of elements of Maj. Gen. Gordon
Granger’s reserve corps with fresh troops and more ammunition stemmed the Confederate tide. From then until darkness fell, Longstreet
sent attack after attack up the hill against the stubborn federals. But Thomas, who won for himself and the U.S. 19th Infantry the title Rock of Chickamauga, held the line. A Confederate remembered that afternoon how "the dead were piled upon each other in ricks, like cord wood, to make passage for advancing columns." As darkness fell and the exhausted Confederates ceased their attacks, Thomas slowly withdrew his units from Snodgrass Hill and conducted a careful withdrawal back toward Chattanooga. His retreat was in good order, saving almost two-thirds of the Army of the Cumberland from total destruction.
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SNODGRASS HILL At approximately 11:20 A.M. on September 20, 1863, General Longstreet’s corps of Bragg’s Army of |
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Rosecrans’ army, having started out offensively, was now shut up in Chattanooga as Bragg took up positions on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge dominating the city. The Union commander accepted
investment and thus surrendered his freedom of action. Burnside, at Knoxville, was too far away to render immediate aid. There were no strong Confederate units north of Chattanooga, but Rosecrans’ line of communications was cut away. The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad,
instead of running directly into the city, reached the Tennessee River at Stevenson, crossed at Bridgeport southwest of Chattanooga, and ran through Confederate territory into town. River steamers could get to within only eight miles of Chattanooga; beyond, the Tennessee River was swift and narrow. Supplies therefore came over the mountains in wagons; but starting September 30, Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, one of Bragg’s cavalry commanders, raided as far north as Murfreesboro. Though heavily and effectively opposed in his effort to tear up the railroad, he managed to destroy many precious Union supply wagons. With the mountain roads breaking down under the heavy traffic in wet weather, rations in Chattanooga ran short. Men went hungry, and horses and mules began to die of starvation. Rosecrans
prepared to reopen his line of communications by means of an overland route to the west. But this route was dominated by Confederate
troops on Raccoon and Lookout Mountains. Additional troops to clear these strong points were required if the Army of the Cumberland was to survive. |
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cil meeting on September 23, the President met with Secretary Stanton, General Halleck, and others to determine what could be done. As General
Meade was not active in the east at that time, they decided to detach two corps, or about 20,000 men, from the Army of the Potomac and send them by rail to Tennessee under the command of General Hooker, who had been without active command since his relief in June. The selected forces included ten artillery batteries with over 3,000 mules and horses. The 1,157-mile journey involved four changes of trains, owing to differing gauges and lack of track connections, and eclipsed all other such troop movements by rail up to that time. The troops began
to entrain at Manassas Junction and Bealton Station, Virginia, on September 25, and five days later the first trains arrived at Bridgeport, Alabama. Not all the troops made such good time: for the majority of the infantry the trip consumed about nine days. And movement of the artillery, horses, mules, baggage, and impedimenta was somewhat slower. Combined with a waterborne movement of 17,000 men under Sherman from Mississippi, the reinforcement of the besieged Rosecrans was a triumph of skill and planning. Chickamauga had caused Stanton and his associates to lose confidence in Rosecrans. For some time Lincoln had been dubious about Rosecrans, who, he said, acted "like a duck hit on the head" after Chickamauga; but he did not immediately choose a successor. Finally, about mid-October, he decided to unify command in the west and to vest it in General Grant, who still commanded the Army of the Tennessee. In October Stanton met Grant in Louisville and gave him orders that allowed him some discretion in selecting subordinates. Grant was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which embraced the Departments and Armies of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee and included the vast area from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi River north of Banks’ Department of the Gulf. Thomas replaced Rosecrans as Commander of the Army of the Cumberland, and Sherman was appointed to command Grant’s old Army of the Tennessee. Now that Hooker had arrived, the line of communications, or the "cracker line" to the troops, could be opened. Rosecrans had actually shaped the plan, and all he needed was combat troops to execute it. On October 26 Hooker crossed the Tennessee at Bridgeport and attacked eastward. Within two days he had taken the spurs of the mountains, other Union troops had captured two important river crossings, and the supply line was open once more. Men, equipment, and food moved via riverboat and wagon road, bypassing Confederate strong points, to reinforce the besieged Army of the Cumberland. In early November Bragg weakened his besieging army by sending Longstreet’s force against Burnside at Knoxville. This move reduced Confederate strength to about 40,000 about the same time Sherman arrived with two army corps from Memphis. The troops immediately at hand under Grant (Thomas’ Army of the Cumberland, two corps of Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee, and two corps under Hooker from the Army of the Potomac) now numbered about 60,000. Grant characteristically decided to resume the offensive with his entire force. The Confederates had held their dominant position for so long that they seemed to look on all of the Federals in Chattanooga as their |
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ultimate prisoners. One day in November Grant went out to inspect the Union lines and reached a point where Union and Confederate picket posts were not far apart. Not only did his own troops turn out the guard, but a smart set of Confederates came swarming out, formed a neat military rank, snapped to attention, and presented arms. Grant returned the salute and rode away. But plans were already afoot to divest the Confederates of some of their cockiness. Grant planned to hit the ends of the Confederate line at once. Hooker would strike at Lookout Mountain; Sherman, moving his army upstream across the river from Chattanooga and crossing over by pontoons, would hit the northern end of Missionary Ridge. While they were breaking the Confederate flanks, Thomas’ men could make limited, holding attacks on the center. The Army of the Cumberland’s soldiers, already nursing a bruised ego for the rout at Chickamauga, realized that in the eyes of the commanding general they were second-class troops. Hooker took Lookout Mountain on November 24 after a short struggle known as the Battle above the Clouds because of the height of the mountain and the mist that enshrouded it. On the same day Sherman crossed the Tennessee at the mouth of Chickamauga Creek and gained positions on the north end of Missionary Ridge. The next day his attacks bogged down as he attempted to drive south along the ridge. To help Sherman, Grant directed the Army of the Cumberland to take the rifle pits at the foot of the west slope of Missionary Ridge. These rifle pits were the first of three lines of Confederate trenches. Thomas’ troops rushed forward and seized the pits. Then, having a score to settle with the Confederates positioned above them, the troops kept going up the hill despite attempts by their officers to stop them. Coming under fire from the pits above and in front of them, the Federals inexorably swept up the hill. One of the charging Union soldiers, Lt. Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas MacArthur, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. When Grant observed this movement, he muttered that someone was going to sweat for it if the charge ended in disaster. But Thomas’ troops drove all the way to the top, some shouting "Chickamauga, Chickamauga"; in the afternoon Hooker swept the southern end of the ridge. The Federals then had the unusual experience of seeing a Confederate army disintegrate into precipitate retreat, throwing their blankets, knapsacks, and even weapons away as they ran. The surprised bluecoats beckoned to their comrades: "My God! Come and see them run!" Bragg personally mounted his horse and tried to stem the rout, but to no avail. Grant pursued Bragg’s army the next day, but one Confederate division skillfully halted the pursuit while Bragg retired into Georgia to regroup. The battles around Chattanooga and the subsequent campaign in eastern Tennessee ended in one of the most complete Union victories of the war. Bragg’s army was defeated, men and materiel captured, and the Confederates driven south. The mountainous defense line that the Confederates had hoped to hold had been pierced; the rail center of Chattanooga was permanently in Union hands; and the rich, food- producing eastern Tennessee section was lost to the Confederacy. Relief had come at last for the Union sympathizers in eastern Tennessee. With |
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Chattanooga secured as a base, the way was open for an invasion of the lower South.
1. What strategic challenges and choices did the North and South face in the opening days of 1863? What did each side choose to do with their opportunities and dangers? R R Carter, Samuel III. The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg, |
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Other Readings Coakley, Robert W. The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic |
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Last updated 25 August 2005
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