Battle of Chattanooga

THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA

Following its defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, the Union Army, which was led by Major General William S. Rosecrans, went back to its base at Chattanooga. Reaching the safety of the town, they quickly created defenses before General Braxton Bragg's pursuing Army of Tennessee arrived. Moving his men onto Missionary Ridge to the east and Lookout Mountain to the south, Bragg soon commanded the approaches to the city and placed the Union troops under siege.
With the situation worsening, President Lincoln made the Military Division of the Mississippi and placed Major General Ulysses S. Grant in command of all Union armies in the West. Moving quickly, Grant relieved Rosecrans, replacing him with Major General George H. Thomas, and engineer Major General William F. Smith to open a supply line to Chattanooga. After making a successful landing at Brown's Landing, west of the city, Smith was able to link up with Thomas and open a supply route in October, which was known as the "Cracker Line.”
On the night of October 28 and 29, Bragg ordered Lieutenant General James Longstreet to sever the "Cracker Line." Attacking at Wauhatchie, the Confederate general was very mad. With a way into Chattanooga open, Grant began reinforcing the Union position by sending Major General Joseph Hooker with the XI and XII Corps and then an additional four divisions under Major General William T. Sherman. While Union forces were growing, Bragg reduced his army by sending Longstreet's force to Knoxville to attack a Union force that was under Major General Ambrose Burnside.
Having consolidated his position, Grant began offensive operations on November 23, by ordering Thomas to go on from the city and take a string of hills near the foot of Missionary Ridge. The next day, Hooker was ordered to take Lookout Mountain. Crossing the Tennessee River, Hooker's men found that the Confederates had failed to defend a valley between the river and mountain. Attacking through this opening, Hooker's men succeeded in pushing the Confederates off the mountain. As the fighting ended around 3:00 PM, a fog descended on the mountain, which gave the battle the name of "The Battle Above the Clouds."
To the north of the city, Grant ordered Sherman to attack the north end of Missionary Ridge. Moving across the river, Sherman took what he believed was the north end of the ridge, but was actually Billy Goat Hill. His advance was stopped by Confederates under Major General Patrick Cleburne at Tunnel Hill. He thought that a frontal assault on Missionary Ridge to be suicidal, Grant planned to envelop Bragg's line with Hooker attacking the south and Sherman from the north. To defend his position, Bragg had wanted three rows of rifle pits to be dug on Missionary Ridge, with artillery on the very top.
Moving out the next day, both attacks met with little success as Sherman's men were unable to break Cleburne's line and Hooker was delayed by burned bridges over Chattanooga Creek. As reports of slow progress arrived, Grant began to believe that Bragg was weakening his center to reinforce his sides. To test this, he ordered Thomas to have his men advance and take the first line of Confederate rifle pits on Missionary Ridge. Attacking, the Army of the Cumberland, which for weeks had suffered taunts about the defeat at Chickamauga, succeeded in driving the Confederates from their position.
Halting as ordered, the Army of the Cumberland soon found itself taking heavy fire from the other two lines of rifle pits above. Without orders, the men started to move up the hill in order to continue the battle. Though originally mad at what he perceived to be a neglect for his orders, Grant moved to have the attack supported. On the ridge, Thomas' men advanced steadily, aided by the fact that Bragg's engineers had accidentally placed the artillery on the actual crest of the ridge, rather than the military crest. This mistake stopped the guns from being brought to bear on the attackers. In one of the war's most dramatic events, the Union soldiers surged up the hill, broke Bragg's center, and put the Army of Tennessee to rout.
This battle finally ended in a Union win, which they were of course happy about, but even happier because of their loss at Chickamauga, so this win made them feel like it made up for their other loss. The victory at Chattanooga cost the Union 753 men that were killed, 4,7220 of the men in their troops were injured and 349 missing. The Confederate’s casualties were listed as 361 killed, 2,160 wounded, and 4,146 captured and missing.
The Battle of Chattanooga opened the door for the invasion of the Deep South and the capture of Atlanta in 1864. In addition, the battle destroyed the Army of Tennessee and forced Confederate President Jefferson Davis to relieve Bragg and replace him General Joseph E. Johnston. Following the battle, Bragg’s men went back south to Dalton, GA. Hooker was sent out to pursue the broken army, but was defeated by Cleburne at the Battle of Riggold Gap on November 27, 1863. The Battle of Chattanooga was the last time Grant fought in the West as he moved East to deal with Confederate General Robert E. Lee the following spring.

Bibliography

• www.wikipedia.org
• www.wiki.answers.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_Of_Chattanooga
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Chattanooga
• http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn024.htm
• http://www.battlesforchattanooga.com/