Chattanooga and Chickamauga

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.

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.

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.