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Chattanooga, BATTLE
OF. In 1863 the Army of the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, after
crossing the Cumberland Mountains in pursuit of the Confederates under
General Braxton Bragg, was stretched along the Tennessee River from a point above
Chattanooga 100 miles westward. Rosecrans determined to cross that stream at
different points, and, closing around Chattanooga, attempts to crush or
starve the Confederate army there. General Hazen was near Harrison's, above
Chattanooga (Aug. 20). |
Scene of Chattanooga During the Civil War
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He had made slow marches, displaying
campfires at different points, and causing the fifteen regiments of his
command to appear like the advance of an immense army. On the morning of
Aug. 21 National artillery under Wilder, planted on the mountainside across
the river, opposite Chattanooga, sent screaming shells over that town and
among General Bragg's troops. The latter was startled by a sense of immediate
danger; and when, soon afterwards,
Generals Thomas and
McCook crossed the
Tennessee with their corps and took possession of the passes of Lookout
Mountain on Bragg's flank, and Crittenden took post at Wauhatchie, in
Lookout Valley, nearer the river, the Confederates abandoned Chattanooga,
passed through the gaps of Missionary Ridge, and encamped on Chickamauga
Creek, near Lafayette in northern Georgia, there to meet expected National
forces when pressing through the gaps of Lookout Mountain and threatening
their communications with Dalton and Resaca. From the lofty summit of
Lookout Mountain Crittenden had seen the retreat of
Braxton Bragg. He immediately
led his forces into the Chattanooga Valley and encamped at Ross's Gap, in
Missionary Ridge, within 3 miles of the town. |
