Civil War Ghost Trails by Mark Nesbitt

Author:Mark Nesbitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811748582
Publisher: Stackpole Books

Chattanooga

After Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Confederate victory at Chickamauga, disheartened Union forces retreated to Chattanooga. Confederates took positions overlooking the city on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The Federal forces were plagued by a supply line that was far too long, over inadequate mountain paths, and vulnerable to Confederate cavalry raids. It was only a matter of time before the defeated Union troops from Chickamauga would have to face their nemesis again or be starved out of Chattanooga.

President Abraham Lincoln made several strategic moves that indicated he understood how important that section of the Confederacy was to the Union cause. First, he sent reinforcements, some 20,000 men under the command of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. While Hooker had been a failure as commander of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, he would soon resurrect his reputation as “Fighting Joe.” Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman arrived with an additional 16,000 troops in mid-November.

Lincoln also made an important change in command. Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas replaced the demoralized William S. Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland and Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant arrived to take overall command.

One of the major problems facing the Union Army at Chattanooga was that 60-mile-long supply line. On October 27–28, in a daring riverborne assault, Union troops boated down the Tennessee River on pontoons and past Confederate batteries on Lookout Mountain to establish a pontoon bridge at Brown’s Ferry, significantly shortening what the troops named “The Cracker Line,” after hardtack, their food staple. With rations and supplies now readily available, Grant was ready to go on the offensive.

Grant’s battle plan was to use Hooker and Thomas to threaten Bragg’s left flank on Lookout Mountain and the Confederate center on Missionary Ridge. Sherman was to cross the river at Brown’s Ferry and march to a point above Chattanooga, then cross the river again in pontoon boats to make the main assault on Bragg’s right flank. Once Sherman dislodged Confederates on that flank, he would roll south down Missionary Ridge, sweeping it of Confederates. Hooker and Thomas would pressure them from the front.

Sherman’s march was slowed by muddy roads and the assault was postponed. Grant was vexed: One Union army under Ambrose Burnside was in Knoxville, Tennessee, about to be attacked; he also heard that Bragg was about to pull out from his position. Was he going to Knoxville?

In order to ascertain if Bragg’s army was still in position, on November 23, Federal forces took 100-foot high Orchard Knob, an advance Confederate picket post. They determined the main Confederate Army was still in place on Missionary Ridge.

Bragg’s position was formidable. Missionary Ridge rose 600 feet above Chattanooga. His left flank appeared even more impregnable: Craggy Lookout Mountain rose 1,400 feet above the river and would require an assaulting column to climb hand-over-hand in some places. At Missionary Ridge, Bragg’s men had dug in at the base in rifle pits. After Grant took Orchard Knob, they also began to dig in along the top of the ridge as well.

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