William Tecumseh Sherman by James Lee McDonough

Author:James Lee McDonough
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

AREA OF SHERMAN’S CHATTANOOGA OPERATIONS

Grant intended for Sherman to play the decisive role at Chattanooga, paving the way for Thomas and Hooker to move against Rebel positions farther south. Map by Jim Moon Jr.

At 3:00 a.m. on October 27, the Union flotilla of more than fifty pontoon-transports, each carrying on average twenty-five soldiers, cast off and started silently drifting downstream from the Chattanooga wharves, hugging the right bank of the river for the nine-mile journey. Just before daylight, they swept across the river and landed at two points on the west bank, one the gorge at Brown’s Ferry, and the other a gorge about a third of a mile farther downstream, from which the enemy could be assaulted in flank. The Confederates should have been prepared to give the Union a very tough battle for such strategic ground. Yet, not only were the Rebels surprised, they did not have near enough troops with which to contest the assault.

While Joseph Hooker did not arrive in time for the fight at Brown’s Ferry, his absence was of no consequence. The Federal forces from Chattanooga surprised, outflanked and outnumbered the Confederates. The battle was little more than a sharp skirmish, probably lasting less than thirty minutes, after which the Southerners retreated. A second fight, at Wauhatchie a few days later, guaranteed the Federal communications line. The Rebels had lost their greatest advantage—the ability to deny food, military supplies and reinforcements to the enemy. The Union Army was soon eating better. Numerical strength, once Sherman and Hooker arrived, approached 70,000, while Confederate Braxton Bragg depleted his fighting force to about 40,000, sending Longstreet’s men to Knoxville in a futile attempt to capture that city.34

Such was the situation when Sherman’s troops marched into Chattanooga via the recently opened cracker line. Grant wanted to attack the Rebels as soon as Sherman could get his men into position. The plan called for Hooker on the right and Thomas in the center to create diversions against, respectively, the Confederates at Lookout Mountain and their center on Missionary Ridge. Sherman was assigned the main task, to cross the Tennessee River several miles upstream from Chattanooga, and assault the northern end of Missionary Ridge, breaking the enemy’s right flank, and then advancing south along the ridge to cut the Rebel line of retreat. Grant, who was feeling pressure from Washington to aid Ambrose Burnside at Knoxville, believed that an attack against Missionary Ridge, even if it did not succeed, would so alarm the Confederate commander that he would recall Longstreet’s troops.35

But Sherman failed to move his forces into attack position fast enough to satisfy Grant. Probably Sherman, considering his pronounced prejudices about politics, both civil and military, was not fully in tune with Grant’s concern about pleasing Washington. Also, Willy’s recent death continued to have a depressing and numbing impact on him. Clearly he did not initially realize his commander’s impatience with him. Only when Grant sent Sherman a crisp order, through John A. Rawlins, Grant’s chief of staff, saying

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