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Completely unaware that General Grant's army was completing preparations for an assault the next day, 150 years ago this morning General Bragg watched as General Buckner's division departed for the march east to join General Longstreet's command. This detachment meant that Bragg had now reduced his force "besieging" Chattanooga by more than 15,000 men.
What remained were two corps under generals Hardee and Breckinridge. Despite all the house cleaning done by Bragg, he still had men who hated him as his chief subordinates. Counting what was left of his cavalry, Bragg had about 44,000 with which to defend Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
Opposing him would be 65,000. Generals Sherman and Thomas each had about 20,000 in their commands, General Thomas led the 25,000 men of the Army of the Cumberland. Grant's original plan was for the main blow to be struck against Bragg's right, Sherman hitting the Confederate flank at Tunnel Hill. Thomas was to stage a diversionary attack against Lookout Mountain to hold the troops there in place. As Sherman drove the rebels off the NE end of Missionary Ridge and pushed toward the center, Thomas would advance and take over driving the enemy while Sherman swung south to cut off the escape routes for the Confederates.
It didn't work out that way in any manner. The rains delayed Sherman getting into position and while Grant was waiting, word was received that the rebels were pulling out. This intelligence proved to be false, but Grant did not want to take any chances by waiting further. He ordered Thomas to have the Army of the Cumberland ready to advance in the morning, the entire force was to move as one and take Orchard Knob, a height about a mile in front of the Union lines, representing the enemy's most advanced outpost. Grant wanted a spectacular show, one which would freeze Bragg in place and prevent his departure before Sherman could strike his blow.
In the belief that the Army of Tennessee was preparing to evacuate their position outside of Chattanooga, 150 years ago today saw one of the great visual pageants of the war as General Thomas lined up 20,000 men of the Army of the Cumberland in the flat bowl below Missionary Ridge.
The supposed retreat was not taking place. It had been scouts noting the departure of General Buckner's force which had led to the false conclusion. Still, this had been enough to get General Grant to alter his original plan. While waiting for General Sherman to get his troops in position on the Federal left, the diversionary attack against Lookout Mountain would be converted into a real one, and rather than being spectators while Sherman's force did the heavy lifting, the Army of the Cumberland was now to try and make General Bragg believe that the major effort would be against the center of his line, and would be happening this day.
Thomas' army was in parade ground formation, all of it in a quite visible panorama from the heights which the rebels occupied. At 1:30 pm Thomas gave the command and 14,000 of his men advanced as if on review. Their target was Orchard Knob, a 100 foot high knoll half way between the Union lines and the Confederate entrenchments. 600 soldiers in grey were posted there and after firing a single futile volley at the approaching mass, they fled. Not longer after, Grant established his forward headquarters on the Knob.
There were but a handful of casualties in this movement, but it had a major impact on Bragg. He immediately began trying to recall Buckner's force, succeeding in getting General Cleburne's division to unload themselves from the train they had just boarded and march back to the main force, arriving just after dark. Bragg also weakened the force he had guarding Lookout Mountain to strengthen the line on Missionary Ridge where apparently the main Union effort would be launched. Surprisingly, despite having had nearly two months to do so, Bragg only now began the fortification of Missionary Ridge. Also surprisingly, rather than the common military dictum of defending a height from its military crest (a point typically about 3/4ths of the way to the top), Bragg divided the defenders, placing half on the actual crest, and half at the base in rifle pits.
In sum it was a day where both army commanders made guesses in the dark, and both wound up with some advantages and disadvantages. Without the demonstration designed to fix Bragg into place, Cleburne's troops would have been gone, making it easier to assault Bragg's right. At the same time, Grant's decision to open his attack by taking Lookout Mountain had been aided by Bragg reducing the force which held that height.
Orchard Knob had opened the ball, tomorrow the first dance would take place on Lookout Mountain.
"The Battle Above the Clouds" is the popular nickname given for the fight for Lookout Mountain which took place 150 years ago today. It is a misnomer, patches of fog swirled about the 2400 foot tall height, but it did not reach up to the clouds.
What Lookout Mountain lacked in vertical extension, it made up for in girth, extending for miles to the SW and forming the northern end of a chain. Trying to defend this huge area were 8200 men, one division and three auxiliary brigades under the command of General Carter Stevenson.
Nine batteries of artillery announced the attack in the morning, heralding the advance of 10,000 of General Hooker's men. Partially hidden by the fog, the assault made immediate gains, encountering the rebels in pockets rather than a mass and taking numerous captives as they marched. The three rebel brigades defending the base of the mountain were scattered and Hooker's force climbed up to have a go at the division which was defending the crest.
Commanding that division was General Breckenridge. The steepness of the mountain nearer the top created a dfifficult angle from which to shoot rifles and an impossible one for artillery which could not be sufficiently depressed to rain metal on attackers. Breckenridge did not have enough men to cover every possible approach, and due to the fog, the Federal troops would not appear until already quite close to the Confederate lines. Breckenridge judged the position hopeless and fought a delaying action, holding off the ongoing attacks until darkness brought them to an end. Under cover of the night, the rebels evacuated the mountain and marched east to join the rest of Bragg's force on Missionary Ridge.
While those actions were taking place on the Federal right, at the opposite end of the line General Sherman's Army of the Tennessee veterans launched their movement against Tunnel Hill. To their surprise they encountered little to no resistance as they moved and seized their objective, or what they thought was their objective. Sherman's topographers had blundered and failed to recognize that Tunnel Hill was separate from a series of rises and eminences in front of it. Sherman had captured a place which could be used as a jumping off point for an attack against Tunnel Hill, but the hill itself was still in the distance. Sherman reformulated his plans and rescheduled the attack for tomorrow.
Grant accepted Sherman's revised plan and decided to have Hooker's men threaten the rebel left flank while the heavy hitting took place on the right. Hooker was to cross the valley between the mountain and the ridge, make a demonstration against the Confederate left flank, turning it into an actual assault if opportunity arose. General Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland were assigned the subordinate role. They were to advance from Orchard Knob to the base of Missionary Ridge and keep the rebels in the rifle pits occupied and in place, unable to go in aid of the men under attack on both flanks. As with Grant's original plan of battle, nothing would materialize as expected.
Bragg concentrated his men into a continuous three mile line on Missionary Ridge and after an unsurprisingly divided officers consultation, decided to stay and defend that height, believing it to be too strong to be taken.
Battle For Lookout Mountain
Artist Rendering
The Army of the Cumberland Watches As Lookout Mountain Is Attacked By Hooker's Corps. Visibility was poor due to the fog and progress was unknown until a dramatic moment occurred late in the afternoon when a breeze briefly parted the fog and into view came the American flag reaching the crest.
It was supposed to have been General Sherman's show. After the delays involved in getting into position on the rebel right, after the false start yesterday foiled by the surprise geography of the ridge, today Sherman's troops would at last attack the Confederate right and then sweep across and behind Missionary Ridge, trapping the enemy as they attempted to flee.
Once more, it did not work out that way, sometimes the generals determine the outcomes of battles, and sometimes it is the soldiers who are decisive. Today it would be the latter.
Just after sunrise Sherman's assault was launched against the defenders of Tunnel Hill. In command on the rebel right was General Patrick Cleburne, as Irish as Irish gets....born on St. Patrick's Day in County Cork. His father had wanted him to follow in his footsteps and be a doctor, but Cleburne had been unable to pass the entrance exams for the schooling. Instead he became a soldier in the British army, bought his discharge after three years and immigrated to America, settling in Helena, Arkansas, and taking up the practice of Pharmacy. When the war began he enlisted as a private soldier, was elected captain and later colonel of his volunteer regiment, and his outstanding record with the Army of Tennessee had won him promotion to general and division command by the time of this battle.
To defend Tunnel Hill against the five divisions Sherman brought to the attack, Cleburne had his own division along with the survivors of General Stevenson's division after they had been dislodged the day before from Lookout Mountain. Despite being outnumbered better than 2 to 1, Cleburne fought with his typical fury, refusing to yield any ground at all and bringing Sherman's assault to a grinding halt. Through the morning and into the afternoon Cleburne continued to hold and Sherman was unable to make any progress.
On the opposite flank, General Hooker led his men down from Lookout Mountain and into the valley between that eminence and Missionary Ridge. Here they discovered that the bridges across Chattanooga Creek had all been burned after General Stevenson's men had used them to escape the night before. Seriously delayed by this, Hooker's demonstration which was to be converted into an attack if opportunity presented itself, remained only a demonstration.
Sherman's lack of progress caused General Grant to suspect that Bragg must have weakened his center in support of his right, and to increase the threat there he ordered General Thomas to advance his army from Orchard Knob and to take the rifle pits at the base of Missionary Ridge. That was the extent of the orders, they were not to try and advance up the ridge, it was too well defended. Further, the plan had been to cave in Bragg's flanks and cut off his escape. A successful attack in the center would drive him away but not block the getaway routes.
In another spectacular visual display, Thomas sent his 25,000 men forward toward the base of the ridge. Vastly outnumbered, the rebels in the pits fired a few token volleys and then scampered back up the slope to rejoin the rest of the army. The men of the Army of the Cumberland, the same men who had been routed from the Chickamaugua battlefield, advanced and occupied the rifle pits, but to their discomfort discovered that they had made themselves into a target with no protection. Remaining where they were meant that they could be shot at by the Confederates at the top of the ridge while unable to return fire themselves. Unhappy with this situation, and without orders from anyone, first in small groups, and then in mass, they began climbing the ridge to get at their tormentors.
Watching the battle from Orchard Knob were Grant and Thomas. Upon seeing the soldiers advancing up the ridge, Grant demanded of Thomas by whose orders this was happening. It soon became apparent that it was taking places sans orders, that the movement had been decided upon by the soldiers themselves who very badly wished to redeem themselves from their earlier defeat, and also very badly wanted to get away from their exposed and impotent position at the base of the ridge.
They pulled themselves up by grasping branches, by pulling and pushing one another along until the various units found themselves actually racing against one another to be the first to get to the top. They were so close on the heels of the retreating men from the rifle pits that the rebels on the top had to hold their fire less they strike their own soldiers. On and over the top theFederals went, stampeding the defenders who had thought themselves unassailable on the heights. So suddenly was it over that Bragg was very nearly captured as he raced about trying to restore his crumbling line.
It was only by the grace of Cleburne's heroic stand on the right that most of Bragg's army was able to flee without being captured. Cleburne held on until darkness allowed him to slip away and join the retreating Confederates. Grant's force had endured about 5500 casualties, Bragg had suffered about 6700 losses.
So two months to the day of their humiliating disaster at Chickamagua, the Army of the Cumberland repaid that favor in kind. The defeat was overwhelming and Bragg's retreat would not stop until reaching Dalton, Georgia, leaving all of middle Tennessee in Federal hands once more. While the gains of the Chickamagua victory went unexploited, and now were completely reversed, that battle had at least served to keep the Federals from advancing into Georgia that fall, meaning the final conquest of the west would be delayed until the 1864 campaigning season.
For the generals, it was another, if questionably deserved, triumph for Grant's resume, bringing to mind Napoleon's expressed preference for lucky generals over brilliant ones. For Bragg it was the final straw, three days after being run off his ridge, he asked to be relieved of command and was taken by surprise when the request was immediately granted by President Davis. Brought to Richmond to serve as a military adviser, Bragg would never again hold a field command.
Maps of the Storming of Missionary Ridge
Artist Depiction of Thomas' Men Cresting The Ridge
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Patrick CleburneHe Was To Chattanooga What Thomas Had Been To Chickamagua
Since the Bristoe Campaign, which had consisted of both armies getting some exercise marching up to Centreville and back to the Rapidan River, but little else, the armies facing each other in Virginia had been their usual inactive selves. Displeased with this tranquility, President Lincoln had ordered General Meade to get some sort of an offense going before winter arrived and ended the 1863 campaigning season.
150 years ago today Meade began obeying the order.
General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was split into two wings, a Corps under General Ewell guarding the shores of the Rapidan, and thirty miles to the SW a Corps under General Hill stationed near Orange Court House. Between them was a rise called Clark's Mountain and Meade decided that this barrier gave him an opportunity. If he could concentrate his force rapidly and make a lightning march, he could fall on Ewell's Corps with his entire force before Hill could cross the mountain to aid him. At this time, due to detachments, both armies were under typical strength, Meade having about 81,000 to Lee's 48,000. In Meade's plan, all of his 81,000 would be falling on the 23,000 men of Ewell's Corps.
That was how it was supposed to work on paper.
Things began well enough on the 25th. A heavy bank of fog surrounded Clark's mountain and screened the initial movement of the Army of the Potomac as they crossed the Rapidan to Hill's right. Here they ran into trouble. Because he was moving his entire army on a single path, getting them across the river at one of the two available fords turned out to be very time consuming. The situation was made worse when General French, commanding the Third Corps, decided that things would go faster if he put his men across one ford while sending his artillery train to cross at the other. The consequence was a confusing traffic jam at the second ford leading to bitter arguments and wasted time as Meade's subordinates argued about who had the right of way.
This muddle was easily detected by the rebels and Lee ordered Hill to immediately march to the scene. He established Ewell and Hill in a defensive line along Mine Run Creek which faced east and served as a natural barrier against any force coming from the Rapidan fords. By the time Meade's army was finally across the fords and marching west on their "lightning strike", the rebels were well dug in and fortified. With his surprise flanking movement frustrated, Meade settled down to another stalemate, the only thing having changed was the scenery.
Both armies would remain in these positions until December 2nd, , both looking for but not finding opportunities to get at one another without destroying themselves, and neither finding one. Finally concluding that it had all been a frustrating failure, Meade woud withdraw and the two forces would resume their familiar posting across from one another on the Rapidan.
On this same day in the west, never one to waste a moment, General Grant sent the forces under generals Sherman and Thomas in pursuit of the retreating rebels. Once more it was General Cleburne saving the day for the Army of Tennessee. He ambushed the pursuers outside Ringgold, Georgia, bringing them to a halt and permitting the rest of the army to continue their retrograde movement unmolested.
In Virginia the armies of generals Meade and Lee faced each other inactively across Mine Run Creek, looking for, but failing to find openings which might lead to a successful attack. In Tennessee a few skirmishes with the rear guard of the retreating Army of Tennessee marked the last of the action associated with the battle of Chattanooga.
When we last looked in on General John Hunt Morgan he had come to grief at the end of his raid along the Ohio River. Captured by militia and Union cavalry units, Morgan and his top officers had been incarcerated at the new state pen in Columbus, Ohio.
150 years ago today it was "Goodbye Columbus." In the cell of one of those officers, Thomas Hind, Morgan and a half dozen others had burrowed a hole in its floor, a process that had taken twenty consecutive full nights of digging to get through the four feet of concrete. Dropping through the hole left them in a maze of underground support structures which ended with wall about twenty feet from the prison's outer wall. Four more nights were needed to break through the support wall and on November 27th they had punctured their way through.
Using a rope that had been made from their bunk covers, the seven prisoners scaled the outer wall, dropped to the ground and scattered as planned. Morgan and Hines traveled together, purchasing a ticket for a train which took them from Columbus to Cincinnati. Morgan's seatmate was a Union officer with whom he conversed cheerfully the entire journey. The two fugitives jumped from the train before it pulled into its destination, made their way to the Ohio River where they hired a boat to take them across into Kentucky. From there they traveled at night, resting during the days at the homes of known Confederate sympathizers. One of them was The Old Pollard Inn whose proprietor figured out their identity and arranged for them to continue their journey south disguised as cattle buyers. From there it was another twenty five days of adventure and near disasters before they finally reached the safety of General Bragg's army at Dalton, Georgia.
For a brief time this daring escape once more made the handsome Morgan the darling of the South, but this was the high point of the nine months he had left to live. Before his death, his own side would be disowning him, his followers abandoning him, his instincts for survival betraying him. Some of Morgan's Men In Captivity
The year's last gasp of Confederate hopes in Tennessee took place 150 years ago today as General Longstreet launched an attack against Knoxville and the soldiers defending it under General Burnside.
The city was protected by a series of forts and battery positions and Longstreet decided to target Fort Sanders on the west side of the town. False intelligence, poor planning and irresolution marked the rebel effort and the results were what one would predict in such circumstances. Longstreet had surveyed the defensive installation from a distance using binoculars. He saw that there was a defensive ditch in front of the fort, but also saw the upper bodies of Union soldiers passing through it, so he assumed that it was not very deep. Unknown to Longstreet the soldiers he had seen were actually crossing on an extended plank, the ditch was really 12 feet deep and the sides nearly vertical.
Longstreet went to some trouble arranging for an artillery bombardment to soften up Fort Sanders before the attack, but at the last moment changed his mind and decided on a surprise dawn attack, forgoing the bombardment so as not to warn the Federals in advance. As it worked out, there was neither a bombardment nor a surprise. Rebel skirmishers began their activities prematurely and by sunrise, the Federals were fully alert to the impending assault.
Three rebel brigades rushed forward, reached the ditch and either simply stopped or worse, jumped down into it. There were no scaling ladders and no means for those in the ditch to climb the walls. Instead they became a shooting gallery for the defenders and the attack dissolved into chaos less than 15 minutes after it began, turning into a rescue mission for the unfortunates who had gone into the ditch. Twenty minutes after going forward, the Confederates were retreating and the attack canceled by Longstreet.
Burnside's force had suffered just eight killed and five wounded while Longstreet lost more than 800 combined in killed, wounded and captured. Adding salt to the wound, later that morning Longstreet received the news about General Bragg's disastrous defeat at Chattanooga, meaning that even if his attack had been successful, the entire purpose of his mission to east Tennessee no longer existed.
The campaign was a complete failure, accomplishing nothing outside of creating more casualties for the rebels who would have been of far more use had they remained in Chattanooga. This was the end of the fighting in Tennessee for the year, and on December 4th, when Longstreet withdrew and began marching back to Virginia to rejoin General Lee, it was the end of all Confederate power in eastern Tennessee. At last one of President Lincoln's longest held desires was realized, that portion of the state which had always remained loyal, was finally free of a Confederate presence.
150years ago today General Bragg submitted a status report to the Confederate War Department, ending with a dramatic request.
Quote:
Our advance last night was at Tunnel Hill, the enemy just this side
of Ringgold. We hope to maintain this position. Our inferiority in
numbers, heavy loss in artillery, small-arms, organization, and
morale, renders an earlier halt impossible; and should the enemy
press on promptly we may have to cross Oostenaula. I have tried to
communicate with Longstreet; by prompt movement he can be saved.
Burnside's force is far inferior to him. If necessary, he can go on
and join Jones' forces. Communication may be opened with him by the
East Tennessee route. My first estimate of our disaster was not too
large, and time only can restore order and morale. All possible aid
should be pushed on to Resaca, and I deem it due to the cause and to
myself to ask for relief from command and an investigation into the
causes of the defeat.
Historians have been divided over the sincerity of Bragg's offer to resign. Some believe that Bragg was taking a page from General Lee after Gettysburg, offering to quit while knowing that it would not be accepted. In short, a seeking of validation after the setback at Chattanooga. Others argue that Bragg saw how demoralized the men of the Army of Tennessee were after the disaster and recognized that they would never rally under his continuing leadership, he had lost too much respect.
Whatever was on Bragg's mind, he must have been shocked by the immediacy of the response. President Davis authorized accepting the resignation and Bragg was notified at once that he was relieved and was to turn command of the army over to General Hardee.
Bragg did as was ordered and prepared to depart. Before taking his leave, he could not resist a few parting shots, writing to Davis that he accepted his removal from command, but that the president would be wise not to stop there. This was followed by heavy criticism of generals Cheatham and Breckinridge, the latter of whom Bragg charged with being drunk throughout the battle and retreat. He concluded with his personal assessment of the Chattanooga battle which stated that he had been overcome by overwhelming numbers alone. He failed to mention his bringing about that condition with his detachment of General Longstreet's force.
In his seventeen months leading the Army of Tennessee, Bragg had fought four major engagements and had retreated after three of them, although the only battle he admitted losing was Chattanooga. He blamed his subordinates for his setbacks, sometimes with cause, sometimes without, and they had hated him for it. He had been the toughest military disciplinarian on either side of the Mason Dixon line and his men had hated him for that. To his credit he had twice handed the Union serious delays in their operations. His well conceived but shakily executed 1862 invasion of Kentucky helped postpone the loss of middle Tennessee by nearly a year, and his victory at Chickamagua would keep the Federals out of Georgia until May of 1864.
And when they did invade the Peachtree state, someone else would be leading the Army of Tennessee against them.
General Longstreet ended his siege of Knoxville and began his evacuation of his army to Greenville, Tennesse. Ill conceived, insufficiently supported and poorly executed, Longstreet's exercise in independent command had been a complete failure, although one whose co-author was General Bragg. The two generals would devote years after the war blaming one another in their memoirs and newspapers.
In the last six months the Confederates had lost control of the Mississippi River and of the state of Tennessee. In both cases they had fallen afoul of their command structure in the west, a confusing hierarchy which left them fighting among themselves more frequently than with the enemy. The ultimate blame for this calamity must rest not on the generals, but on President Davis who never acted to resolve the problems plaguing the rebels in this theater.
Davis had appointed General Johnston the supreme commander in the west, largely because he wanted to get him away from Richmond and out of his hair. Davis then undermined Johnston's authority at several key moments, supporting Johnston's (in theory) subordinates over his (in theory) supreme western commander. Twice Davis had traveled to the west for the specific purpose of solving the horrendous infighting among his generals, and twice he left while leaving Bragg, the primary cause of the infighting, in place. In that Johnston was hated by Davis, and Bragg was the rebel president's friend, it is very difficult not to conclude that Davis allowed personal considerations to triumph over the needs of his new nation.
The day before, General Meade had pulled the Army of the Potomac back from its position confronting the rebels across Mine Run Creek. They recrossed the Rapidan River and both sides resumed the familiar postures that they had occupied dating back to General Pope's campaign in August of 1862. They had fought five major engagements since that time (2nd Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville and Gettysburg) which produced more than one hundred and twenty five thousand total casualties, and now they were back in exactly the same positions as before all that carnage.
These actions marked the end of the 1863 campaigning season and all of the major armies would be going into winter quarters, not to resume the slaughter until May of 1864. The futile bombardment of the battered installations defending Charleston would continue, skirmishing and cavalry clashes would continue on a daily basis, ships would still try to get past the blockade, but nothing major or decisive would take place until the next spring arrived.
In what turned out to be a superfluous movement, 150 years ago today General Sherman arrived at Knoxville with his Army of the Tennessee veterans. In theory they were there to relieve the siege that General Longstreet had established, but by the time they got there Longstreet had already given up the campaign and was marching his men away to Greenville, Tennessee where they would winter.
Also on this day in Charleston harbor the Union Navy suffered another loss. The bombardment of the rubble which was once Fort Sumter had been continued by both the shore batteries established on Morris Island and by the fleet of ironclads which had been on duty there since the previous July. One of those ironclads, the Monitor class USS Weehawken had taken on an extra large supply of shells and powder which had been stored in the ship's forward compartments.
On this day the Weehawken steamed out to take up its bombardment position and found itself caught in what was described as a minor storm. The overload in her forward compartments reduced the freeboard there to the point of allowing the sea to sweep over the vessel and pour water down its hatch. Sinking by the bow, the ship's pumps were unable to produce sufficient pressure to move the invading water aft and out. In a very short period of time the crew became aware that the ship was going to sink and they began sending out distress signals. Most of the crew was rescued, but everyone in the engine room was suffocated or scalded to death when the waters hit the boilers and produced an immense amount of steam. In all, thirty men were lost.
Ironically the Weehawken had been the test case Monitor, the first one to put to sea following the improvements made as a reaction to the sinking of the original Monitor. The Weehawken had steamed from New York to Charleston without any problems and it had been assumed that the new Monitors were no longer vulnerable to this sort of disaster.
Apparently not.
A Newspaper Engraving Imagining The Final Moments Of The Weehawken.It actually went down bow first.
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