On taking position at Chattanooga, after the battle, the Army of the Cumberland, between the rebel troops in front and the forces of Nature in the rear, was practically in a state of siege. The lines around the town were held by our troops behind extensive rifle-pits, strengthened with heavy earthworks covering all approaches on the front. Bragg's army moved up immediately, and invested our lines, throwing up rifle-pits within a short distance of those of our army. To the rear of these Bragg threw up two other lines of intrenchments and on the right of his command erected a more permanent line of earthworks on the crest of Missionary Ridge, massing however, the bulk of his troops in Chattanooga Valley on our immediate front. As our army retired within its works at Chattanooga, the troops holding the rover Lookout Mountain were withdrawn, and this point was immediately occupied by the enemy and strengthened by extensive works, Bragg sending Longstreet's corps into Lookout Valley to occupy the extreme left of the besieging line, and to cut off all communication with Bridgeport, on the south bank of the Tennessee River. The lines were now fully occupied from the river on the north to the bank south of the town, and the rebel army in force on our front. To the rear the only rthat was open was over Walling's Ridge, through Sequatchie Valley, down to Bridgeport, a distance of sixty miles; the short ron the north side down to Bridgeport being closed by the rebel batteries and sharp-shooters, while their troops holding the rto the south of the river compelled all supplies of every kind to be hauled over these sixty miles of r To thus supply the army during good weather was a very great undertaking, even with the teams of the various commands in good condition, but with the rainy season that soon set in, and the incessant hauling wearing out the mules, the daily rations for the army were constantly growing less and less. On October 1st, Wheeler crossing the Tennessee with Martin's and Wharton's divisions of cavalry moved up the Sequatchie Valley upon our line of supplies at Anderson cross-r. Here he captured a large number of trains ld with rations for the front, burned over three hundred wagons, and killed a large number of animals. Colonel E. M. McCook with his cavalry division, moving rapidly from Bridgeport, overtook Wheeler on the 2d, and drove him with great loss in a sabre charge from the trains, recapturing some eight hundred mules. After this Wheeler was driven from Shelbyville on the 6th by Mitchell's cavalry, and on the 8th from Farmington by Crook, and from here he re-crossed the Tennessee with a small portion of his command, the rest having been killed or captured. This loss in wagons, with the r becoming almost impassable by reason of the heavy rains and the growing weakness of the animals, lessened daily the amount of supplies brought into the town, so that our troops were suffering for food and were in danger of being starved out of Chattanooga. This was what Bragg was quietly waiting for. To supply an army some forty thousand strong, by wagon transportation over rough mountain r a distance of sixty miles, Bragg knew was an impossibility, and that unless other lines were opened up, the evacuation of the place was only a question of time, and he could then walk in and take undisturbed possession. As the forage became reduced, the artillery horses, for which there was no immediate need, had their rations cut off, and they died in large numbers, starved to death. The supplies grew so small that parts of crackers and corn dropped in handling packages were eagerly seized and eaten to stay the demands of hunger, and still the pressure was growing daily, and no one knew how it would ultimately end. However, not for an instant was the idea entertained of abandoning the town, to say nothing of the extreme hazard of attempting that, in the face of the strong force of the enemy on our front. The Army of the Cumberland had won Chattanooga and there they proposed remaining.
Immediately after the battle of Chickamauga, the authorities at Washington sent hurried orders to Burnside, Hurlbut, and Sherman to move forward without delay to Rosecrans's assistance, and on September 24th the latter was informed that "Hooker, with some fifteen thousand men," was en route from the East as fast as rails could take him, and that he would be in Nashville in about seven days. While reinforcements were the thing needed before the battle, now the pressing demand of the hour was the opening of the line of communication to the rear, over which adequate supplies could be forwarded to the troops at the front. To add to the number of men there simply increased the difficulties of the situation.
On the arrival of Hooker with the Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps at Nashville, Rosecrans directed him to take position on the line of the Chattanooga Railr securing that rfrom the attacks of the rebel cavalry while supplies were being accumulated at Stevenson awaiting the opening of communication with the army at Chattanooga. Without driving back the entire of Bragg's army in Lookout and Chattanooga Valleys, it was impossible to use the railrfrom Bridgeport east in bringing up supplies. The wagon-trains could no longer be depended on, and, under the spur of necessity, Rosecrans was preparing a plan to utilize the river with boats. A new one had been built at Bridgeport and another captured at Chattanooga had been repaired. By thus using the river he could secure his supplies over a wagon-rof only eight miles from Kelley's Ferry, via Brown's Ferry. The course of the Tennessee River at Chattanooga is due west; after passing the town it flows south to the foot of Lookout Mountain, from which point it then sweeps, after a short curve to the northwest, due north, forming here what is known as "Moccasin Point." Crossing the river at the town, a rleads southwest across this point on to the other side, where the river, as it sweeps north, is reached at Brown's Ferry. Shortly after passing Brown's Ferry, the river again makes a sharp bend to the south, forming another point of land running northwardly. Across this point on the east bank, as the river passes south, is Kelley's Ferry. At the extreme angle of this bend the river rushes through the mountains, which here crowd down closely, forming a narrow channel through which the waters rush headlong. This chasm is known as the "Suck." The velocity of the water is so great that steamers in high water cannot stem the current at this point, which necessitated the landing of supplies at Kelley's Ferry, and then hauling them over land across the bridge at Brown's Ferry to Chattanooga.
Immediately after the battle, under orders from the War Department, the Twentieth and Twenty-first Army Corps were consolidated and designated the Fourth Army Corps and Gordon Granger was placed in command. McCook and Crittenden were relieved from the command of these corps and ordered North to await a "Court of Inquiry," "upon their conduct on September 19th and 20th."
By War Department order of October 16th, the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee were constituted "The Military Division of the Mississippi," under the command of Grant. By the same order Rosecrans was relieved of the command of the Department and Army of the Cumberland, and Thomas was assigned to that command. Halleck, in his report of operations for the year 1863, says this change was made on the recommendation of General Grant. These orders were promulgated on the 19th.
On Rosecrans's return from a visit to Brown's Ferry and Williams's Island on the 19th, where he had been with William F. Smith, his chief engineer, making his plans for bringing supplies to that point, he found the order awaiting him relieving him of his command. Quietly making his preparations for his departure that night over the mountains to Stevenson, he wrote out his farewell order, to be printed and issued the next day, and, without even bidding his staff good-bye, placed Thomas in command and started for his home in Cincinnati. Rosecrans, in the summer of 1862, was under Grant at Iuka and Corinth. Here some hasty criticism made by him brought him into collision with Grant, which now bore fruit.
When it was known that Rosecrans had been relieved, and that he had left the army for the north, there was universal regret that the troops that had loved and trusted him should no longer follow his skillful leadership. Every soldier in his army felt that he had a personal friend in "Old Rosy." His troops never for a moment faltered in their devotion to him or confidence in him. They felt that he had been made the victim of a foolish interpretation of an order that brought ruin and disaster upon his army, for which he was not responsible, but for which he was made to suffer.
General Rosecrans, to his subordinates, was one of the most genial of men. Kind and good-natured, he at times failed to act as decisively as occasion required, deterred by the fact that, should he do so, some of his subordinates would suffer. His restless activity led him to give attention to details that he should have been entirely relieved of by his subordinates. But no amount of work daunted him. He lived almost without rest and sleep, and would wear out two sets of staff officers nightly, and then, if occasion required it, be up and out before daylight. To his superiors he unfortunately allowed his high spirit to get the better of his judgment, and many times when he was in the right he ruined his position by his hasty temper. His fame, despite his enemies--and no general in the field had stronger nor more unscrupulous ones--as the greatest strategist of the war, is permanently fixed in history. What it might have been had he not been hampered, annoyed, and insulted as no other commanding general was at any time by both the Secretary of War and the General-in-Chief, is merely problematical. Personally, he regarded all this as mere "incidents of the service," and strove to the best of his ability to do his whole duty to his country. His combination with Thomas--Rosecrans to plan brilliant campaigns, with Thomas's great abilities to aid him in carrying them out--made the Army of the Cumberland the great aggressive force moving on the centre, gaining territory after each campaign. But it was as well for Rosecrans and the service that he was relieved when he was, with the combination of the armies under Grant. He had faithfully performed his duty up to this time, but now the surroundings were so changed that both for his sake and the good of the service the change was a fitting one to be made. Rosecrans could never again serve as a subordinate, and as the change was determined on, when Grant arrived it was as well for Rosecrans to retire.
When Anderson in 1861 applied for George H. Thomas to be one of the brigadier-generals to accompany him to Kentucky, to help him in the task he was set to accomplish there, Mr. Lincoln told him he was afraid to give the order for Thomas, as he was a Southerner, and from Virginia. Anderson and Sherman, who were present, both responded in the strongest terms, vouching for Thomas's earnest patriotism and deep devotion to the Union, and the order was given. And now it bore full fruit. The quiet, patient soldier, who from his first day's service in Kentucky had never swerved a line from the strict performance of his duty to his Government, according to his oath, without reference to self, had now met his reward. His fame had steadily grown and rounded from the time he gained the first Federal victory in the West, at Mill Springs, up to the battle of Chickamauga, where he saved the Army of the Cumberland to the nation. He had always been the main stay of that army, holding the command of the centre--either nominally or actually the second in command. Upon his judgment and military skill every commander of that army depended, and no movement was made without his approbation. Yet so modest was he that his face would color with blushes when his troops cheered him, which they did at every opportunity; and so diffident, that, prior to the battle of Chickamauga, he doubted his ability to handle large bodies of troops upon the battlefield, and for this reason refused to accept the command of that army, just prior to Perryville, when tendered him. His kind consideration for the feelings of others was one of his marked characteristics. With a pure mind and large heart, his noble soul made him one of the greatest of Nature's noblemen--a true gentleman. The experience of Chickamauga ripened his powers and developed him to his full height. As the General who won the first victory in the West, who saved an army by his skill and valor, and who was the only General of the war on either side able to crush an army on the battlefield, George H. Thomas, "the true soldier, the prudent and undaunted commander, the modest and incorruptible patriot," stands as the model American soldier, the grandest figure of the War of the Rebellion.
One of Grant's first acts on taking command was to telegraph Thomas to hold Chattanooga at all hazards. The commander who had seen his troops on less than half rations for nearly a month, with steadily approaching signs of starvation, hardly needed an intimation that what had been gained by the sacrifice on Chickamauga's field was not to be yielded up without a struggle. Thomas replied "We will hold the town till we starve." On the 24th, Grant, in company with Thomas and W. F. Smith, made a personal inspection across the river of the situation, with reference to carrying out the plan of Rosecrans for the opening of the rby Brown's Ferry, and approving of it, Thomas was directed to proceed to execute it. This plan required the greatest secrecy of movement, otherwise Longstreet's entire command would resist the landing, and contemplated the co-operation of Hooker's moving up from Bridgeport, holding the rto Kelley's Ferry. The latter was to meet a force sent from the town down the river in pontoons under cover of night, which was to seize the landing on the left bank of the river, driving back the rebel pickets and fortifying their position, and then swinging the bridge across the river. Thomas says in his official report of the battle of Wauhatchie, that "preliminary steps had already been taken to execute this vitally important movement before the command of the Department devolved on me." Thomas on the 23d ordered Hooker to concentrate the Eleventh Corps, and Geary's division of the Twelfth Corps at Bridgeport and sent him instructions as to his movements, and directed him to advance as soon as possible, co-operating with the force from Chattanooga. Hooker was also ordered to move into Lookout Valley, and to protect the bridge when laid from any attack by Longstreet in that direction. Thomas also sent two brigades under Palmer to co-operate with Hooker. Palmer moved across the river to Brown's Ferry, and then took the rthrough Whitesides to Rankin's Ferry, establishing himself securely at these points, protecting the river communication from attack from the south. Thomas placed W. F. Smith in charge of the expedition, and detached Turchin's and Hazen's brigades, with three batteries under Major John Mendenhall. Smith was directed to organize a picked force, armed from these brigades, to be divided into fifty squads of twenty-four men each, under the command of an officer, who were to float down the river in pontoons that night--a distance by the bends of the river of some nine miles. The boats were placed under the charge of Colonel T. R. Stanley of the Eighteenth Ohio, the bridge to be placed in position under direction of Captain P. V. Fox, First Michigan Engineers. The troops under Hazen were to take the gorge and hills to the left, and Turchin was to extend from the gorge down the river. Turchin in command of the remainder of the troops marched across Moccasin Point to the ferry, where they were to cross in the same boats, supporting the troops already landed, when the position was to be strongly fortified and held by them until the arrival of Hooker.
At midnight the troops who were to take part in the expedition were marched to the river and placed in the boats manned by crews with oars, and on two flat boats. The force that marched under Turchin moved out under cover of dense woods over the point to the ferry, where they remained in readiness to cover the landing of the troops coming down the river. The artillery accompanied this part of the command and remained under cover.
At 3 o'clock A.M. of the 27th, the boats moved out into the stream under cover of a slight fog. On arriving at a point some two miles below the town, these troops reached the rebel picket line posted on the left bank of the river. The boats passed on unobserved by keeping close to the right hand shore until just at the landing, when the troops in the first boat were greeted with a volley from the rebel pickets, a station being at this landing. In perfect order, as previously planned, the troops hastily disembarked, moved forward, occupying the crest of the hill immediately in front and commenced the work of intrenching. Before this was completed the enemy, heavily re-enforced, just beyond the crest, moved forward to drive Hazen back. Here a stubborn little fight was had, the rebels making a gallant charge with partial success on the right of Hazen, when they were met with the remainder of the brigade under Colonel Langdon, who charged at once on their lines and after a short engagement drove them from the hill into the valley beyond. Turchin's brigade having crossed the river was placed in position on Hazen's right, when the enemy moved from the front up the valley. The rebel force here was a thousand infantry, three pieces of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry.
As soon as the last of the troops were over, work on the bridge was commenced and finished at a little after four o'clock in the afternoon. For an hour or so in the morning the work progressed under an artillery fire from the rebel batteries on Lookout Mountain. Our losses were six killed, twenty-three wounded, and nine missing. The rebels lost six men captured and six of their dead were buried by our men. Our forces captured twenty beeves, six pontoons and some two thousand bushels of corn. The bridge was completed and the position held until the 28th, when Hooker's command arrived. No attempt was made by Bragg to dislodge this force or to destroy the bridge. Hooker moved on the rby the base of Raccoon Mountain into Lookout Valley, driving the rebel pickets before him, and occupied the r to Kelley's and Brown's Ferries through the valley. Later in the afternoon of the 28th, as Hooker's troops pushed down the valley, Howard's corps in the advance was met with a sharp volley of musketry from a wooded ridge near the Wills Valley Railr Two brigades of Howard's command were deployed, and advancing, drove the rebels from their cover with the loss of a few of our men. As the enemy retreated they burned the railrbridge over Lookout Creek. Hooker then went into camp with Howard's corps at six o'clock in the afternoon about a mile up the valley from Brown's Ferry. Here he learned of the movement to this place and of the building of the bridge.
With the object of holding the rto Kelley's Ferry, Geary's division was ordered to encamp near Wauhatchie, some three miles up the valley from Howard's position. This created two camps--the latter holding the Brown Ferry r-each camp separate and picketed by its own command, as the numbers of the troops would not admit of communication being kept up between them or of their forming one line.
About midnight a regiment that had been ordered by Howard to hold the Chattanooga racross Lookout Creek, had a slight skirmish with the advance of the enemy. This was a portion of Longstreet's corps getting into position for a night attack on the two encampments. Dividing his command into two detachments, Longstreet, about an hour later, with his strong one on his left, assaulted Geary's camp with a fierce attack, driving in his pickets and then charging on the main command. Geary immediately formed his men in line, and for three hours with heavy fighting maintained his position, although enveloped on three sides by the enemy, repelling every attack, and finally charged on the rebels and drove them from beyond his front. The enemy here attacked in greatly superior numbers, and were only defeated by the skill and coolness of Geary, aided by the bravery of his troops. As the sound of the heavy fire which the enemy opened on Gary rolled down the valley, Hooker ordered Howard to double-quick his nearest division, Schurz's, to Geary's assistance. The division was started at once, but before it had proceeded far it encountered the other detachments of Longstreet's command, which opened on our troops with a volley of musketry. Hooker now determined that he had two fights on his hands. At once detaching Tyndale's brigade, Howard charged the rebel lines on the hill to the left with it, pushing on the other brigade to Geary. By this time Steinwehr's division of Howard's corps had arrived on the ground, and it was then discovered that the rebels were trying to surround Howard's camp and that they occupied a hill to the rear of Tyndale's brigade. Hooker ordered Colonel Orland Smith with his brigade to charge this hill, which he did up the steep side, almost inaccessible by daylight, reached the rebel intrenchments under a heavy fire and drove the troops with the bayonet, after a severe engagement, in rout from the hill and capturing a number of prisoners. Here General Greene and Colonel Underwood were severely wounded. Tyndale also pressing forward occupied the rebel line in his front and drove their forces beyond his lines. The attack on Howard was intended to hold that command from reinforcing Geary until he was routed, and then in turn Howard was to be driven from the field.
During the engagement the enemy opened with artillery fire in the valley, aided by that from the batteries on Lookout Mountain, sending the shells crashing among our troops. Their forces in the valley were repulsed in every charge and our troops occupied the field at all points. Our losses in the attack were 76 killed, 339 wounded, and 22 missing, making a total of 437. The rebel loss is unknown. Geary buried 153 of the enemy on his front alone. One hundred prisoners were captured, with a large number of small arms. Thomas congratulated Hooker's troops for the gallant repulse given to their old enemy, Longstreet, and adds: "The bayonet charge of Howard's troops, made up the side of a steep and difficult hill over two hundred feet high, completely routing the enemy from his barricades on its top, and the repulse by Geary of greatly superior number who attempted to surprise him, will rank among the most distinguished feats of arms of this war." Reinforcements were sent Hooker by Thomas from Chattanooga of two brigades under Whittaker and John G. Mitchell, but the fighting was over before they reached the valley.
Work was now pushed rapidly forward on the rfrom Brown's to Kelley's Ferry, and this being successfully accomplished by the 1st of November, the forces of Nature were overcome and the siege of Chattanooga was at an end as to them. It now remained to raise it on the front, driving Bragg from his strongholds, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga Valley, and Missionary Ridge.
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