The Chattanooga Campaign

Gallery of Illustrations

Ulysses S. Grant’s arrival in Chattanooga set in motion the train of events that led to the battle. Library of Congress Braxton Bragg had the unenviable task of facing several of the Union’s best generals while leading an army whose generals were perpetual malcontents, unwilling to cooperate with him or each other. Library of Congress Lookout Mountain looms in the distance over the railroad tracks that made Chattanooga a key strategic point. Library of Congress A Confederate gun emplacement on the upper slopes of Lookout Mountain gives a bird’s-eye view of the toe of Moccasin Bend, the curve of the Tennessee River just below Chattanooga. Library of Congress Confederate general James Longstreet was responsible for holding Lookout Valley and preventing the opening of a Union supply line through the Tennessee Gorge. Library of Congress William Tecumseh Sherman was Grant’s most trusted lieutenant, but he ran into a difficult situation in command of the Union left at the north end of Missionary Ridge. Library of Congress Joseph Hooker commanded on the Union right flank with success on Lookout Mountain and against the Confederate left flank on Missionary Ridge; he was far less successful at Ringgold Gap. Library of Congress George H. Thomas commanded the Union troops that broke the Confederate center on Missionary Ridge. Library of Congress Confederates captured at Lookout Mountain were shipped north to Union prisoner-of-war camps. Library of Congress Hooker’s attack struck Missionary Ridge at Rossville Gap, five miles south of Chattanooga. The United States Army Heritage and Education Center Low morale showed itself in the occasional quest for the Civil War equivalent of the “million-dollar wound” or, as one Confederate soldier described his actions, “just feeling for a furlough.” Confederate Veteran, vol. 5, p. 104. ...