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BOOK REVIEWS Chattanooga—A Death Grip on the Confederacy. By James Lee McDonough . (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984. Pp. xviii, 298. $19.95.) The importance of the Civil War's Western Theater in general and Tennessee in particular has been unappreciated by some historians, who concentrated on the eastern campaigns and especially those in Virginia. In the late 1960s, Thomas L. Connelly and others (see, for example, Connelly 's "R. E. Lee and the Western Confederacy," Civil War History 10 [1969]: 116-32, and the same author's Army of the Heartland: TheArmy of Tennessee, 1861-1862 [Baton Rouge, 1967]), began an effort to draw attention to the Western Theater. Chattanooga—A Death Grip on the Confederacy is the fourth book by James Lee McDonough evaluating major Civil War battles in Tennessee . McDonough's earlier studies treated Shiloh (Knoxville, 1977); Stones River (Knoxville, 1980); and, with Connelly as co-author, Franklin , Five Tragic Hours: The Battle of Franklin (Knoxville, 1983). With Connelly's Autumn of Glory: TheArmy of Tennessee, 1862-1865 (Baton Rouge, 1971) and other books, students of the Civil War now have the benefit of several substantial, well-researched, and strongly argued studies emphasizing the Western Theater. As McDonough argues in Chattanooga , "beyond the northern Virginia theater, west of the Allegheny Mountains, where the border between the Union and the Confederacy stretched for a thousand miles, the outcome of the war was ultimately decided" (19). For reasons that have been recounted many times, Chattanooga naturally commanded the attention of Federals and Confederates. The city was a major hub for roads and railroads; when it fell into Union hands, travel plans and routes throughout the South were disrupted. Moreover, the city might serve as a base from which Confederates (if they recaptured it) could launch campaigns to retake Tennessee, or as a gateway through which Federals could drive into Georgia and the southeast. McDonough concludes that if General Braxton Bragg had regained control of Chattanooga in the final weeks of 1863, such a victory could have fed Northern war-weariness and helped offset the bitter Southern defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg earlier in the year (21-22). It is clear from his crisp narrative that McDonough has little regard for General Braxton Bragg and his lethargic siege of Chattanooga. In an excellent chapter ("War Between the Generals"), the author describes BOOK REVIEWS75 the divided Southern command and blames Bragg for most of the internecine feuding, which resulted in the reassignment of such generals as Leónidas Polk and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Rather than deploy his army either to seal off the Federals in Chattanooga or flank the city and bring on a showdown battle, Bragg gladly sent off one of his critics, James Longstreet, with his entire corps to Knoxville on a fruitless venture. Thus Bragg weakened the Army of Tennessee in the face of a strengthening enemy, and failed to improve his defenses or to renew the offensive (101, 205, 227). Meanwhile, the arrival of Ulysses S. Grant (replacing William S. Rosecrans as senior Union commander) and the reopening of supply lines into Chattanooga rejuvenated the Federals. Grant snatched the initiative from Bragg and prepared to attack. McDonough pictures Grant as a strong general ready and willing to use the army at his disposal. The author points out that Grant's plan of attack featured an assault by William T. Sherman against the Confederate right, but that Grant eventually "used his full power to apply pressure against the enemy from three directions at the same time" (164). Southerners under General Patrick Cleburne stubbornly held Bragg's right, but units under Joseph Hooker captured Lookout Mountain and threatened the entire Confederate left flank. When Sherman's soldiers could not overcome Cleburne's stout defense, on November 25, 1863, Grant ordered a demonstration against the rifle pits at the Confederate center to aid Sherman's assaults. The attack against the rifle pits swelled into a full scale advance up Missionary Ridge, catching Bragg off-guard; indeed, it took Grant by surprise, too. McDonough gives an outstanding account of the breakthrough at Missionary Ridge and carefully considers the roles of different units, officers and soldiers in the legendary charge. As...

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