American Civil War

J

Chickamauga

After the draft riots, the summer of 1863 slipped by in quiet except for the nameless skirmishes and minor engagements that took place somewhere almost every day. Early in September, Union General Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland began a campaign against Chattanooga, Tennessee, an important rail center and supply point where Bragg had concentrated his troops. Rosecrans split his forces so that they came toward Chattanooga from different directions.

Knowing that Rosecrans had divided his forces, Bragg decided to give up Chattanooga, withdraw to the south, and attack Rosecrans’s forces piecemeal as they came out of the mountain passes to the west and north. At the last minute the federal commander realized the danger and frantically drew together his scattered troops.

On September 19 the two armies clashed along West Chickamauga Creek, a few miles south of Chattanooga. On the afternoon of the next day, Rosecrans, believing that he had been disastrously defeated, left the field for Chattanooga, where he planned to make a final stand. However, General George H. Thomas, the commander of the Federal 14th Corps, stood his ground, saved the day, and won the nickname by which he was ever after known, “Rock of Chickamauga.”

On the Confederate side, Bragg refused to deliver the final blow that might have won the battle decisively for the Confederacy, despite urges from Longstreet and Nathan B. Forrest. The Union troops, or what was left of them, retreated toward Chattanooga in good order.

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K

Siege of Chattanooga

Rosecrans soon discovered that his army was under siege. The Confederates held his supply routes. His men went on short rations and, in the cool days of fall, suffered for lack of firewood. When Rosecrans informed the authorities in Washington that he would be forced to give up Chattanooga, he was relieved of duty. Grant, who had been appointed on October 16 to the command of all the Union armies on the western front, hurried to Chattanooga. In less than a week he opened new supply routes. Soon the Union troops were reclothed, well fed, and supplied with enough ammunition to take the offensive.

L

Fall of Chattanooga

Confederate troops under Bragg had occupied two strong positions: Lookout Mountain, south of the town, and Missionary Ridge, a steep 8-km (5-mi) long height that flanked Chattanooga and the Tennessee River on the southeast. In three days, November 23 to November 25, Grant’s troops performed the seemingly impossible feat of dislodging the Confederates from both positions. The taking of Missionary Ridge on November 25 was especially spectacular. The Union troops had been ordered to take only the first Confederate line near the base of the hills, but they swept upward without orders and overwhelmed the defenders. During the night, Bragg withdrew toward Dalton, Georgia. On November 30, Jefferson Davis accepted Bragg’s resignation. Soon afterward, command of the Army of Tennessee went to Joseph E. Johnston.

M

Grant Becomes Union Commander

With the onset of winter, military operations practically stopped. In Washington, Lincoln came to a decision. In two and a half years of war, he had seen one Union commander rise above all others. Grant had made mistakes. At Shiloh he had been caught off guard. At Vicksburg he had ordered assaults that had cost many lives to no purpose. However, he fought, without complaining, with the men and resources the War Department could give him, and he won. On March 9, 1864, Grant was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, a grade that Congress had recently revived for his benefit. Three days later, Lincoln placed him in command of all the Union armies, and Grant came east to fight.

N

Britain Abandons the South

Meanwhile, the Union had won a major diplomatic battle. Since the beginning of the war, the Confederacy had had a naval officer, James D. Bulloch, in Britain to buy or contract for cruisers to raid Northern commerce. In 1861 and 1862, Bulloch had managed to acquire and equip several ships. In 1862 he contracted through third parties with the British shipbuilding firm of Laird Brothers for two rams, or ironclads, which he believed would be able to sweep Northern commerce from the seas and destroy the trade from the Atlantic seaports of the Union.

Charles Francis Adams, the Union minister to Britain, knew very well that the rams were intended for Confederate service. Time after time, Adams warned the British government of the destination of the rams and demanded that their delivery be prevented. He could get no promise. The British government, however, had decided to prevent departure of the vessels and, on October 9, 1863, seized the ships. Bulloch sadly reported to the Confederate secretary of the navy: “No amount of discretion or management on my part can effect the release of the ships.” Thereafter the Confederacy could no longer hope for aid from Europe.

VIII

Civil War, 1864

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