Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park | BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA

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Though Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park commemorates battles at two locations, it was at Chickamauga that the fighting began. At the start of 1863, the Confederates occupied Chattanooga, a city of extreme strategic importance due to the convergence of four railroads. If the Union army could take Chattanooga, the South’s supply lines would be cut off, thus crippling the Confederacy.

By the summer of 1863, the Confederate Army of the Tennessee under the command of General Braxton Bragg was headquartered in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and in place to defend Chattanooga. The Union Army of the Cumberland, led by Major General William Rosecrans, lay to the northwest in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a distance of less than 100 miles from Chattanooga. Both armies had been inactive during the winter months and had spent much of the time building defenses.

On June 24, 1863, Rosecrans began to move his 60,000 men southeast towards Chattanooga, having been urged to do so for the past few months by General Grant. Bragg’s defensive line stretched thirteen miles from Shelbyville to Fairfield, Tennessee. About thirty miles from each of the right and left ends of his defensive line were cavalry corps. These defenses were approximately 60 miles from Chattanooga. All told, he had around 43,000 men.

As was inevitable, the two armies met, the Union army first driving the Confederates back ten miles to Tullahoma, then driving them back towards Chattanooga on July 1st, where Bragg established his new headquarters. A lull in fighting in July and August allowed Bragg to strengthen his position for a Union attack from the northwest. To take Chattanooga, Rosecrans would have to cross either the Tennessee River or Lookout Mountain, or both, so an attack from the south didn’t seem like much of a possibility.

Again urged to press forward, Rosecrans began movement on August 16th. At this same time another Union army under General Burnside had entered east Tennessee to attack Knoxville. Bragg felt these two armies would eventually join together, so he began calling for reinforcements. In the meantime, Rosecrans decided to cross the Tennessee River below Chattanooga, which if successful would trap Bragg between his troops at the southwest and Burnside at the northeast. Furthermore, it would cut off Chattanooga from the Atlanta supply line. Once Rosecrans had crossed the river, Bragg abandoned Chattanooga and retreated south into Georgia, eventually reorganizing near Lafayette, which is fifteen miles south of the eventual Chickamauga battlefield. In doing so, he led Rosecrans to think that his army was in disarray, when in fact he was strengthening it with reinforcements he had gathered along the way. When all was said and done, the Confederate troops numbered around 66,000. In the meantime, Union forces occupied Chattanooga without a fight.

It was now early September. While Rosecrans’ army was crossing mountains and rivers it had become divided into three distinct columns, each too far apart to support the other. Rosecrans thought Bragg had retreated much farther south, which would give his armies time to regroup once they had crossed the difficult terrain. Bragg knew the Union forces were divided and decided to start attacking each section one by one. However, on the first two occasions his orders were not followed, allowing the vulnerable Union forces to regroup. Rosecrans soon figured out Bragg’s plan and began to form a line of defense along Chickamauga Creek. Bragg did nothing to stop this, and by the night of September 17th, Rosecrans three corps were within supporting distance of each other.

Sporadic fighting at Chickamauga began on September 18th, though this was far from the fighting that would begin the next day. This day was mainly used to move troops into position, with a battle line eventually being formed in a general north to south direction along Lafayette Road. Bragg’s plan was to move north to circle around the right of the Union flank and take the roads to Chattanooga, cutting off any Union retreat in that direction. His hope was to then drive the Union army into the mountains to the west, giving them little chance of escape. During the night, Rosecrans, suspecting Bragg’s plan, moved troops northeastward to prevent Confederate forces from flanking the right side of his battle line.

The real fighting began on the 19th and continued throughout the day with neither army gaining or losing much ground. As is the case today, the battlefield was heavily wooded with only a few fields here and there, thus making fighting and troop movement difficult. By the end of the day the battle line was largely along Lafayette Road, stretching north to around Reed’s Bridge Road, near the current Visitor Center.

Chickamauga battle map

Chickamauga battle map

Bragg planned a large attack at the Union’s right (northern) flank at dawn on Sunday, September 20th, but again, his orders were ignored and the attack did not start for four hours. Throughout the night the Union troops had been building defensive breastworks: fence-like barriers made from felled trees and wooden planks. This extra four hours gave them even more time to fortify their position, and as a result, they were able to repel a barrage of attacks by the Confederate soldiers. By around 11 AM, the constant fighting at the north had ceased.

While the fighting raged in the north, Bragg prepared for an attack at the center of the Union line, which was held by Brigadier General Thomas Wood. The Confederate attack would be led by Lieutenant General James Longstreet. Prior to the scheduled attack, Rosecrans made a mistake that would lose the battle for the Union forces. An officer riding along the battle line thought he saw a gap, when in fact the soldiers were hiding in the woods. This was reported to Rosecrans, who ordered Wood to move his troops to fill the imaginary gap. This effectively created a real gap, and when Longstreet launched his attack around 11 AM, he, by sheer luck, marched right though the Union line, splitting the army in half and sending them running. Nearly the entire right side (southern) of the Union line collapsed, with only a few scattered groups remaining to fight, and even they retreated not too long afterward.

This left only the northern end of the Union line in the battle. Orders were issued to regroup on the higher grounds of Horseshoe Ridge and Snodgrass Hill at the northwest end of the battlefield. Union troops successfully repelled the Confederate attacks, and when night fell, they retreated back to Rossville, Georgia, directly north and near the state line. Though winning the battle, the Confederates never succeeded in blocking the way to Chattanooga, and it is in this the city that the Union forces would eventually regroup.

Nearly 4,000 men were killed during the battle, with 24,000 wounded. Casualties were fairly even between the two sides, with both armies losing 28% of their men.

At this point the battle moved to Chattanooga, and its history can be revisited at the Lookout Mountain Battlefield and other sites around the Chattanooga area.

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Last updated on June 30, 2024
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