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Rosecrans proceeded at once to concentrate
his own forces; and very soon the two armies were confronting each other in
battle array on each side of Chickamauga Creek, in the vicinity of Crawfish
Spring, each line extending towards the slope of Missionary Ridge. Rosecrans
did not know that Robert E. Lee had sent troops from Virginia, under
General James Longstreet, to
reinforce Bragg, who was then making his way up from Atlanta to swell the
Confederate forces to the number of fully 70,000.
Johnston, in Mississippi,
also sent thousands of prisoners, paroled at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson, to
still further reinforce Bragg. In battle order
on Chickamauga Creek (Sept. 19, 1863), the Confederate right was commanded
by General Polk, and the left by General John Hood until
Longstreet should
arrive. During the previous night nearly two-thirds of the Confederates had
crossed to the west side of the creek, and held the fords from Lee and
Gordon's mills far towards Missionary Ridge. Rosecrans's concentrated army
did not then number more than 55,000 men.
Gen.
George H. Thomas, who was on the extreme left of the National line, on the
slopes of Missionary Ridge, by a movement to capture an isolated Confederate
brigade, brought on a battle (Sept. 19) at ten o'clock, which raged with
great fierceness until dark, when the Nationals seemed to have the
advantage. It had been begun by Croxton's brigade of Brannan's division,
which struggled sharply with Nathan
Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Thomas sent Baird's division
to assist Croxton, when other Confederates became engaged, making the odds
against the Nationals, when the latter, having driven the Confederates, were
in turn pushed back. The pursuers dashed through the lines of United States
regulars and captured a Michigan battery and about 500 men. In the charge
all of the horses and most of the men of the batteries were killed.
At that moment a heavy force of Nationals came up and joined in the battle.
They now outnumbered and outflanked the Confederates, and, attacking them
furiously, drove them back in disorder for a mile and a half on their
reserves. The lost battery was recovered, and Brannan and Baird were enabled
to reform their shattered columns. There was a lull, but at five o'clock the
Confederates renewed the battle, and were pressing the National line
heavily, when Hazen, who was in charge of a park of artillery—twenty
guns—hastened to put them in position, with such infantry supports as he
could gather, and brought them to bear upon the Confederates, at short
range, as they dashed into the road in pursuit of the Nationals. The
pursuers recoiled in disorder, and thereby the day was saved on the left.
Night closed the combat. There had been some
lively artillery work on the National right during the day; and at three
o'clock in the afternoon General John Hood threw two of his divisions upon General
Davis's division of McCook's corps, pushing it back and capturing a battery.
Davis fought with great pertinacity until near sunset, when a brigade of
Sheridan's division came to his aid. Then a successful countercharge was
made; the Confederates were driven back, the battery was retaken, and a
number of Confederates were made prisoners. That night General Hindman came
to the Confederates with his division, and
James Longstreet arrived with two
brigades of McLaws's veterans from Virginia, and took command of the left of
Bragg's army. Preparations were made for a
renewal of the struggle in the morning. It was begun (Sept. 20), after a
dense fog had risen from the earth, between eight and nine o'clock. The
conflict was to have been opened by Polk at daylight on the National left,
but he failed. Meanwhile, under cover of the fog, Thomas received
reinforcements, until nearly one-half of the
Army of the Cumberland present
were under his command, and had erected breastworks of logs, rails, and
earth. The battle was begun by an attack by General
John Breckinridge. The intention was
to interpose an overwhelming force between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, which
Thomas had prevented the previous day. An exceedingly fierce struggle
ensued, with varying fortunes for the combatants. The carnage on both sides
was frightful. Attempts to turn the National flank were not successful, for
Thomas and his veterans stood like a wall in the way. The conflict for a
while was equally severe at the centre; and the blunder of an incompetent
staff officer, sent with orders to General Wood, produced disaster on the
National right. A gap was left in the National line, when
Hood, with
Stewart, charged furiously, while Buckner advanced to their support. The
charge, in which Davis and Brannan and Sheridan were struck simultaneously,
isolated five brigades, which lost forty percent of their number. By this
charge the National right wing was so shattered that it began crumbling, and
was soon seen flying in disorder towards Chattanooga, leaving thousands
behind, killed, wounded, or prisoners. The
tide carried with it the troops led by Rosecrans, Crittenden, and McCook;
and the commanding general, unable to join Thomas, and believing the whole
army would speedily be hurrying pell-mell to Chattanooga, hastened to that
place to provide for rallying them there. Thomas, meanwhile, ignorant of the
disaster on the right, was maintaining his position firmly. Sheridan and
Davis, who had been driven over to the Dry Valley road, rallying their
shattered columns, reformed them by the way, and, with McCook, halted and
changed front at Rossville, with a determination to defend the pass at all
hazards against the pursuers. Thomas finally withdrew from his breastworks
and concentrated his troops, and formed his line on a slope of Missionary
Ridge. Wood and Brannan had barely time to dispose their troops properly,
when they were furiously attacked, the Confederates throwing in fresh troops
continually. General Granger, commanding reserves at Rossville, hastened to
the assistance of Thomas with Steedman's division. The latter fought his way
to the crest of a hill, and then turning his artillery upon his assailants,
drove them down the southern slope of the ridge with great slaughter. They
returned to the attack with an overwhelming force, determined to drive the
Nationals from the ridge, and pressed Thomas most severely.
Finally, when they were moving along a ridge and in a gorge, to assail his
right flank and rear, Granger formed two brigades (Whittaker's and
Mitchell's) into a charging party, and hurled them against the Confederates
led by Hindman. Steedman led the charging party, with a regimental flag in
his hand, and soon won a victory. In the space of twenty minutes the
Confederates disappeared, and the Nationals held both the ridge and gorge.
Very soon a greater portion of the Confederate army were swarming around the
foot of the ridge, on which stood Thomas with the remnant of seven divisions
of the Army of the Cumberland. The Confederates were led by
James Longstreet.
There seemed no hope for the Nationals. But Thomas stood like a rock, and
his men repulsed assault after assault until the sun went down, when he
began the withdrawal of his troops to Rossville, for his ammunition was
almost exhausted. General Garfield, Rosecrans's chief of staff, had arrived
with orders for Thomas to take the command of all the forces, and, with
McCook and Crittenden, to take a strong position at Rossville. It was then
that Thomas had the first reliable information of disaster on the right.
Confederates seeking to obstruct the movement were driven back, with a loss
of 200 men made prisoners. So ended the battle of Chickamauga.
The National loss was reported at 16,326, of whom 1,687 were killed. The
total loss of officers was 974. It is probable the entire Union loss,
including the missing, was 19,000. The Confederate loss was reported at
20,500, of whom 2,673 were killed. Rosecrans took 2,003 prisoners,
thirty-six guns, twenty caissons, and 8,450 small-arms, and lost, as
prisoners, 7,500. Bragg claimed to have captured over 8,000 prisoners
(including the wounded), fifty-one guns, and 15,000 small-arms.
The Confederates were victors on the field. On the evening of the 20th the whole National army withdrew in
good order to a position in front of Chattanooga, and on the following day
Bragg advanced and took possession of Lookout Mountain and the whole of
Missionary Ridge. |
