Battle of Chattanooga
Battle of Chattanooga 1863
| date | November 23-25, 1863 |
|---|---|
| place | Chattanooga , Tennessee , USA |
| output | Northern victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
|
44.010
|
56,399
|
| losses | |
|
6,670
|
5,815
|
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The Battle of Chattanooga was a battle of the American Civil War , which from 23 to 25 November, 1863 between the Union troops under Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate Tennessee Army under General Braxton Bragg at Chattanooga , Tennessee took place. The victory of the Northern armies brought Tennessee completely under the rule of the Union and made it possible for them to advance further south.
prehistory
After the Battle of Chickamauga lost for the north, the Cumberland Army under Major General William Starke Rosecrans evaded to Chattanooga. Braxton Bragg took up chase. His intention was to besiege the city and force the Union troops to surrender. Since his troops were advancing slowly, the soldiers of the Union were able to fortify the city. Bragg stationed his troops on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain , two hills that towered high above Tennessee and allowed the Tennessee Confederate Army to control the river, city and Union supply routes. The Confederates cut off the supplies, so the Union had to do something to improve the supply of the army enclosed in the city and to prevent their destruction.
On October 17, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Western Theater of War. He replaced Rosecrans with Major General George H. Thomas , the hero of Chickamauga, and set additional large groups on the march to Chattanooga. Meanwhile, Grant's chief engineer, William F. "Baldy" Smith, had come up with a plan to improve the supply situation in Chattanooga. This plan, known as the Cracker Line, opened a supply route across Tennessee so that troops and supplies could be brought into the city.
As Lieutenant General James Longstreet with the Confederate I. Corps to Knoxville departed to Major General Ambrose E. Burnside distribute Corps, and Major General William T. Sherman with the Tennessee Army reached in mid-November Chattanooga, the Union troops went on the offensive. On November 23, Thomas's troops broke out and, against weak resistance, fought a new front halfway to the summit of Missionary Ridge.
The battle
The first day of the battle
The Union's plan of attack called for Major General Joseph Hooker to attack the Confederate left wing and Sherman the right wing. At dawn on November 24th, Hooker's reinforced XII attacked. Corps. Through an unsupervised bottleneck between Lookout Mountain and Tennessee, the Union troops streamed from the north onto Lookout Mountain and drove the Confederate troops down the opposite slope. Because of the rising fog, the battle was called "The Battle above the Clouds". At around 3:00 p.m., the fighting ceased because the Union troops ran out of ammunition and the fog became thicker. Bragg and his troops dodged to Missionary Ridge. With minor casualties, less than 500 men, Hooker's Corps had taken Lookout Mountain.
Sherman's divisions crossed the river and quickly captured a mountaintop on Missionary Ridge. Sherman realized too late that it was not his actual target - the heights above the tunnel of the Chattanooga and Cleveland Railway - but the so-called "Billy the Goat Hill". This was separated from the main massif by a ravine. Therefore, there was no fighting on the right wing of the Confederate that day. Bragg, meanwhile, strengthened the right wing with a division under Patrick Cleburne , which was ordered back from its loading station to the battlefield.
The second day of the battle
On the morning of November 25th, Sherman's divisions attacked Missionary Ridge to the north. They had received generous reinforcements from Grant and were to lead the main blow. Their destination was the so-called tunnel that cut the Missionary Ridge in the north. The day before, Sherman's attack had taken the wrong direction and instead of the hills around the tunnel occupied “Billy the Goat Hill” to the northwest of it. When he resumed his attack around 10 o'clock, he was thrown back by Cleburne, who had cleverly placed his artillery on the elevations north of the tunnel. Through a counterattack, Cleburne even managed to take several hundred prisoners. At 2:30 p.m. Sherman's attack was finally repulsed. In contrast, Hooker's attack in the south was extremely successful. He too had been delayed at first because Bragg had destroyed a bridge over Chattanooga Creek, but by noon Hooker had the river behind him. Weak resistance could not prevent it from quickly passing the Rossville Pass on the south of the Confederate Front. At around 3 p.m. he began his attack northwards into the unprotected left flank of the enemy. The fact that the division under Osterhaus, which was reaching further east, got into the rear of the entire Confederate front and marched towards Bragg's headquarters without encountering significant resistance, caused increasing panic among the defenders.
In the afternoon Grant came to the conclusion that his original plan - to bring about the decision in the north - did not work. He gave Thomas orders to attack the first line of the Confederate trenches. This was to prevent Cleburne's forces from being reinforced. Thomas's army, which had been humiliated on Chickamauga, was to attack head-on with 23,000 men, four divisions. The troops, spread out over three kilometers, had to march across open fields to get to the Confederate trenches. The comparison with "Pickett's attack" in Gettysburg was obvious. Thomas, however, knew how to delay the attack until Hooker's advance caused the defenders to become increasingly jolted. Under these circumstances, the Union troops managed to overrun the first line of the trenches at around 4 p.m. In a panic, the Confederates fled up Missionary Ridge to the second and third rows of the trenches. Thomas' troops did not wait for further orders, but pursued the fleeing people. At first there were only individual companies, soon whole regiments followed and climbed the steep mountain. Struggling to keep his composure, Grant asked Thomas who had given the order, to which Thomas replied that it was not him. The Union troops finally captured the ridge and the Confederates withdrew. The Cleburnes Division, used as the rearguard, successfully prevented the pursuit of the Confederate troops.
Aftermath
On the part of the Union there was talk of the “miracle at Missionary Ridge”, hardly anyone could believe that the frontal attack on the Confederate positions had led to such an easy success because the positions had been considered impregnable. There were several reasons why they were taken anyway. For one thing, Bragg and his officers fell out among themselves, which spread to the troops and led to poor morale in the Tennessee Army. On the other hand, the Union troops pursued those fleeing the first trenches so closely that the soldiers in the second and third rows had to stop firing in order not to meet their comrades. In addition, the top row was laid out in such a way that the entire slope could not be seen.
The Tennessee Army dodged 45 kilometers south in the direction of Atlanta. The Union forces pursued the Confederates, but were stopped on November 27 by the Confederate rearguard under General Cleburne and broke off the pursuit. Later that year, President Davis removed Bragg from command at his own request and replaced him with Joseph E. Johnston . Longstreet, which attacked Knoxville on November 29th, was also unsuccessful, so that the Confederates lost Tennessee for good. For Ulysses S. Grant, the victory at Chattanooga was the last battle in the west. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1864, a rank last held by George Washington . Grant became commander in chief of all Union forces and appointed Sherman to succeed him as commander of the western armies.
Web links
- Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields. National Park Service, May 17, 2002, accessed February 23, 2013 (English, Historical Handbook).
literature
- Peter Cozzens: The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga ISBN 0-252-06595-6
- James L. McDonough: Chattanooga: A Deathgrip on the Confederacy . Knoxville, TN 1984
- Michael Solka: Chattanooga 1863 ISBN 3-89510-007-2 (German)
- Wiley Sword: Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863. New York 1995
- Steven E. Woodworth: A Battlefield Guide with a Section on Chattanooga ISBN 0-8032-9802-1
- Steven E. Woodworth: Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1998. ISBN 0-8032-9813-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Third Battle of chattanooga. Civil War Trust, 2013, accessed February 23, 2013 (Confederation strength).
- ↑ The Third Battle of chattanooga. Civil War Trust, 2013, accessed February 23, 2013 .
- ^ Battle of Chattanooga. National Park Service, December 19, 2012, retrieved February 23, 2013 (Confederation losses).
- ^ Battle of Chattanooga. National Park Service, December 19, 2012, accessed February 23, 2013 (Union losses).