Chasing Battlefields: Chattanooga - Part One

Me and Kudo at the edge of Point Park overlooking Chattanooga and environs.

The history in a nutshell: In late-September 1863, the Federal Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans straggled into Chattanooga having just lost a large, bloody battle along Chickamauga Creek.   The army was dejected, short on rations, and hemmed-in at Chattanooga by the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg.

As a result of this disaster, and due to his recent strategic victory at Vicksburg, the Lincoln Administration promoted General Ulysses S. Grant to overall command of the western theater.  Grant wasted little time replacing Rosecrans with General George H. Thomas, but not before Rosecrans set in motion several actions designed to resupply the Union army.  These did not come to fruition until after Grant took command of the theater, so Grant received the credit for “saving” the beleaguered army by opening “the Cracker Line.”  

Soon, reinforcements were sent to Thomas’ besieged army.  General William T. Sherman was on his way from Mississippi while General Joseph Hooker was sent from Virginia with two small Union corps.  The transportation of both forces over such a large distance took time.  Meanwhile, Bragg tightened the noose as much as he could, hoping the Yankees would surrender the city.

Lookout Mountain as seen from the highest point of the Chattanooga National Cemetery.  It was a spectacular winter day for touring.  Facing southwest. 

From the same location only now facing East.  This is the oldest section of the cemetery, where Union soldiers killed in the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga and the Atlanta Campaign are laid to rest.  The ridge line on the left in the distance is Missionary Ridge.  The Confederate lines ran through here at the beginning of Bragg's siege but eventually the Southerners withdrew toward the ridge.

A section of the interpretive marker at the cemetery showing how the graves were initially laid out.  You can make out the swirls of the markers in the previous photo, which matches the configuration on this sign.

These unnamed Union dead were among the first burials at the cemetery, re-interred from other battle sites in Tennessee and Georgia after the end of the war.  Notice the curved groupings match the signage in the previous photo.

Union soldiers went hungry and teams of mules and horses starved to death.  The situation was dire.  But it wasn’t much better for the Rebels.  Bragg’s logistics were almost equally perilous due to the poor condition of his wagons, the rugged terrain around Chattanooga, and the faltering Southern rail system.  

Bragg’s army was arranged in a large arch from just beyond Lookout Mountain to the Tennessee River along Missionary Ridge.  The further west the Confederates were positioned the worse their supply situation got.  Troops operating in and around Lookout Mountain were in some ways isolated from the rest of Bragg’s army and suffered accordingly in terms of communications and supplies.  

This reflected two fundamental things about the Southern siege of Chattanooga.  One, Bragg's supplies were precarious due to inadequate delivery by an insufficient number of wagons and a poor road network around Lookout Mountain.  Two, there was a lack 0f strategic vision on Bragg's part about the importance of Lookout Mountain.  For him, it was a secondary concern to the point of almost being ignored.  It would have involved great effort to supply a sufficient force to adequately defend Brown's Ferry, Lookout Valley, and the mountain itself.  Bragg never considered that effort worth it at the expense of supplying the rest of his army.

Before he departed, Rosecrans had worked out plan to place a pontoon bridge across Moccasin Bend at Brown’s Ferry.  This was accomplished in late October thanks to a daring river raid by General William B. Hazen (the same brigade commander that held his ground at Murfreesboro and built the war’s first monument there).  Much of the Confederate line was thinly held but this was particularly true around Lookout Mountain.  So Hazen managed to skirmish his way against light resistance and form a beachhead at Brown’s Ferry.  By the time the scattered Southerners were able to concentrate against him, Hazen had already fortified his lines making a counterattack impractical.

Meanwhile, Hooker arrived at Bridgeport, Alabama and marched toward Chattanooga from the west.  Uncertain as to which path he would take, and, once again, greatly undermanned for the amount of terrain they tried to control, the Rebels were unable to concentrate against the Yankees as they approached.  Nevertheless, in a rare (and confusing) night attack, the Confederates completely encircled a Federal division under command of General John W. Geary in the Battle of Wauhatchie but the Yankees held their ground.  

Three large monuments at the top of the hill known as Orchard Knob. The largest is the Illinois Monument on the right.  On the left are the New York and Maryland monuments.  This hill was part of the Confederate lines when the siege of Chattanooga began.  By the time of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, however, Bragg had concentrated his army to the east and Federal troops occupied the hill after driving away Confederate skirmishers.  It was from this vantage point that Generals Grant and Thomas observed the battles for Chattanooga.

Lookout Mountain as seen from Orchard Knob with the Wisconsin Monument in the foreground.

On November 24, 1863, Hooker assembled the hodge-podge of forces north and west of Lookout Mountain and attacked.  Grant originally intended this to be a diversion but Hooker, partly in an attempt to redeem himself from his earlier 1863 defeat in the Battle of Chancellorsville, pressed forward with great determination.  Three full divisions were aligned against four scattered Confederate brigades, two atop Lookout Mountain and two between the mountain and Moccasin Bend. 

Greatly outnumbered and with their entrenchments facing west, the Confederates were soon routed by Hooker’s competent attack, which, in part, originated from the south.  Heavy fighting took place along the steep wooded slope below Lookout Mountain in and around Cravens House with the Rebels ultimately forced to pull back to the east and surrender their positions atop and around Lookout Mountain.  Hooker’s major victory took Grant completely by surprise.  The theater commander was focused on the main Union attack on the north end of Missionary Ridge, which is where I will visit in part two of this battlefield chase.

This is a shot facing east from the western side of Lookout Mountain overlooking the approximate location of the Battle of Wauhatchie.

The New York Monument is all that remains of the Battle of Wauhatchie.  On the night of October 29, 1863 there was confused, heavy fighting here.

An overview of the Battle of Wauhatchie area as seen from the western slope of Lookout Mountain.

Yesterday was sunny with little wind at all.  So I ventured out with my new dog Kudo to explore this small but fascinating military situation, walking along what remains of these original battle grounds.  It was a good half-day trip to explore some places I had not visited before and to test how traveling with Kudo would go.  She was a little antsy from time to time but, overall, she did well and was a delightful traveling buddy.

Winter is a great time of visit battlefields situated in wooded areas.  Obviously, with the leaves off the trees you can see much further and get a better sense of the lay of the land.  Another plus is that, even at the most accessible battlefields, the number of tourists is greatly diminished, especially on a Wednesday afternoon.  

In the case of visiting Chattanooga yesterday, the time of year meant that these large spaces could be enjoyed quietly, with a minimum of intrusion, so that you can appreciate the beauty as you stand there – listening to guns from a distant time.  Kudo and I arrived in Chattanooga a little past 10AM.

The first stop was the Chattanooga National Cemetery.  I have visited this place before but only recently learned that the original advanced line of Bragg’s army ran along the high ground of the cemetery.  Visiting any national cemetery is always a mysteriously serene experience for me.  This is especially true at Chattanooga where the Federal dead from the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and the Atlanta Campaign are all interred, along with thousands of other Americans from our more modern wars.

A panorama of Moccasin Bend in the Tennessee River with Chattanooga on the right.  The facing is north.  It was a perfect day for this breathtaking view from Point Park.

A closer look at Chattanooga.  The darker line in the upper right running just beneath the horizon is Missionary Ridge.  The National Cemetery and Orchard Knob are both visible in the original high resolution of this photo.

On the western side of Moccasin Bend is Brown's Ferry.  You can see it as the short cleared patch of ground rising out of the river near the center of this photo.  It was there that a daring Union raid led by Hazen's brigade successfully secured the area for a pontoon bridge to be constructed thereby breaking the siege and opening "the Cracker Line."  There was momentary skirmishing here as the raid caught the Rebels off guard with their forces widely dispersed trying to protect multiple points along the river.

The New York Peace Memorial at Point Park is the largest battlefield monument at Chattanooga.

The base of the peace memorial shows that it is a neoclassical work of art.  Set against the jet blue sky, it was a perfect day to appreciate it.

I sought out and photographed the section of unidentified graves there.  This is where Civil War soldiers are buried, mostly having been moved from various other grave sites in the years following the conflict.  The original cemetery design had a swirling pattern to it, which is still readily apparent.  

From the cemetery it is a short drive to Orchard Knob, another location of the advanced Confederate lines when Chattanooga was initially besieged.  Later, as they concentrated their ranks, Orchard Knob was abandoned and the Yankees occupied it.  Grant and Thomas observed the various battles around Chattanooga from this location in late November 1863, including Lookout Mountain.  There are a number of magnificent monuments located there.  The high hill was a great tourist attraction following the war but it is no longer well-maintained, which gives a weathered, historic feel to the place.

The day was spectacularly clear and I enjoyed great views of Lookout Mountain to the southwest and of Missionary Ridge to the immediate east.  Kudo and I then drove out of the neighborhoods and commercially developed areas surrounding the cemetery and the knob to another similarly developed area all the way around the western side of Lookout Mountain.  There I found what little is left of the site of the Battle of Wauhatchie which is marked by a monument to the three New York regiments that fought on this ground.  (Three Pennsylvania regiments were also involved in that night battle.)   

In his first engagement as brigade commander, Col. John Bratton (later promoted to Brigadier General) led the Confederate assault.  Although he managed to surround his Federal adversary at night (no easy feat), Bratton's attacks were nevertheless uncoordinated due to the difficulties of maneuvering to the sound of guns in darkness.  Moreover, there is the fact that Geary's division outnumbered Bratton's lone brigade.  Geary's veterans managed to hold firm.  The Confederates withdrew just before Union reinforcements arrived.  Lookout Valley soon fell, primarily due to the fact that the Rebels could never station adequate troops there while still attempting to pressure Grant at Chattanooga.  The arrival of Hooker's corps and the troops crossing at Brown's Ferry gave the Union an advantage in strength which would ultimately be decisive in the Battle of Lookout Mountain.

Next, it was time for the main event of the trip, a drive up Lookout Mountain to explore the battlegrounds there.  The first stop was Point Park where the National Park Service office is located.  Since it was about noon by then, I had lunch at the picnic area just outside the park.  A small fee allows you into it.  There were maybe a dozen other people in the entire park which features some truly spectacular views of Chattanooga and the surrounding areas.  This was the main reason I waited for a clear sunny day to maximize the visibility.  It was worth it.

James Walker's massive "Battle of Lookout Mountain" painting is featured in the Point Park Visitor's Center.

This highly detailed painting is 30 feet long.

It was commissioned by Joseph Hooker after the war, obviously a bit of self-promotion on a grand scale.

Hooker on the white horse near the center of the painting.  The attack in the background is Union Generals Osterhaus and Geary pushing Walthall and Moore's Confederates back toward the Cravens House.

The visitor’s center at Point Park is home to “The Battle of Lookout Mountain,” a massive 30 x 13 foot painting by James Walker.  The painting, commissioned by Hooker himself, is filled with wonderful details of the Federal attack.  It is an splendid piece of art that I enjoyed spending time with.

The odd thing about Point Park is, while the impressive New York Peace Monument and a few Confederate artillery positions are there, all the fighting actually took place elsewhere.  The cliffs were too steep and the location too distant for a serious demonstration in 1863.  Rather, the Battle of Lookout Mountain chiefly took place along the wooded slope about half way back down the mountain, in and around Cravens House, which was our final stop for this trip.

At Cravens House you can walk trails to the Confederate defensive line which was, as I mentioned, positioned the wrong way to repulse the full Federal attack as devised by Hooker.  The Rebels expected the Yankees to come out of the west (which they chiefly did) but instead a portion of Hooker’s attack also came from the south.  This enfiladed General Edward C. Walthall’s brigade, driving it back along with General John C. Moore’s brigade.  

A Confederate artillery position at Cravens House was unable to fire a shot due to the possibility of hitting Walthall’s men as they rushed in retreat with Hooker’s forces in close pursuit.  The cannons were captured.  Heavy fighting took place all around this location.  By the end of November 24 the Federals held the primary ground and the Confederates had to withdraw, abandoning Lookout Mountain in the process.

Reflecting the coming of Hooker's "Army of the Potomac" presence, here is yet another New York Monument.  This one at Cravens House.  There was heavy fighting all around here on November 24, 1863.  The two artillery pieces represent the position of Confederate Captain Evan Howell's battery which was captured by Federal troops commanded by General Charles Cruft as they advanced.

The same two cannon with Cravens House facing toward Chattanooga.  Today this is an idyllic location, a beautiful space on a perfect sunny winter afternoon. In 1863 it was congested with fierce fighting up and down the slope line of the mountain.

The Iowa Monument located near Cravens House.

This signage marks the final positions of the Confederate brigades.  Most of these troops had been driven back about a mile by the end of the day.  One brigade was brought down from the top of Lookout Mountain to reinforce the Southern line here.  The narrow paved road leads to Cravens House and is on the bed of an old wagon trail, definitely not wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other.  Today the wooded area around Cravens House is an upscale residential development although this portion is part of the National Park.

A side trail off the narrow road leads you to this sign which marks the final position of Moore's brigade.  The steeply wooded, rocky nature of the terrain is the same now as it was at the time of the battle and gives you some idea of how difficult the fighting was on this battlefield.

I knew that it would be rather ambitious to attempt to take in all the Chattanooga battlefields in a single, short winter day.  For all its grand monuments and the magnificent painting, the battles surrounding Lookout Mountain were a sideshow to the main action involving Missionary Ridge.  I plan to take Kudo back there in the not too distant future to finish the tour as I continue to chase the battlefields of the War Between the States.

Note: I highly recommend David Powell’s excellent Battle Above the Clouds for a great narrative, facts and insights into the Campaign for Chattanooga up to and including the Battle of Lookout Mountain.  I learned much from reading this book and it also served as a fine guide for planning my trip.