CHATTANOOGA AND MISSIONARY RIDGE.
Thomas succeeds Rosecrans in the Army of the Cumberland--Grant
supreme at Chattanooga--A visit to the army at Knoxville--A
Tennessee Unionist's family--Impressions of Burnside--Grant against
Bragg at Chattanooga--The most spectacular fighting of the
war--Watching the first day's battle--With Sherman the second
day--The moonlight fight on Lookout Mountain--Sheridan's whisky
flask--The third day's victory and the glorious spectacle it
afforded--The relief of General Burnside.
With Grant I left Nashville for the front on the morning of the 21st. We
arrived safe in Bridgeport in the evening. The next morning, October
22d, we left on horseback for Chattanooga by way of Jasper and Walden's
Ridge. The roads were in such a condition that it was impossible for
Grant, who was on crutches from an injury to his leg received by the
fall of a horse in New Orleans some time before, to make the whole
distance of fifty-five miles in one day, so I pushed on ahead, running
the rebel picket lines, and reaching Chattanooga in the evening in
company with Colonel Wilson, Grant's inspector general.
The next morning I went to see General Thomas; it was not an official
visit, but a friendly one, such a visit as I very often made on the
generals. When we had shaken hands, he said:
"Mr. Dana, you have got me this time; but there is nothing for a man to
do in such a case as this but to obey orders."
This was in allusion to his assignment to the command of the Army of the
Cumberland. The change in command was received with satisfaction by all
intelligent officers, so far as I could ascertain, though, of course,
Rosecrans had many friends who were unable to conceive why he was
relieved. They reported that he was to be put in command of the Army of
the Potomac. The change at headquarters was already strikingly
perceptible, order prevailing instead of universal chaos.
On the evening of the 23d Grant arrived, as I stated in my dispatch to
Mr. Stanton, "wet, dirty, and well." The next morning he was out with
Thomas and Smith to reconnoiter a position which the latter general had
discovered at the mouth of Lookout Valley, which he believed, if it
could be taken possession of and at the same time if Raccoon Mountain
could be occupied, would give us Lookout Valley, and so enable us again
to bring supplies up the river. In preparation for this movement, Smith
had been getting bridges ready to throw across the river at the mouth of
the valley, and been fitting up a steamer to use for supplies when we
should control the river.
The Confederates at that time were massed in Chattanooga Valley, south
of Chattanooga. They held Missionary Ridge to the east, and Lookout
Mountain to the west. They had troops in Lookout Valley also, and their
pickets extended westward over Raccoon Mountain to the river. South of
the river, at Brown's Ferry, were several low mamelons. Smith's idea
was to surprise the Confederate pickets here at night and seize the
position in time to unite with Hooker, who in the meantime should be
ordered up from Bridgeport by way of Shellmound, Whiteside, and
Wauhatchie. That night Grant gave orders for the movement; in fact, he
began it by sending Palmer's division across Walden's Ridge to Rankin's
Ferry, where he was to cross and occupy Shellmound, thus guarding
Hooker's rear. Hooker he ordered to march from Bridgeport on the morning
of the 26th.
I went to Bridgeport on the 25th to observe Hooker's movement, but found
he was not there, and would not be ready to march the next morning as
ordered. Hooker came up from Stevenson to Bridgeport on the evening of
the 26th. He was in an unfortunate state of mind for one who had to
co-operate--fault-finding and criticising. No doubt it was true that the
chaos of the Rosecrans administration was as bad as he described it to
be, but he was quite as truculent toward the plan that he was now to
execute as toward the impotence and confusion of the old _régime_. By
the next morning he was ready to start, and the troops moved out for
Shellmound about half past six. By half past four in the afternoon we
arrived at Whiteside Valley; thence the march was directly to
Wauhatchie. Here there was an insignificant skirmish, which did not stop
us long. By the afternoon of the 28th we were at the mouth of the
Lookout Valley, where we found that General Smith, by an operation whose
brilliancy can not be exaggerated, had taken the mamelons south of the
river. The only serious opposition to our occupancy of the position
came that night, but the enemy was successfully repulsed.
Our forces now held Lookout Valley and controlled the river from Brown's
Ferry to Bridgeport. The next day supplies were started up the river. At
first they came no farther than Kelley's Ferry, which was about ten
miles from Chattanooga. This was because the steamer at Bridgeport could
not get through the Suck, an ugly pass in the mountains through which
the river runs; but on the night of the 30th we succeeded in getting our
steamer at Chattanooga past the pickets on Lookout Mountain and down to
Brown's Ferry. She could pass the Suck, and after that supplies came by
water to Brown's Ferry.
Within a week after Grant's arrival we were receiving supplies daily.
There was no further danger of the Army of the Cumberland being starved
out of Chattanooga. The Confederates themselves at once recognized this,
for a copy of the Atlanta Appeal of November 3d which reached me said
that if we were not dislodged from Lookout Valley our possession of
Chattanooga was secure for the winter.
It was now certain that we could hold Chattanooga; but until Sherman
reached us we could do nothing against the enemy and nothing to relieve
Burnside, who had been ordered to unite with Rosecrans in August, but
had never got beyond Knoxville. He was shut up there much in the same
way as we were in Chattanooga, and it was certain that the Confederates
were sending forces against him.
The day after Grant arrived we had good evidence that the Confederates
were moving in large force to the northeastward of Chattanooga, for
heavy railroad trains went out in that direction and light ones
returned. Deserters to us on the morning of the 25th reported that a
large force was at Charleston, Tenn., and that fully five thousand
mounted infantry had crossed the Tennessee River above Washington. That
night it was noticed that the pickets on Lookout Mountain, and even down
into the valley on the Chattanooga side, were much diminished. We judged
from this that the enemy had withdrawn both from the top of the mountain
and from the valley. There were other rumors of their movements toward
Burnside during the next few days, and on November 6th some definite
information came through a deserter, a Northern man who had lived in
Georgia before the war and had been forced into the service. He reported
that two divisions had moved up the Tennessee some time ago, and
confirmed our suspicion that the troops had been withdrawn from Lookout
Mountain. He said it was well understood among the Confederates that
these forces were going by way of Loudon to join those which had already
gone up the river, to co-operate with a force of Lee's army in driving
Burnside out of East Tennessee.
Grant's first move to meet this plan of the enemy was to direct Sherman,
who had been trying to rebuild and hold the railroad from Memphis as he
marched forward, to abandon this work and hasten up to Stevenson. Grant
then considered what movement could be made which would compel the
enemy to recall the troops sent against Burnside.
Grant was so anxious to know the real condition of Burnside that he
asked me to go to Knoxville and find out. So on November 9th I started,
accompanied by Colonel Wilson of Grant's staff. The way in which such a
trip as this of Wilson and mine was managed in those days is told in
this letter to a child, written just before we left Chattanooga for
Knoxville:
I expect to go all the way on horseback, and it will take about five
days. About seventy horsemen will go along with their sabers and
carbines to keep off the guerillas. Our baggage we shall have
carried on pack mules. These are funny little rats of creatures,
with the big panniers fastened to their sides to carry their burdens
in. I shall put my bed in one pannier and my carpet bag and
India-rubber things in the other. Colonel Wilson, who is to go with
me, will have another mule for his traps, and a third will carry the
bread and meat and coffee that we are to live on. At night we shall
halt in some nice shady nook where there is a spring, build a big
roaring fire, cook our supper, spread our blankets on the ground,
and sleep with our feet toward the fire, while half a dozen of the
soldiers, with their guns ready loaded, watch all about to keep the
rebels at a safe distance. Then in the morning we shall first wake
up, then wash our faces, get our breakfasts, and march on, like John
Brown's soul, toward our destination. How long I shall stay at
Knoxville is uncertain, but I hope not very long--though it must be
very charming in that country of mountains and rivers--and then I
shall pray for orders that will take me home again.
We were not obliged to camp out every night on this trip. One evening,
just about supper time, we reached a large stone house, the home of a
farmer. The man, we found, was a strong Unionist, and he gave us a
hearty invitation to occupy his premises. Our escort took possession of
the barn for sleeping, and we cooked our supper in the yard, the family
lending us a table and sending us out fresh bread. After supper Wilson
and I were invited into the house, where the farmer listened eagerly to
the news of the Union army. There were two or three young and very
pretty girls in the farmer's family, and while we talked they dipped
snuff, a peculiar custom that I had seen but once or twice before.
We reached Knoxville on the 13th, and I at once went to headquarters to
talk over the situation with Burnside. This was the first time I had met
that general. He was rather a large man physically, about six feet tall,
with a large face and a small head, and heavy side whiskers. He was an
energetic, decided man, frank, manly, and well educated. He was a very
showy officer--not that he _made_ any show; he was naturally that. When
he first talked with you, you would think he had a great deal more
intelligence than he really possessed. You had to know him some time
before you really took his measure.
I found that Burnside's forces, something like thirty-three thousand men
of all arms, were scattered all the way from Kentucky, by Cumberland
Gap, down to Knoxville. In and about Knoxville he had not concentrated
more than twelve thousand to fourteen thousand men. The town was
fortified, though unable to resist an attack by a large force. Up to
this time Burnside and his army had really been very well off, for he
had commanded a rich region behind Knoxville, and thence had drawn food
and forage. He even had about one hundred miles of railroad in active
operation for foraging, and he had plenty of mills and workshops in the
town which he could use.
After a detailed conversation with Burnside, I concluded that there was
no reason to believe that any force had been sent from Lee's army to
attack him on the northeast, as we had heard in Chattanooga, but that it
was certain that Longstreet was approaching from Chattanooga with thirty
thousand troops. Burnside said that he would be unable long to resist
such an attack, and that if Grant did not succeed in making a
demonstration which would compel Longstreet to return he must retreat.
If compelled to retreat, he proposed, he said, to follow the line of
Cumberland Gap, and to hold Morristown and Bean's Station. At these
points he would be secure against any force the enemy could bring
against him; he would still be able to forage over a large extent of
country on the south and east, he could prevent the repair of the
railroads by the rebels, and he would still have an effective hold on
East Tennessee.
A few hours after this talk with Burnside, about one o'clock in the
morning of the 14th, a report reached Knoxville that completely upset
his plan for retreating by Cumberland Gap. This was the news that the
enemy had commenced building bridges across the Tennessee near Loudon,
only about twenty-five miles south of Knoxville. Burnside immediately
decided that he must retreat; and he actually dictated orders for
drawing his whole army south of the Holston into Blount County, where
all his communications would have been cut off, and where on his own
estimate he could not have subsisted more than three weeks. General
Parke argued against this in vain, but finally Colonel Wilson overcame
it by representing that Grant did not wish Burnside to include the
capture of his entire army among the plans of his operations. He then
determined to retreat toward the gaps, after destroying the workshops
and mills in Knoxville and on the line of his march.
Before we left, however, which was about six o'clock in the morning of
the 14th, General Burnside had begun to feel that perhaps he might not
be obliged to pass the mountains and abandon East Tennessee entirely. He
had even decided to send out a force to attack the enemy's advance. When
Wilson and I reached Lenoir's Station that morning on our way to
Chattanooga, we discovered that the enemy's attack was not as imminent
as Burnside feared. Their bridges were not complete, and no artillery or
cavalry had crossed. From everything I could learn of their strength, in
fact, it seemed to me that there was a reasonable probability that
Burnside would be able to hold Knoxville until relieved by operations at
Chattanooga.
We found that our departure from Knoxville had been none too soon. So
completely were the Confederates taking possession of the country
between Knoxville and Chattanooga that had we delayed a single day we
could have got out only through Cumberland Gap or that of Big Creek. We
were four days in returning, and Mr. Stanton became very uneasy, as I
learned from this dispatch received soon after my return:
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., _November 19, 1863_.
Hon. C. A. DANA, Chattanooga.
Your dispatches of yesterday are received. I am rejoiced that you
have got safely back. My anxiety about you for several days had
been very great. Make your arrangements to remain in the field
during the winter. Continue your reports as frequently as possible,
always noting the hour.
EDWIN M. STANTON.
Colonel Wilson and I reached Chattanooga on November 17th. As soon as I
arrived I went to Grant's and Thomas's headquarters to find out the
news. There was the greatest hopefulness everywhere. Sherman, they told
me, had reached Bridgeport, and a plan for attacking Bragg's position
was complete and its execution begun by moving a division of Sherman's
army from Bridgeport to Trenton, where it ought to arrive that day,
threatening the enemy by Stevens's Gap. The remainder of that army was
to move into Lookout Valley by way of Whiteside, extending its lines up
the valley toward Trenton, as if to repeat the flanking movement of
Rosecrans when he followed Bragg across the Tennessee. Having drawn the
enemy's attention to that quarter, Sherman was to disappear on the night
of the 18th and encamp his forces behind the ridge of hills north of the
Tennessee, opposite to Chattanooga, and keep them there out of sight of
the enemy during the 19th. That same night a bridge was to be thrown
across the river just below the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, so that on
Saturday morning, November 20th, Sherman's command would be across
before daylight, if possible. As soon as over he was to push for the
head of Missionary Ridge, and there engage the enemy.
At the same time that Sherman's wing advanced, Granger, with about
eighteen thousand men, was to move up on the left of the Chattanooga
lines and engage the Confederate right with all possible vigor. Hooker,
who had been in the Lookout Valley ever since he joined the army in
November, was to attack the head of Lookout Mountain simultaneously with
Sherman's attack at the head of Missionary Ridge, and, if practicable,
to carry the mountain.
It is almost never possible to execute a campaign as laid out,
especially when it requires so many concerted movements as this one.
Thus, instead of all of Sherman's army crossing the Tennessee on the
night of the 18th, and getting out of sight as expected behind the hills
that night, a whole corps was left behind at daylight, and one division
had to march down the valley on the morning of the 20th in full view of
the enemy, who now understood, of course, that he was to be attacked.
Bragg evidently did not care to risk a battle, for he tried to alarm
Grant that afternoon by sending a flag over, and with it a letter,
saying, "As there may still be some non-combatants in Chattanooga, I
deem it proper to notify you that prudence would dictate their early
withdrawal." Of course, we all knew this was a bluff.
On the morning of the 20th a heavy rain began, which lasted two days and
made the roads so bad that Sherman's advance was almost stopped. His
march was still further retarded by a singular blunder which had been
committed in moving his forces from Bridgeport. Instead of moving all
the troops and artillery first, the numerous trains which had been
brought from West Tennessee were sent in front rather than in rear of
each division. Grant said the blunder was his; that he should have given
Sherman explicit orders to leave his wagons behind; but no one was so
much astonished as Grant on learning that they had not been left, even
without such orders.
Owing to these unforeseen circumstances, Sherman's rear was so far
behind on the morning of the 23d, three days after Grant had planned for
the attack, that it was doubtful whether he could be ready to join the
movement the next day, November 24th. It was also feared that the enemy,
who had seen the troops march through Lookout Valley and then disappear,
might have discovered where they were concealed, and thus surmise our
movements.
On account of these hitches in carrying out the operations as speedily
as Grant had hoped, it was not until November 23d that the first
encounter in the battle of Chattanooga occurred. It was the beginning of
the most spectacular military operations I ever saw--operations
extending over three days and full of the most exciting incidents.
Our army lay to the south and east of the town of Chattanooga, the river
being at our back. Facing us, in a great half circle, and high above us
on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, were the Confederates. Our
problem was to drive them from these heights. We had got our men well
together, all the re-enforcements were up, and now we were to strike.
The first thing Grant tried to do was to clear out the Confederate lines
which were nearest to ours on the plain south of Chattanooga, and to get
hold of two bald knobs, or low hills, where Bragg's forces had their
advance guard. As the entire field where this attack was to be made was
distinctly visible from one of our forts, I went there on the 23d with
the generals to watch the operations. The troops employed for the attack
were under the immediate orders of Gordon Granger. There were some
capital officers under Granger, among them Sheridan, Hazen, and T. J.
Wood. Just before one o'clock the men moved out of their intrenchments,
and remained in line for three quarters of an hour in full view of the
enemy. The spectacle was one of singular magnificence.
Our point of view was Fort Wood. Usually in a battle one sees only a
little corner of what is going on, the movements near where you happen
to be; but in the battle of Chattanooga we had the whole scene before
us. At last, everything being ready, Granger gave the order to advance,
and three brigades of men pushed out simultaneously. The troops advanced
rapidly, with all the precision of a review, the flags flying and the
bands playing. The first sign of a battle one noticed was the fire
spitting out of the rifles of the skirmishers. The lines moved steadily
along, not halting at all, the skirmishers all the time advancing in
front, firing and receiving fire.
The first shot was fired at two o'clock, and in five minutes Hazen's
skirmishers were briskly engaged, while the artillery of Forts Wood and
Thomas was opening upon the rebel rifle-pits and camps behind the line
of fighting. The practice of our gunners was splendid, but it elicited
no reply from the camps and batteries of the enemy, about a mile and
three quarters distant; and it was soon evident that the Confederates
had no heavy artillery, in that part of their lines at least. Our
troops, rapidly advancing toward the knobs upon which they were
directed, occupied them at twenty minutes past two. Ten minutes later
Samuel Beatty, who commanded a brigade, driving forward across an open
field, carried the rifle-pits in his front, the occupants fleeing as
they fired their last volley; and Sheridan, moving through the forest
which stretched before him, drove in the enemy's pickets. Sheridan
halted his advance, in obedience to orders, on reaching the rifle-pits,
where the rebel force was waiting for his attack. No such attack was
made, however, the design being to secure only the height. The entire
movement was carried out in such an incredibly short time that at half
past three I was able to send a telegram to Mr. Stanton describing the
victory.
We took about two hundred prisoners, mostly Alabama troops, and had
gained a position which would be of great importance should the enemy
still attempt to hold the Chattanooga Valley. With these heights in our
possession, a column marching to turn Missionary Ridge was secure from
flank attack. The Confederates fired three small guns only during the
affair, and that tended to confirm the impression that they had
withdrawn their main force. About four o'clock in the afternoon the
enemy opened fire from the top of Missionary Ridge, the total number of
cannon they displayed being about twelve, but nothing was developed to
show decisively whether they would fight or flee. Grant thought the
latter; other judicious officers the former.
That evening I left Chattanooga to join General Sherman, who had his
troops north of the river concealed behind the hills, and ready to
attempt to cross the Tennessee that very night, so as to be able to
attack the east head of Missionary Ridge on the night of the 24th or the
morning of the 25th.
Sherman had some twenty-five thousand men, and crossing them over a
river as wide and rapid as the Tennessee was above Chattanooga seemed to
me a serious task, and I watched the operations of the night with great
curiosity. The first point was to get a sufficient body of troops on the
south bank to hold a position against the enemy (the Confederates had
pickets for a long distance up and down the Tennessee, above
Chattanooga), and then from there commence building the pontoon bridge
by which the bulk of the men were to be got over.
About one o'clock in the morning the pontoon boats, which had been sent
up the river some distance, were filled with men and allowed to drop
down to the point General Sherman had chosen for the south end of his
bridge. They landed about 2.30 in the morning, seized the pickets, and
immediately began to fortify their position. The boats in the meantime
were sent across the river to bring over fresh loads of men. They kept
this up until morning. Then a small steamer which Sherman had got hold
of came up and began to bring over troops. At daybreak some of the boats
were taken from the ferrying and a bridge was begun. It was marvelous
with what vigor the work went on. Sherman told me he had never seen
anything done so quietly and so well, and he declared later in his
report that he did not believe the history of war could show a bridge of
that length--about thirteen hundred and fifty feet--laid down so
noiselessly and in so short a time. By one o'clock in the afternoon
(November 24th) the bridge was done, and the balance of his forces were
soon marching briskly across. As soon as Sherman saw that the crossing
was insured, he set the foremost of his column in motion for the head of
Missionary Ridge. By four o'clock he had gained the crest of the ridge
and was preparing for the next day's battle.
As soon as I saw Sherman in position, I hurried back to Chattanooga. I
reached there just in time to see the famous moonlight battle on Lookout
Mountain. The way this night battle happened to be fought was that
Hooker, who had been holding Lookout Valley, had been ordered to gain a
foothold on Lookout Mountain if possible, and that day, while I was with
Sherman, had really succeeded in scaling the side of the mountain. But
his possession of the point he had reached had been so hotly disputed
that a brigade had been sent from Chattanooga to aid him. These troops
attacked the Confederate lines on the eastern slope of the mountain
about eight o'clock that evening. A full moon made the battlefield as
plain to us in the valley as if it were day, the blaze of their camp
fires and the flashes of their guns displaying brilliantly their
position and the progress of their advance. No report of the result was
received that night, but the next morning we knew that Bragg had
evacuated Lookout Mountain the night before, and that our troops
occupied it.
After the successes of the two days a decisive battle seemed inevitable,
and orders were given that night for a vigorous attack the next morning.
I was up early, sending my first dispatch to Mr. Stanton at half past
seven o'clock. As the result of the operations of the day before, Grant
held the point of Lookout Mountain on the southwest and the crest of the
east end of Missionary Ridge, and his line was continuous between these
points. As the result of the movement on November 23d, our lines in
front had been advanced to Orchard Knob. The bulk of the Confederate
force was intrenched along Missionary Ridge, five to six hundred feet
above us, and facing our center and left. From Chattanooga we could see
the full length of our own and the enemy's lines spread out like a scene
in a theater.
About nine o'clock the battle was commenced on Sherman's line on our
left, and it raged furiously all that forenoon both east of Missionary
Ridge and along its crest, the enemy making vigorous efforts to crush
Sherman and dislodge him from his position on the ridge. All day, while
this battle was going on, I was at Orchard Knob, where Grant, Thomas,
Granger, and several other officers were observing the operations. The
enemy kept firing shells at us, I remember, from the ridge opposite.
They had got the range so well that the shells burst pretty near the top
of the elevation where we were, and when we saw them coming we would
duck--that is, everybody did except Generals Grant and Thomas and Gordon
Granger. It was not according to their dignity to go down on their
marrow bones. While we were there Granger got a cannon--how he got it I
do not know--and he would load it with the help of one soldier and fire
it himself over at the ridge. I recollect that Rawlins was very much
disgusted at the guerilla operations of Granger, and induced Grant to
order him to join his troops elsewhere.
As we thought we perceived, soon after noon, that the enemy had sent a
great mass of their troops to crush Sherman, Grant gave orders at two
o'clock for an assault upon the left of their lines; but owing to the
fault of Granger, who was boyishly intent upon firing his gun instead of
commanding his corps, Grant's order was not transmitted to the division
commanders until he repeated it an hour later.
It was fully four o'clock before the line moved out to the attack. It
was a bright, sunny afternoon, and, as the forces marched across the
valley in front of us as regularly as if on parade, it was a great
spectacle. They took with ease the first rifle-pits at the foot of the
ridge as they had been ordered, and then, to the amazement of all of us
who watched on Orchard Knob, they moved out and up the steep ahead of
them, and before we realized it they were at the top of Missionary
Ridge. It was just half past four when I wired to Mr. Stanton:
Glory to God! the day is decisively ours. Missionary Ridge has just
been carried by the magnificent charge of Thomas's troops, and the
rebels routed.
As soon as Grant saw the ridge was ours, he started for the front. As he
rode the length of the lines, the men, who were frantic with joy and
enthusiasm over the victory, received him with tumultuous shouts. The
storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the greatest miracles in
military history. No man who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that
wind along its front can believe that eighteen thousand men were moved
in tolerably good order up its broken and crumbling face unless it was
his fortune to witness the deed. It seemed as awful as a visible
interposition of God. Neither Grant nor Thomas intended it. Their orders
were to carry the rifle-pits along the base of the ridge and capture
their occupants; but when this was accomplished, the unaccountable
spirit of the troops bore them bodily up those impracticable steeps, in
spite of the bristling rifle-pits on the crest, and the thirty cannons
enfilading every gully. The order to storm appears to have been given
simultaneously by Generals Sheridan and Wood because the men were not to
be held back, dangerous as the attempt appeared to military prudence.
Besides, the generals had caught the inspiration of the men, and were
ready themselves to undertake impossibilities.
The first time I saw Sheridan after the battle I said to him, "Why did
you go up there?"
"When I saw the men were going up," he replied, "I had no idea of
stopping them; the rebel pits had been taken and nobody had been hurt,
and after they had started I commanded them to go right on. I looked up
at the head of the ridge as I was going up, and there I saw a
Confederate general on horseback. I had a silver whisky flask in my
pocket, and when I saw this man on the top of the hill I took out my
flask and waved my hand toward him, holding up the shining, glittering
flask, and then I took a drink. He waved back to me, and then the whole
corps went up."
All the evening of the 25th the excitement of the battle continued.
Bragg had retreated down the Chickamauga Valley and was burning what he
could not carry away, so that the east was lit by his fires, while
Sheridan continued his fight along the east slope of Missionary Ridge
until nine o'clock in the evening. It was a bright moonlight night, and
we could see most of the operations as plainly as by day. The next
morning Bragg was in full retreat. I went to Missionary Ridge in the
morning, and from there I could see along ten miles of Chickamauga
Valley the fires of the depots and bridges he was burning as he fled.
At intervals throughout the day I sent dispatches to Washington, where
they were eagerly read, as the following telegram sent me on the 27th
shows:
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, _November 27, 1863_.
Hon. C. A. DANA, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
The Secretary of War is absent and the President is sick, but both
receive your dispatches regularly and esteem them highly, not
merely because they are reliable, but for their clearness of
narrative and their graphic pictures of the stirring events they
describe.
The patient endurance and spirited valor exhibited by commanders
and men in the last great feat of arms, which has crowned our cause
with such a glorious success, is making all of us hero worshipers.
P. H. WATSON,
_Acting Secretary of War_.
The enemy was now divided. Bragg was flying toward Rome and Atlanta, and
Longstreet was in East Tennessee besieging Burnside. Our victorious army
was between them. The first thought was, of course, to relieve Burnside,
and Grant ordered Granger with the Fourth Corps instantly forward to his
aid, taking pains to write Granger a personal letter, explaining the
exigencies of the case and the imperative need of energy. It had no
effect, however, in hastening the movement, and a day or two later Grant
ordered Sherman to assume command of all the forces operating from the
south to save Knoxville. Grant became imbued with a strong prejudice
against Granger from this circumstance.
As any movement against Bragg was impracticable at that season, the only
operations possible to Grant, beyond the relief of Burnside, were to
hold Chattanooga and the line of the Hiwassee, to complete and protect
the railroads and the steamboats upon the Tennessee, and to amass food,
forage, and ordnance stores for the future. But all this would require
only a portion of the forces under his command; and, instead of holding
the remainder in winter quarters, he evolved a plan to employ them in
an offensive winter campaign against Mobile and the interior of Alabama.
He asked me to lay his plan before Mr. Stanton, and urge its approval by
the Government, which, of course, I did at once by telegraph.
I did not wait at Chattanooga to learn the decision of the Government on
Grant's plan, but left on November 29th, again with Colonel Wilson, to
join Sherman, now well on his way to Knoxville, and to observe his
campaign.
I fell in with Sherman on November 30th at Charleston, on the Hiwassee.
The Confederate guard there fled at his approach, after half destroying
the bridges, and we had to stay there until one was repaired. When we
reached Loudon, on December 3d, the bridge over the Tennessee was gone,
so that the main body of the army marched to a point where it was
believed a practicable ford might be found. The ford, however, proved
too deep for the men, the river being two hundred yards wide, and the
water almost at freezing point. We had a great deal of fun getting
across. I remember my horse went through--swam through, where his feet
could not strike the ground--and I got across without any difficulty. I
think Wilson got across, too; but when the lieutenant of our squad of
cavalrymen got in the middle of the river, where it was so deep that as
he sat in the saddle the water came up to his knees almost, and a little
above the breast of the mule he rode, the animal turned his head upward
toward the current, at that place very strong, and would not stir. This
poor fellow sat there in the middle of the stream, and, do his best, he
could not move his beast. Finally, they drove in a big wagon, or truck,
with two horses, and tied that to the bits of the mule, and dragged him
out.
Colonel Wilson at once set about the construction of a trestle bridge,
and by working all night had it so advanced that the troops could begin
to cross by daylight the next morning.
While the crossing was going on, we captured a Confederate mail, and
first learned something authentic about Burnside. He had been assailed
by Longstreet on the 29th of November, but had repulsed him. He was
still besieged, and all the letter writers spoke of the condition in the
town with great despondency, evidently regarding their chance of
extrication as very poor. Longstreet, we gathered from the mail, thought
that Sherman was bringing up only a small force.
By noon of December 5th we had our army over, and, as we were now only
thirty-five miles from Knoxville, we pushed ahead rapidly, the enemy
making but little resistance. When Longstreet discovered the strength of
our force he retreated, and we entered Knoxville at noon on the 6th. We
found to our surprise that General Burnside had fully twenty days'
provisions--much more, in fact, than at the beginning of the siege.
These supplies had been drawn from the French Broad by boats, and by the
Sevierville road. The loyal people of East Tennessee had done their
utmost through the whole time to send in provisions and forage, and
Longstreet left open the very avenues which Burnside most desired. We
found ammunition very short, and projectiles for our rifle guns had
been made in the town. The utmost constancy and unanimity had prevailed
during the whole siege, from Burnside down to the last private; no man
thought of retreat or surrender.
The next morning after our arrival, December 7th, Sherman started back
to Chattanooga with all his force not needed there. Colonel Wilson and I
returned with him, reaching Chattanooga on December 10th.
Everything in the army was now so safe, quiet, and regular that I felt I
could be more useful anywhere else, so the day I got back I asked leave
of Mr. Stanton to go North. I did not wait for his reply, however. The
morning of the 12th Grant sent for me to come to his headquarters, and
asked me to go to Washington to represent more fully to Stanton and
Halleck his wishes with regard to the winter campaign. As the matter was
important, I started at once, telegraphing Mr. Stanton that, if he
thought it unnecessary for me to go, orders would reach me at any point
on the railroad.