The great Allegheny ranges, stretching from northeast to southwest,
attain their highest altitude in western North Carolina. They come
down southwestward out of Virginia in the Blue Ridge and other ranges,
forming a high plateau, having the Blue Ridge on the eastern side, and
on the western, forming the boundary between North Carolina and
Tennessee, the chain known in various parts as the Stony, Iron, Great
Smoky and Unaka Mountains, while beyond, to the northwest, the
Cumberland Mountains extend in a parallel range through East
Tennessee. There are also various cross-chains, among them the Black
Mountains. In these ranges are eighty-two peaks that rise above five
thousand feet and forty-three exceeding six thousand feet. The highest
mountains of the Blue Ridge in North Carolina are the Grandfather and
the Pinnacle, rising nearly six thousand feet. In the Great Smoky
Mountains, Clingman's Dome is sixty-six hundred and sixty feet high
and Mount Guyot sixty-six hundred and thirty-six feet. The highest
peak of all is in the Black Mountains, and it is the highest east of
the Rockies, Mount Mitchell rising sixty-six hundred and eighty-eight
feet. Between and among these ranges are the sources of Tennessee
River, in the Clinch River, the Holston and its North Fork, and the
French Broad, their head streams coming westward out of Virginia and
North Carolina through the mountain passes. The extensive mountain
region they drain in North Carolina and East Tennessee is a most
attractive district, noted as a health resort, and famous for the
sturdy independence of its people, while along the Tennessee and upon
the mountains near it were fought some of the greatest battles of the
Civil War.
Upon the Tennessee River, at the head of navigation, and near the
junction-point of the three States, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, is
Chattanooga, the Indian "crow's nest," now a busy manufacturing city
and a great railroad centre, served by no less than nine different
roads diverging in all directions, the iron, coal and timber of the
neighboring country having given it an impetus that has brought a
population of fifty thousand. This city has had all its development
since the Civil War, and is the seat of Grant University of the
Methodist Church, attended by six hundred students. It borders the
river winding along the base of the Missionary Ridge and the famous
Lookout Mountain. The battlefields upon them have been placed in
control of a Government Commission, who have laid out the Chickamauga
and Chattanooga Military Park, restoring all the roads used by troops
during the battles, and marking the points of interest and the
locations of regiments and batteries by tablets and monuments. There
are sixty miles of driveways on the field, which embraces over five
thousand acres of woodland cleared of underbrush and fifteen hundred
acres of open ground. Here have been identified and accurately laid
down the brigade lines of battle of seven distinct and successive
engagements in the series of terrific contests that were fought, all
of them being plainly marked. The fighting positions of batteries for
both sides have been indicated by the location of guns of the same
pattern as those used in the engagement. There are thus marked
thirty-five battery positions on one side and thirty-three on the
other, mounting over two hundred guns. The restoration to the
conditions existing at the times of the battles is almost complete,
both the Northern and Southern States that had troops engaged,
actively aiding the historical labor. Lookout Mountain rises to the
south of the city, its summit being over twenty-one hundred feet high,
and it commands a superb view, extending over seven States.
Inclined-plane railways ascend it, and there is a hotel at the top,
and also another railway along the crest of the ridge. Upon the summit
of this mountain, which is almost a plateau, the boundaries of the
three States come together, and it overlooks to the northward the
plain of Chattanooga and the windings of Tennessee River, traced far
to the southwest along the base of the ridge into Alabama. The
favorite post for the magnificent view from the mountain top is Point
Rock, a jutting promontory of massive stone reared on high, and
overhanging like a balcony the deep valley. Far beneath, the river in
its grand and graceful sweeping curves forms the famous Moccasin Bend,
which almost enfolds the city of Chattanooga, and then spreads beyond,
fringed with forest and field, a waving silvery gleaming thread, until
lost to view.
Beyond Missionary Ridge is the battlefield of Chickamauga, the "river
of death," a stream flowing up from Georgia into the Tennessee, about
twelve miles east of Chattanooga. General Rosecrans commanded the
Union forces holding Chattanooga in 1863 and General Bragg the
opposing Confederates. The conflict began September 19th by the
Confederates attempting to turn Rosecrans' left wing and get
possession of the roads leading into Chattanooga, and it continued
fiercely for two days, when the Union forces withdrew, and the result
was a nominal victory for the Confederates on the field, although
Chattanooga and East Tennessee, the prize for which the battle was
fought, remained in possession of the Union forces. This was one of
the bloodiest battles of the war, thirty-four thousand being killed
and wounded on both sides out of one hundred and twelve thousand
engaged. Immediately after the battle, Rosecrans withdrew behind the
fortifications of Chattanooga, while Bragg moved up and occupied
positions upon Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, extending his
flanks to the Tennessee River above and below the city. He cut the
communications westward, and the Union army was practically blockaded
and in danger of starvation. Rosecrans was relieved and Grant took
command. He ordered Sherman to join him, coming up from the southwest,
and by the close of October had opened communication along the
Tennessee River and secured ample supplies. Bragg, who felt he was in
strong position, detached Longstreet with a large force to go
northeast in November and attack Burnside at Knoxville. Sherman's army
joined Grant on the 23d, and next day the battle began on Lookout
Mountain, continuing on the 25th on Missionary Ridge, and Bragg was
driven out of his position and his army pursued in disorder through
the mountains, over six thousand prisoners being taken. As the Union
forces ascended Lookout Mountain in the mist, this has been called the
"Battle above the Clouds." Burnside was afterwards relieved at
Knoxville, and these decisive victories, which broke the Confederate
power in Tennessee, resulted in Grant being made a Lieutenant General
the next year and placed in command of all the armies of the United
States.
At the head of navigation for steamboats on the Tennessee River is
Knoxville, the chief city of East Tennessee, in a fine location among
the foothills of the Clinch Mountains, which are a sort of offshoot of
the Cumberland range. This was the spot where General Knox, then
Secretary of War, in the latter part of the eighteenth century made a
treaty with the Indians of the upper Tennessee, and the village which
grew there was named after him. It is the centre of the Tennessee
marble district, shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of this
beautiful stone all over the country. It also has coal and iron and
other industries, and a population of over forty thousand. Here are
the buildings of the University of Tennessee, with five hundred
students, and also an Agricultural College. Knoxville was the rallying
point of Union sentiment in East Tennessee during the Civil War, and
its most noted citizen was Parson William G. Brownlow, a Methodist
clergyman and political editor, whose caustic articles earned for him
the sobriquet of the "fighting Parson." He was Governor of Tennessee
and Senator after the war, and died in Knoxville in 1877. The famous
Davy Crockett was also a resident of that city. Twelve miles west of
Knoxville, at Low's Ferry, Admiral Farragut was born, July 5, 1801,
and a marble shaft marking the place was dedicated by Admiral Dewey in
May, 1900. A short distance above Knoxville the Tennessee River is
formed by the union of the Holston and French Broad Rivers. Following
up the Holston, we come to Morristown, and beyond to Greenville,
where, in sight of the railway, are the grave and monument of
President Andrew Johnson, who lived there the greater part of his
life, and died there in 1875. His residence and the little wooden
tailor shop where he worked are still preserved. High mountains are
all about, and to the eastward from Johnson City a narrow-gauge
railway ascends through the romantic canyon of Doe River, in places
fifteen hundred feet deep, up the Roan Mountain to Cranberry. This
line is known in the neighborhood, on account of its crookedness, as
the "Cranberry Stem-Winder." On the summit of Roan Mountain is the
Cloudland Hotel, at an elevation of more than sixty-three hundred
feet, the highest human habitation east of the Rockies, and having a
magnificent view. It is a curious circumstance that the boundary line
between Tennessee and North Carolina on the mountain top runs through
the hotel, and is painted a broad white band along the dining-room
floor, while out of the windows are views for a hundred miles in
almost every direction.