Chattanooga, Battle of, was an important Union victory in the American Civil War (1861-1865). The battle, named after the city on the battlefield, took place in southern Tennessee from Nov. 23 to 25, 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant led a Union army of about 70,000 men to victory against General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate army of about 40,000.
In September 1863, Confederate forces under Bragg defeated Union forces led by General William Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga in northwestern Georgia. During the battle, Rosecrans and much of the Union army fled from the battlefield, while General George H. Thomas commanded the remaining Union troops. Thomas withstood repeated Confederate attacks before withdrawing at night. After the defeat at Chickamauga, Rosecrans’s entire Union army retreated north to Chattanooga.
Bragg decided to besiege the Union army in Chattanooga. Bragg’s army occupied Missionary Ridge to the east of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain and other heights to the south. Bragg also stationed Confederate troops west of the city. From these positions, the Confederates controlled the roads and the Tennessee River—the main routes by which supplies could reach Union troops at Chattanooga. The only remaining Union supply line was a difficult route through the Cumberland Mountains north of the city. Starvation threatened the Union soldiers.
In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave General Grant command of all Union forces in the West, and Grant replaced Rosecrans with General Thomas. Lincoln also sent 35,000 reinforcements to Chattanooga. Union General Joseph Hooker arrived with troops in late October, and General William T. Sherman followed in mid-November. While the Union army was growing, Bragg’s Confederate force decreased, as 15,000 troops left to attack Union troops at Knoxville, Tennessee.
In late October, Union troops defeated Confederate troops stationed west of Chattanooga. The victory allowed the Union to open up a supply line that saved the army from starvation. The supply line became known as the “cracker line” because of the hardtack (hard, dry biscuit) that was delivered to the troops.
The Battle of Chattanooga began on November 23, as Thomas’s troops routed an outnumbered Confederate group at Orchard Knob, about halfway between the two armies. On November 24, Hooker led an attack against the Confederates on Lookout Mountain. In what became known as the “War Above the Clouds,” Hooker’s troops, aided by a thick fog, defeated the outnumbered Confederates, who withdrew to Missionary Ridge. That same day, Union troops led by Sherman defeated Confederates northwest of Chattanooga.
On November 25, Grant ordered Sherman and Hooker to attack the flanks (sides) of the Confederate army. However, both attacks stalled. To prevent the Confederates from sending reinforcements, Grant ordered Thomas to leave Orchard Knob and attack the Confederates at the base of Missionary Ridge. Thomas’s army, eager to make up for its defeat at Chickamauga, swept up Missionary Ridge. The Confederate troops panicked and fled.
Over the course of the three days of fighting at Chattanooga, the Union suffered about 5,800 casualties and the Confederates about 6,700. Bragg asked to be relieved as commander of the main Confederate army in the West. A few days later, he was replaced by General Joseph Johnston. In 1864, Sherman used Chattanooga as his base of supplies when he began his march to Atlanta.
