Chickamauga Campaign

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The Chickamauga Campaign of the American Civil War was a series of battles fought in northwestern Georgia from August 21 to September 20, 1863, between the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee. The campaign started successfully for Union commander William S. Rosecrans, with the Union army occupying the vital city of Chattanooga and forcing the Confederates to retreat into northern Georgia. But a Confederate attack at the Battle of Chickamauga forced Rosecrans to retreat back into Chattanooga and allowed the Confederates to lay siege to the Union forces.

Army of the Cumberland unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War

The Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal Union armies in the Western Theater during the American Civil War. It was originally known as the Army of the Ohio.

Army of Tennessee field army of the Confederate States Army

The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater.

Battle of Chickamauga major battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18 – 20, 1863, between U.S. and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia — the Chickamauga Campaign. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia, the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Contents

Initial movements in the Chickamauga Campaign, August 15 - September 8, 1863. Confederate Union Chickamauga Campaign Aug-Sep.png
Initial movements in the Chickamauga Campaign, August 15 – September 8, 1863.
  Confederate
  Union

Background

In his successful Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863, William S. Rosecrans moved southeast from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, outmaneuvering Braxton Bragg and forcing him to abandon Middle Tennessee and withdraw to the city of Chattanooga, suffering only 569 Union casualties along the way. [1] Union general-in-chief Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck and President Abraham Lincoln were insistent that Rosecrans move quickly to take Chattanooga. Seizing the city would open the door for the Union to advance toward Atlanta and the heartland of the South. Chattanooga was a vital rail hub (with lines going north toward Nashville and Knoxville and south toward Atlanta), and an important manufacturing center for the production of iron and coke, located on the navigable Tennessee River. Situated between Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Raccoon Mountain, and Stringer's Ridge, Chattanooga occupied an important, defensible position. [2]

Tullahoma Campaign Military campaign of the American Civil War

The Tullahoma Campaign was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga.

William Rosecrans Diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer

William Starke Rosecrans was an American inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War. He was the victor at prominent Western Theater battles, but his military career was effectively ended following his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Murfreesboro is a city in, and the county seat of, Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the 2010 census, up from 68,816 residents certified in 2000. In 2018, census estimates showed a population of 141,344. The city is home to both the center of population of Tennessee and the geographic center of Tennessee. Murfreesboro is located 34 miles (55 km) southeast of downtown Nashville in the Nashville metropolitan area of Middle Tennessee. It is Tennessee's fastest growing major city and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Murfreesboro is also home to Middle Tennessee State University, the second largest undergraduate university in the state of Tennessee, with 22,729 total students as of fall 2014.

Although Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee contained about 52,000 men at the end of July, the Confederate government merged the Department of East Tennessee, under Maj. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, into Bragg's Department of Tennessee, which added 17,800 men to Bragg's army, but also extended his command responsibilities northward to the Knoxville area. This brought a third subordinate into Bragg's command who had little or no respect for the commanding general. [3] Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk and Maj. Gen. William J. Hardee had already made their animosity well known. Buckner's attitude was colored by Bragg's unsuccessful invasion of Buckner's native Kentucky in 1862, as well as by the loss of his command through the merger. [4] A positive aspect for Bragg was Hardee's request to be transferred to Mississippi in July, but he was replaced by Lt. Gen. D.H. Hill, a general who did not get along with Robert E. Lee in Virginia. [5] The Confederate War Department asked Bragg in early August if he could assume the offensive against Rosecrans if he were given reinforcements from Mississippi. He demurred, concerned about daunting geographical obstacles and logistical challenges, preferring to wait for Rosecrans to solve those same problems and attack him. [6] He was also concerned about a sizable Union force under Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside that was threatening Knoxville. Bragg withdrew his forces from advanced positions around Bridgeport, which left Rosecrans free to maneuver on the northern side of the Tennessee River. He concentrated his two infantry corps around Chattanooga and relied upon cavalry to cover his flanks, extending from northern Alabama to near Knoxville. [7]

Knoxville, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 178,874, and is Tennessee's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which was 868,546 in 2015.

Leonidas Polk Confederate Army general

Leonidas Polk was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, USA, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major general in the Confederate army. His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him dressed as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby.

William J. Hardee Confederate Army general

William Joseph Hardee was a career U.S. Army and Confederate States Army officer. For the U.S. Army, he served in the Second Seminole War and in the Mexican–American War, where he was captured and exchanged. In the American Civil War, he sided with the South and became a general. Hardee served in the Western Theater and quarreled sharply with two of his commanding officers, Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood. He served in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and the Carolinas Campaign of 1865, where he surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston to William Tecumseh Sherman in April. Hardee's writings about military tactics were widely used on both sides in the conflict.

Opposing forces

Opposing commanders
Braxton Bragg Confederate Army general

Braxton Bragg was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who was assigned to duty at Richmond, under direction of the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, and charged with the conduct of military operations of the armies of the Confederate States from February 24, 1864, until January 13, 1865, when he was charged with command and defense of Wilmington, North Carolina. He previously had command of an army in the Western Theater.

Union


Confederate

Battles

Second Chattanooga

(August 21, 1863)

Rosecrans ordered a brigade to shell Chattanooga from the western side of the Tennessee River and skirmish with the main Confederate force in the city to divert attention away from the flanking column sent southwest of the city. Other Union units were deployed along the river to the east. The diversion was successful, with Bragg concentrating his army east of Chattanooga. After concluding that his position was untenable, Bragg abandoned the city on September 6 and retreated into northern Georgia. [8]

Davis's Cross Roads

(September 10–11, 1863)

Bragg intended to attack General James S. Negley's isolated division of the Union XIV Corps, commanded by George H. Thomas, before Rosecrans could concentrate the rest of his army at that location. He ordered the divisions of Thomas Hindman and Patrick Cleburne to concentrate together and launch a joint attack under Hindman's command. Due to delays in conveying orders, Cleburne's division failed to arrive in time on the 10th, while Thomas reinforced the isolated division with the rest of his corps. After the two divisions were united the next day, they failed to launch a coordinated attack on Thomas' positions and were repulsed. [9]

XIV Corps (Union Army)

XIV Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was one of the earliest corps formations in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

Chickamauga

(September 19–20, 1863)

Believing that Thomas L. Crittenden's XXI Corps was isolated from the rest of the Union army, Bragg ordered his army to concentrate near Lee's and Gordon's Mills; however, Rosecrans had been concentrating his army along Chickamauga Creek. Detachments from Thomas' Corps and Confederate cavalry collided on September 19, with both commanders feeding reinforcements into the engagement. The day ended without a clear victory by either side. The next day, Bragg ordered attacks in an echelon formation starting with the left flank at dawn but Polk, commanding the Confederate left wing, failed to properly supervise his command. The attacks began four hours late and failed to dislodge the Union army from its positions. Shortly after 11 a.m., an attack by Longstreet's corps struck a gap in the Union line, routing most of the Union army. Thomas formed his corps on Snodgrass Hill and held off further Confederate attacks for the remainder of the afternoon before retreating back to Chattanooga near sundown. [10]

Aftermath

Rosecrans retreated into Chattanooga after the battle of Chickamauga. Reinforcements were sent from the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Potomac. Both Crittenden and Alexander McCook, commander of the XX Corps, were replaced on September 28 for alleged misconduct at Chickamauga, although they were both cleared of the charge. U.S. Grant, recently made commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi and placed in command of the Union forces near Chattanooga, decided to replace Rosecrans with Thomas on October 19. [11]

At the time of Chickamauga, the Army of Tennessee was suffering from a shortage of food and of wagons to transport supplies; it also lacked pontoon bridges to cross the Tennessee River. Bragg consequently decided to lay siege to the Union army. [12] The Confederates occupied Missionary Ridge and spread a picket line along the south bank of the river towards Alabama. Fire from Confederate sharpshooters prevented supply wagons from reaching Chattanooga. [13]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Lamers, p. 289.
  2. ↑ Korn, p. 32; Cozzens, pp. 21–23, 139; Eicher, p. 577; Woodworth, pp. 12–13; Lamers, p. 293; Kennedy, p. 226.
  3. ↑ Cozzens, pp. 87–89; Tucker, pp. 81–82.
  4. ↑ Hallock, p. 44; Cozzens, pp. 156–58.
  5. ↑ Cozzens, p. 155.
  6. ↑ Woodworth, p. 50.
  7. ↑ Woodworth, p. 53; Hallock, pp. 44–45; Lamers, p. 138; Cozzens, pp. 163–65.
  8. ↑ Cozzens, p. 36–37, 55.
  9. ↑ Cozzens, pp. 65–75.
  10. ↑ Kennedy, pp. 227–231.
  11. ↑ Cozzens, pp. 522–523, 525, 527.
  12. ↑ Connelly, pp. 230–233.
  13. ↑ Bowers, p. 175.

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References

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