Qualla: Chattanooga Campaign

Chattanooga Campaign: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia, Public domain. 'I will hold the town till we starve.' General George H. Thomas sent those words by telegraph to Ulysses S. Grant in October 1863, and he meant every one of them. The Union Army of the Cumberland was trapped in Chattanooga, Tennessee -- a vital railroad hub that connected Nashville and Knoxville to Atlanta -- besieged by Confederate General Braxton Bragg's army occupying the commanding heights of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Soldiers' rations had been cut to four cakes of hard bread and a quarter pound of pork every three days. Their horses and mules were dying. The only supply route was a tortuous sixty-mile mountain road that autumn rains had washed into impassable mud. What happened over the next five weeks would break the siege, rout one of the Confederacy's two major armies, and set the stage for the final collapse of the Southern cause.

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Image: Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Chattanooga Campaign: Starving on the Banks of the Tennessee

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. After the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga, where his army built a tight three-mile semicircle of defensive works around the city. Bragg chose siege over assault, positioning his forces on the dominating terrain of Mi...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Chattanooga Campaign: The Cracker Line

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Grant's first order of business was food. Chief engineer William 'Baldy' Smith had devised a plan to open a supply route through Lookout Valley to Brown's Ferry on the Tennessee River. Before dawn on October 27, Hazen's brigade floated silently downriver on pontoons past the Conf...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Chattanooga Campaign: The Battle Above the Clouds

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia, Public domain. On November 24, 'Fighting Joe' Hooker exceeded his orders in spectacular fashion. Told merely to demonstrate against Lookout Mountain, he instead ordered a full assault, sending Geary's division across Lookout Creek and sweeping northeast along the mountain's base. The position t...

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Image: Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Chattanooga Campaign: The Impossible Charge Up Missionary Ridge

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain. November 25 was supposed to belong to Sherman, who was to attack Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. But Sherman's assaults on Tunnel Hill gained nothing against Patrick Cleburne's tenacious defense. By 3:30 p.m., Grant ordered Thomas's Army of the Cumberland forward in a de...

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Image: Mathew Benjamin Brady | Public domain

Chattanooga Campaign: Gateway to the Deep South

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit War Department. General Staff. 8/15/1903-9/18/1947, Public domain. The rout was nearly total. Only Cleburne's rearguard held firm, buying time for the Confederate retreat to Dalton, Georgia, and thwarting the Union pursuit at Ringgold Gap, where 4,100 Confederates held off 12,000 Union soldiers for five hours. Total casualties were staggering: 5...

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Image: War Department. General Staff. 8/15/1903-9/18/1947 | Public domain