CHAPTER XXXIV.

CHICKAMAUGA.

(August and September, 1868.)

THE REBELS DRIVEN ACROSS THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.-INTRENCHED AT CHATTANOOGA.— MILITARY MANŒUVRES.—THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.-DISASTERS.-HEROISM OF GENERAL THOMAS-BARREN VICTORY OF THE REBELS.-RETREAT OF PATRIOTS TO CHATTANOOGA.— LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE.-CHATTANOOGA BESIEGED.

We must now transfer our narrative to scenes occurring in Eastern Tennessee, to which region the rebels sullenly retreated, followed by General Rosecrans, after the battle of Stone River. During the first five months of the year 1863, there was so much apparent inactivity in General Roseerans's command as to excite uneasiness at Washington, and a general feeling of discontent throughout the country. The rebel army was, however, gradually pushed out of Middle Tennessee, across the Cumberland Mountains, and over the Tennessee River. They crossed this stream at Bridgeport, and retired to Chattanooga. Here they made an attempt to fortify themselves strongly. Chattanooga, in itself an insignificant village, nestled among the mountains, was an important strategic point. It commanded the entrance from the South into East Tennessee, and was the gateway from the North, to the vast and fertile plains of Georgia and Alabama.

The road from Murfreesboro' to Chattanooga was long, wild, and mountainous. In the pursuit of the foe the utmost precautions were necessary to protect our extended line of communication from our base at Nashville. It was not until August of 1863, that the patriot troops were able to effect the passage of the Cumberland Mountains. The defences of Chattanooga were of such a character that General Rosecrans deemed it unwise to attempt a direct attack from the north, but sought by a flank movement to approach the place from the south.

To veil this operation and distract the attention of the enemy, General Waggoner was detached from his division, then in the Sequatchie Valley, nearly west of Chattanooga, and with Wilder's Cavalry crossed Walden's Ridge to a point nearly opposite the town. General Hazen proceeded to Poe's Tavern, a few miles north. A force of cavalry, under Colonel Minty, four thousand in number, with three thousand infantry, was sent to Smithfield.

This feint was very successful. For three weeks these troops presented a menacing front on the western banks of the river. Batteries were planted to throw shells into the town, and two steamboats and a horse-ferry were captured. On the 21st, Colonel Minty opened fire upon the town from one of his batteries, and made an ostentatious show of crossing the river just above Chattanooga. The mounted men exhibited themselves at various points many miles apart along the river banks, leading the rebels to imag

ine that the whole Union army was before them. Pontoon bridges were placed ready for use, where the scouts of the enemy would be sure to see them. So completely were the foe thus baffled, that apparently they had no conception of the real movement intended, until General Rosecrans had crossed the river unopposed, below the town, and the divisions of McCook and Thomas showed themselves on Lookout Mountain,

The bombardment which General Waggoner opened upon the town continued for twenty days. It proved quite damaging to property, though it hardly affected the strength of the place. Early in September the patriot troops crossed the river by a bridge and rafts which they had constructed at Bridgeport. On the 7th the rebels commenced evacuating Chattanooga. On the 9th a portion of the Ninety-seventh Ohio entered a deserted rebel battery on Bell Mountain. The same day General Wood's Division drove the rebels from Lookout Point and entered the city in triumph.

This truly was a great feat. In twenty-three days the Army of the Cumberland, marching three hundred miles from their base of supplies, carrying forty-five days' rations, had passed over three ranges of mountains, varying from fifteen hundred to twenty-four hundred feet in height, had crossed a river a quarter of a mile wide, and captured one of the most powerful natural strongholds in the United States. All this they had accomplished with the loss of but six men. The death of four of these was caused by an accident. For the rebels to allow the patriot army to retain permanent possession of Chattanooga was equivalent to the sur render of Tennessee and Georgia. The authorities at Richmond were much alarmed. Two divisions were promptly sent from their Army of the Potomac, and also large forces from Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile, to aid General Bragg to recover his lost position. Indeed, some of these troops were on their way before the place fell, but they did not arrive in season to prevent the evacuation.

General Rosecrans cautiously, that he might avoid a trap, pursued the retreating foe. An old negro teamster came into the camp, and, inquiring for the Yankee general, gave information of great importance respecting the position of the rebel forces. For several days there was manoeuvring between the hostile armies, each striving for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow. On Friday, the 18th of September, the patriot army was pretty well concentrated on the western banks of the West Chickamauga River. They were at a spot about fourteen miles from Chattanooga, midway between that place and Lafayette. The rebels, familiar with every foot of the ground, moved up the east side of the river. A series of skir mishes ensued with long-range artillery firing, while each party was preparing for a decisive battle. Thus the day passed.

Saturday morning dawned, cold and chilly, enveloping both armies in a heavy river fog. Muffled in overcoats, and gathered around huge campfires, the patriots were preparing for the terrible work before them. They were not aware how strong a force had been accumulating for their destruction.

About ten o'clock in the morning the battle was opened by a brigade of patriot troops falling impetuously upon a rebel force stationed at Read's

Ford. The rebels were driven back, and the patriots plunged into the river to fill their canteens, for water was very scarce among the hills where they had been obliged to mass themselves. But in a few moments the rebels advanced in accumulated force, and the patriots were crowded back, losing three pieces of artillery. The position the army now occupied was nearly that of a straight line. The corps of General Thomas was on the left, that of General Crittenden in the centre, and General McCook's on the right.

It was the rebel General Longstreet's Division, probably twenty thousand in number, which came rushing across the shallow streamlet, whose waters afforded but little impediment to their advance. In a cool, stately, deliberate charge, General Thomas advanced to meet them. Rebel cannon, worked with deadly precision, cut great gaps in the advancing line, but the veteran warriors closed calmly up and pressed on undaunted. From double lines of rebel infantry musket-balls fell thickly upon them. By the resistless onward sweep several batteries of the foe were taken. Volunteers and regulars vied with each other in deeds of bravery. For nearly a mile the rebels were driven back, rallying only to disperse; rerallying only to dissolve. Two captured batteries were turned upon the retreating foe, and the victory seemed to be decisive.

But while success thus crowned the patriot arms on the left, very different scenes were witnessed on the right and centre. The rebel Generals Polk and Hill, massing their veteran legions, dashed upon Palmer and Van Cleve on the extreme right. Rushing upon their weaker adversaries, they overpowered them by the weight of numbers, and, piercing their line, cut them into two fragments. Van Cleve's Division seemed to be hopelessly routed, when General Davis arrived, and, by desperate energy, for a time restored the fortune of the day. It was, however, with the rebels, a matter of necessity to effect a diversion in favor of Longstreet, whose troops were so badly routed. If Longstreet were driven much farther, General Thomas, with his exultant troops, could fall upon the flank of Hill's and Polk's Divisions, and thus the rebel army would meet with a disastrous defeat. The only way to prevent this was now to overwhelm the troops of McCook and Crittenden.

Every available rebel was consequently brought up. The column was goaded forward by every energy which could be brought to bear upon it. They were driving furiously and destructively on, when General Thomas reluctantly abandoned his pursuit of Longstreet, and turned back to the aid of his sorely-pressed comrades. It is not our purpose to attempt a detail of all the eddies and currents of the battle. It is impossible to make such a narrative interesting, and scarcely possible to make it intelligible, to the general reader. It is our only design to give those grand and decisive features of the conflict in which all are interested and which all can understand. This reënforcement checked the progress of the exultant foe.

Soon, however, they formed another battle-line, and again moved forward in the determined charge. Again they were checked and driven back by the solid phalanx which opposed them. It was four o'clock in

the afternoon. The wearied and bleeding troops were alike glad on both sides for the few hours of repose which ensued. Still, just before sunset, a heavy artillery fire was concentrated by the rebels on a portion of our lines. This was followed by a furious charge upon the point which it was supposed the cannonade had weakened.

Among the incidents of this day's battle, the repulse of Longstreet's men on our left by Colonel Wilder deserves special mention. Wilder's men were in the edge of a forest, through which a ditch ran, five or six feet deep, to carry off the water of an adjacent swamp. As the rebels. entered the open field in front of the forest, in masses fully exposed, the mounted infantry, with their seven-shooting rifles, poured in upon them a continuous blast of lead, which swept down with frightful slaughter. At the same time, Colonel Lilly, with his Indiana battery of rifled ten-pounders, hurled through their ranks double-shotted canister, at less than three hundred yards. Every shot seemed to tell. Before this awful fire, the head of the column melted away. It broke, fled, was again rallied, and pushed forward through a terrific fire into the ditch, where they crowded together for shelter, in a long, straight line, like swarming bees.

Instantly Colonel Lilly wheeled around two of his guns into such a position that he could pour through the whole length of the ditch his horrible double canister. The slaughter was frightful-scarcely a man escaped.

"At this point," says Colonel Wilder, "it actually seemed a pity to kill men so. They fell in heaps; and I had it in my heart to order the firing to cease, to end the awful sight."

But mercy's voice was lost in war's loud thunders. The seven-shooters and the rifled cannon poured into the struggling mass their deadly charges, crushing and mangling, until the ditch was filled with gory bodies. "When the firing ceased, one could have walked two hundred yards down that ditch on dead rebels, without touching the ground." Not less than two thousand were struck down by this terrible fire. Thus terminated the first day's battle of Chickamauga.

Night came, with gloom and sad apprehensions. It was evident that the patriots were outnumbered. Bragg's whole army was there, and half of Johnston's army. Buckner's Division from East Tennessee, a large part of Longstreet's veteran corps from Virginia, and twelve thousand fresh troops from Georgia, had also been concentrated to crush the patriots. This force could not be less, probably, than eighty thousand men, while many estimated the number as high as one hundred thousand. Reënforcements to swell the rebel ranks were also continually arriving. Our troops were far away from their base of supplies, and in the very heart of the rebel country. They consisted of General Rosecrans's Stone River army, with Brannon's and Reynolds's Divisions added. In all, they amounted to about fifty-five thousand men. They could not hope for any reënforcements before the conflict was ended. These were fearful odds, when the results of a serious defeat were considered.

There were two roads running to Rossville, about two miles apart. One passed through a gap on the right of Missionary Ridge, and the other