MOVEMENT ON THE ENEMY'S WORKS. 239 twinkling sparks upon the mountain their intrenchments, and, at the foot of side showed that picket skirmishing was Missionary Ridge, Sherman made an asgoing on. Then it ceased. A brigade sault against Bragg's right, intrenched sent from Chattanooga crossed the Chat- on a high knob next to that on which tanooga Creek and opened communic- Sherman himself lay fortified. The astion with Hooker. General Grant's sault was gallantly made. Sherman headquarters during the afternoon of reached the edge of the crest and held the 23d, and the day of the 24th, were his ground, for, it seemed to me, an in Wood's redoubt, except when in the hour, but was bloodily repulsed by course of the day, he rode along the reserves. advanced line, visiting the headquarters of the several commanders in Chattanooga Valley. "At daylight on the 25th, the 'stars and stripes' were descried on the peak of Lookout. The rebels had evacuated the mountain. Hooker moved to descend the mountain, and striking Missionary Ridge at the Rossville Gap, to sweep on both sides and on its summit. The rebel troops were seen as soon as it was light enough, streaming regiments and brigades along the narrow summit of Missionary Ridge, either concentrating on the right to overwhelm Sherman, or marching for the railroad, and raising the siege. They had evacuated the Valley of Chattanooga-would they abandon that of Chickamauga? The 20pounders and 44-inch rifles of Wood's redoubt opened on Missionary Ridge. Orchard Knob sent its compliments to the ridge, which, with rifled Parrots, answered, and the cannonade thus commenced continued all day. Shot and shell screamed from Orchard Knob to Missionary Ridge, and from Missionary Ridge to Orchard Knob, and from Wood's redoubt over the heads of Generals Grant and Thomas and their staffs, who were with us in this favorable position, from whence the whole battery could be seen as in an amphitheatre. The headquarters were under fire all day long. Cannonading and musketry were heard from General Sherman, and General Howard marched the Eleventh Corps to join him. General Thomas sent out skirmishers, who drove in the enemy's pickets, and chased them into "A general advance was ordered, and a strong line of skirmishers followed by a deployed line of battle, some two miles in length. At the signal of leaden shots. from the headquarters on Orchard Knob the line moved rapidly and orderly forward. The rebel pickets discharged their muskets and ran into their riflepits. Our skirmishers followed on their heels. The line of battle was not far behind, and we saw the gray rebels swarm out of the ledge line of rifle-pits in numbers which surprised us, and over the base of the hill. A few turned and fired their pieces, but the greater number collected into the many roads which cross obliquely up its steep face, and went on to their top. Some regiments passed on and swarmed up the steep sides of the ridge, and here and there a color was advanced beyond the lines. The attempt appeared most dangerous, but the advance was supported, and the whole line was ordered to storm the heights, upon which not less than forty pieces of artillery, and no one knew how many muskets stood ready to slaughter the assailants. With cheers answering to cheers, the men swarmed upward. They gathered to the points least difficult of ascent, and the line was broken. Color after color was planted on the summit, while musket and cannon vomited their thunder upon them. A welldirected shot from Orchard Knob exploded a rebel caisson on the summit, and the gun was seen galloping to the right, its driver lashing his horses. A party of our soldiers intercepted them, and the gun was captured, with cheers. A fierce musketry fight broke out to the left, where, between Thomas and Sherman, a mile or two of the ridge was still occupied by the rebels. Bragg left the house in which he had held his headquarters, and rode to the rear as our troops crowded the hill on either side of him. General Grant proceeded to the summit, and then did we only know its height. Some of the captured artillery was put into position. Artillerists were sent for to work the guns. Caissons were searched for ammunition. The rebel log breastworks were torn to pieces, and carried to the other side of the ridge, and used in forming barricades across. A strong line of infantry was formed in the rear of Baird's line, hotly engaged in a musketry contest with the rebels to the left, and a secure lodgment was soon effected. The other assault to the right of our centre gained the summit, and the rebels threw down their arms and fled. Hooker coming in favorable position swept the right of the ridge and captured many prisoners. Bragg's remaining troops left early in the night, and the battle of Chattanooga, after days of maneuvering and fighting, was won. The strength of the rebellion, in the centre is broken. Burnside is relieved from danger in East Tennessee. Kentucky and Tennessee are rescued. Georgia and the South-east are threatened in the rear, and another victory is added to the chapter of 'Unconditional Surrender Grant.'" "To-night," General Meigs writes, on the 26th, "the estimate of captures is several thousand of prisoners and thirty pieces of artillery. Our loss for so great a victory is not severe. Bragg is firing the railroad as he retreats toward Dalton. Sherman is in hot pursuit. To-day I viewed the battle-field, which extends for six miles along Missionary Ridge, and for several miles on Lookout Mountain. Probably not so well directed, so well ordered a battle has been delivered during the war. But one assault was repulsed, but that assault by calling to that point the rebel reserves, prevented them repulsing any of the others. A few days since Bragg sent to General Grant a flag of truce advising him that it would be prudent to remove any noncombatants who might be still in Chattanooga. No reply has been returned, but the combatants having removed from this vicinity, it is probable that non-combatants can remain without im prudence." The dispatches of General Grant to General Halleck, announcing the progress of the engagement and its final result, were brief and characteristic. Announcing the preliminary demonstration of the 23d, he writes: "General Thomas' troops attacked the enemy's left at 2 P. M., to-day, carried first line of rifle-pits, running over the knoll 1,200 yards in front of Wood's Fort and low ridge to the right of it, taking about 200 prisoners, besides killed and wounded; our loss small. The troops moved under fire with all the precision of veterans on parade. Thomas' troops will intrench themselves, and hold their position until daylight, when Sherman will join the attack from the mouth of the Chickamauga, and a decisive battle will be fought." At the close of the next day, he sent the following: "The fight to-day progressed favorably. Sherman carried the end of Missionary Ridge, and his right is now at the Tunnel and left at Chickamauga Creek. Troops from Lookout Valley carried the point of the mountain, and now hold the eastern slope and point high up. I cannot yet tell the amount of casualties, but our loss is not heavy. Hooker reports 2,000 prisoners taken, besides which a small number have fallen into our hands from Missionary Ridge." On the evening of the 25th, he wrote: GENERAL GRANT'S DISPATCHES. "Although the battle lasted from early dawn till dark this evening, I believe I am not premature in announcing a complete victory over Bragg. Lookout Mountain top, all the rifle-pits in Chattanooga Valley, and Missionary Ridge entire, have been carried, and now held by us. I have no idea of finding Bragg here to-morrow." Nor did he find him. The success of this movement was indeed most brilliant, and appears to have been gained at the decisive moment by the uncontrollable ardor and impetuosity of the Union troops. 241 did the officers and men exhibit great skill and daring in their operations on the field, but the highest praise is due to the commanding General for his admirable disposition for dislodging the enemy from a position apparently impregnable. Moreover, by turning his right flank, and throwing him back upon Ringgold and Dalton, Sherman's forces were interposed between Bragg and Longstreet, so as to prevent any possibility of their forming a junction. "Our loss," adds General Halleck, "in killed, wounded, and missing, is reported at about 4,000. We captured over 6,000 prisoners, besides the wounded left in our hands; 40 pieces of artillery, 5,000 or 6,000 small arms, and a large train. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded is not known.”* "The storming of the Ridge," wrote one of the officers to the War Department, "was one of the greatest miracles in military history. No man who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front can believe that The brilliant events at Chattanooga 18,000 men were moved upon its broken were immediately succeeded by the and crumbling face, unless it was his heroic_defense of Knoxville, against fortune to witness the deed. It seems which Longstreet had advanced by the as awful as a visible interposition of line of the East Tennessee and Georgia God. Neither General Grant nor Gene- Railroad. On the 9th of November he ral Thomas intended it. Their orders attacked, and succeeded in capturing were to carry the rifle-pits along the General Burnside's most eastern outbase of the ridge, and cut off their occu- posts at Rodgersville, whence the rebel pants; but when this was accomplished, cavalry under General Wheeler adthe unaccountable spirit of the troops vanced towards Knoxville, sixty miles bore them bodily up the impracticable distant, capturing on the 15th, portions steeps over the bristling rifle-pits on the of several cavalry regiments at Maryscrest, and the thirty cannon enfilading ville, fifteen miles from Knoxville, in the every gully. The order to storm ap- direction of the Little Holston. The pears to have been given simultaneously remainder of the Union cavalry fled to by Generals Sheridan and Wood, be- Knoxville, when General Saunders in cause the men were not to be held back, command of a cavalry brigade at that hopeless as the attempt appeared to place, advanced to meet the enemy, but military prudence; besides, the Gene- finding them too strong for him, was rals caught the inspiration of the men, compelled to retire. The main force of and were ready themselves to undertake the enemy, meanwhile, under Generals impossibilities.' Longstreet, Chatham, and Pegram, ad"Considering the strength of the re-vanced by way of Loudon and Lenoir, bel position," says General Halleck, in his report of this engagement laid before Congress, "and the difficulty of storming his entrenchments, the battle of Chattanooga must be considered the most remarkable in history. Not only passing the Tennessee by portions at the D. C., December 6, 1863. Longstreet in the night crossed the the rebel storming party, led by the remainder of his troops, and General Sixteenth and Seventeenth Georgia and Burnside the next day (Sunday, 15th), Thirteenth Mississippi, under cover of fell back to Lenoir, his rear guard our own retreating men, came to the asskirmishing heavily with the pursuing sault. They approached to within 100 enemy. On Monday morning, General Burnside evacuated Lenoir, retiring towards Knoxville, but making a stand to secure the passage of the trains, at Campbell's Station, twelve miles from Knoxville, where a sharp contest was kept up during the day. In the night, the Union troops fell back to Knoxville, and early on the 17th, took up their position in front of the city. The rebels advancing, heavy skirmishing immediately ensued, but the line was firmly held by General William C. Saunders. The contest being resumed the next day, the 18th, this gallant officer was mortally wounded. The Union forces were now confined to their lines round Knoxville, the city being completely invested. For a fortnight the siege was continued, the enemy being effectually resisted in all their efforts to gain possession of the town. On the 29th, a desperate effort was made to take the works by assault. It is thus described in a special dispatch to the Chicago Tribune, dated Knoxville the 30th. "The great rebel blow anxiously anticipated so long, was struck yesterday morning. Reinforced by the troops of Sam. Jones, Jackson and Williams, Longstreet sought to annihilate the Army of the Ohio by coup de guerre. He selected seven picked regiments. Skirmishing commenced on Sunday night at 10 o'clock, and continued sharply until near daylight of Monday, on our left front before Fort Saunders, commanded by General Ferrero, and defended by the Seventy-ninth New York, Benjamin's Third U. S. Artillery, and Buckley's Rhode Island Battery. Our pickets were driven in and the enemy had possessed themselves of some rifle-pits, but the Massachusetts boys drove them back when suddenly yards of the fort unharmed. Then com- Among the |