Henry V. Boynton

“ In a sense, to write of Chickamauga is to try to excite interest in a subject which far too many regard as worn; but to the veterans who fought there it will never be a threadbare story. For that generation which has been born and has come to manhood since Chattanooga was won by the Union arms, there is no campaign which can be studied with greater profit, or which will more richly repay the reader. History has not yet done justice to Chickamauga, but its verdict is sure. Many of the misconceptions of the days following the battle still exist in the popular mind. ”

“ In the movements of the Union armies none, from first to last, presented such brilliant strategy as the two which brought General Rosecrans from Murfreesboro', to the rear of Chattanooga. Almost equally wonderful was the successful concentration of his widely scattered corps. This was accomplished in the face of an enemy that had been heavily re-enforced with veteran troops, and largely outnumbered General Rosecrans. The concentration, moreover, united the Army of the Cumberland for battle between this confident enemy and the city which was the objective of the Union forces. ”

“ While, on the morning of the 18th, the three corps of the Union army and its reserve were in position where each could support the other if attacked, its supreme effort for position was to come. Bragg's order for battle contemplated crossing the Chickamauga some miles below Lee and Gordon's and driving the Union left under Crittenden back on the center and right under Thomas and McCook, and thus, by thrusting his columns between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, recover that place and force the Union army back into the mountains, from which position it is doubtful if it could have extricated itself. ”

“ The disappointment was great to Bragg when he learned that his heavy converging columns from Catlett's Gap on his right, Dug Gap in the center, and Blue Bird Gap on his left had met on the ground held by Negley and Baird, only to find them retiring with such show of strength and with such well ordered lines as enabled them to elude even serious attack. Both these officers deserve far greater credit than they have ever received for their courage, coolness, and ability. ”

“ For the most part the lines fought at close range and, in the countless assaults, often hand to hand. On the first day there were no field works of any kind. On the second Thomas was protected by such rude log works as could be hastily thrown together. Brannan and Steedman were without a semblance of works. The battle in the main, on both sides, was dogged, stand-up fighting far within the limit of point blank range. For the second day, on the Confederate side, the contest was one continued series of brave and magnificent assaults. ”

“ When General Garfield left for Washington soon after the battle he immediately charged him to do all he could to have Rosecrans righted. These will be new statements to most, but they are true.
The survivors of the Army of the Cumberland should awake to great pride in this notable field of Chickamauga. Why should it not, as well as Eastern fields, be marked by monuments, and its lines accurately preserved for history? There was no more magnificent fighting during the war than both armies did there. ”

“ As soon as the crossing was assured, Crittenden marched with celerity by way of the Sequatchee Valley towards the bridges and was soon across with the main body and advancing on the left of it directly towards Chattanooga.
This crossing of the Tennessee was a great feat. The bridges were not sufficient for the army. Reynolds gathered small boats and improvised his own means of crossing. Brannan's men had cut out canoes from immense poplars and launched them in Battle Creek out of sight. Some of them would hold fifty men. They also built rafts, one of them large enough to carry artillery. ”

“ He directed Wagner's, Wilder's, and Minty's brigades to report to Hazen, and with this force, some 7,000 strong, the latter was ordered to make a conspicuous show of crossing the river far above Chattanooga. This active and efficient officer admirably executed his orders. By extended fires, by marchings and countermarchings, by moving his artillery continuously across openings in sight from the opposite bank, by buglers at widely separated points, and other similar devices, he easily created the belief that an army was encamped on the right bank intending to cross. ”

“ When Bragg discovered the real point of crossing and the lines of actual movement it was too late to recall the forces dispatched up the Tennessee or to post columns of sufficient strength on the slopes before Rosecrans to impede his advance in force. How strong the positions thus turned by the Union forces were will appear from the statement that so precipitous and otherwise difficult were the roads over these ranges that at several of them it required a day and a night for a division with its artillery and reduced trains to make the ascent. ”

“ Shortly the advance toward Crittenden ceased, so vigorous had Thomas's battle become. Connell and Van Derveer at first meeting no enemy on their fronts pressed toward the vortex of Croxton's fighting. Forrest, relieved by Walker's infantry, met this advance of Brannan's left with his whole force and fought for the most part on foot. Croxton, out of ammunition, was obliged to retire somewhat before Walker, when Baird pushed King in to support him, while Van Derveer and Connell moved in first on Forrest and next on Ector's brigade of Walker's reserve. The battle became terrific. ”

“ Rosecrans had decided to cross the Tennessee in the vicinity of Bridgeport, and subsequently the Raccoon and Lookout Mountain ranges at points south of Chattanooga, and thus compel Bragg to evacuate the place or to come out of it and fight for his line of communications. It is easily seen that if after crossing the river the enemy, warned in time, should be found in force on the western slopes of these ranges further progress in that direction would have been impossible, and a return to the north bank of the river obligatory. ”

“ Thomas, whose head of column rested at the Kelly farm, for the double purpose of exploring the forests in his front and to test the truth of a report that an isolated brigade of the enemy was on the west side of the river near Reed's bridge, moved Brannan and Baird directly into the forest on the road towards Reed's. At this time two-thirds of Bragg's army, concealed by the forests, had crossed the Chickamauga and was directing its columns up that stream toward Crittenden. ”

“ Hardly had Cheatham started before Stewart, of Buckner's corps, which was near Tedford's Ford, ready to move toward Crittenden, was also dispatched in haste to the Confederate right, and at 1 o'clock Cleburne, of Hill's corps, posted near the extreme left of the Confederate line, was ordered to the scene of action before Brannan and Baird. These movements show how Bragg's plan of battle had been wholly overturned, and how fierce the fighting of these two divisions of Thomas must have been to decide Bragg to send four infantry divisions to the assistance of Forrest's corps of two divisions. ”

“ Cleburne and Cheatham were both moved close to Breckinridge. Forrest, with two divisions, one to fight on foot, was placed still to the right of Breckinridge, to observe the Lafayette road. With this heavy force, strengthened on its extreme left with Stewart, he intended to attack the Union left at daylight.
Rosecrans, on the other hand, had no re-enforcements with which to relieve or help his lines, and most of his army had marched a night and fought a day without rest and with little food, and every available man had been engaged. ”

“ But the lull on the left, arising from the rebels there having been, as Bragg expressed it, "so badly beaten back" that they could be of no service on his left, made it practicable to strengthen the Union center. Hazen was found to have ammunition, and was moved with celerity into the gap, and Grose, Johnson's reserve, replaced him. Hazen arrived none too soon. His lines were hardly established before Longstreet's right was upon him, lapping over upon Reynold's front, and then, from Reynolds to Steedman, there was one continuing hell of battle. ”

“ The strategy—matchless in our war—which compelled Bragg to abandon Chattanooga; the life and death struggle for concentrating the Union army when Rosecrans, against the protests of Washington authorities that it could not be true, found his widely separated corps confronted with re-enforcements from every part of the Confederacy; and, lastly, the great battle in the Chickamauga forests for the possession of Chattanooga, [6] are each most fruitful and interesting themes. The present letter will relate to the first-named subject, the strategy of the Chickamauga campaign. ”

“ Forrest and Cheatham's brigades of infantry next attacked Johnson (of McCook) , who then held the advanced portion of the Union left. Here the contest soon became furious again, partly on the ground of Baird's morning battle. Maney's splendid brigade rushed to a hand-to-hand fight, but was borne back. Wright, Strahl, Jackson, and Smith, with their brigades, all under Cheatham, each delivered bold and most courageous attacks, but without carrying the Union line. Rosecrans's army, under the successive hammering of the Confederate onslaughts, was fast being solidly formed from left to right. ”

“ At 11 o'clock Bragg had become convinced that Rosecrans had forced battle upon him on the extreme rebel right. With such vigor did Thomas's two divisions fight that Walker was ordered at that hour to go to Forrest with all his force, and Cheatham, of Polk's corps, who had the strongest division of the army, consisting of five brigades, then stationed as the reserve of Bragg's left. ”

“ We have information to show that crossing the Tennessee between Bridgeport and Chattanooga is impracticable, but not enough to show whether we had better cross above Chattanooga and strike Cleveland, or below Bridgeport and strike in their rear. The preliminary movement of troops for the two cases are very different. It is necessary to have our means of crossing the river completed, and our supplies provided to cross sixty miles of mountains and sustain ourselves during the operations of crossing and fighting, before we move. ”

“ Walker's corps had crossed below Alexander's Bridge, and bivouacked after a short advance toward Crittenden. Minty and Wilder, with their mounted men, and Dan McCook, with his brigade, had stoutly resisted and greatly delayed these columns. The most of Bragg's army had rested through the night. Two corps of Rosecrans's forces had marched continuously since four o'clock the preceding afternoon. They were about to move into battle without time for breakfast or further rest. Bragg, upon Longstreet's arrival, would have 70,000 men available for the fight. ”

“ Stewart, Johnson, and Preston, of Buckner's corps, and Hindman, of Longstreet's advance, were assaulting these lines. Davis had been ordered to wheel in on the enemy's left flank, and this movement led to one of the bravest and bloodiest contests of the day in front of Vineyard's. Wood advanced his [31] lines into the vortex just when Davis was hardest pressed, and, when all seemed about to be compelled to yield, Sheridan appeared on the flank, and Wilder's mounted brigade came up in the rear. ”

“ During this period of comparative inaction against the Union front, Rosecrans insured the concentration of his army in time for battle. McCook, not understanding the roads along the top of the mountain, and not deeming it prudent to consume the time necessary to explore them, had crossed Lookout twice, at the cost of more than a full day, and appeared with his head of column at General Thomas's camps during the 16th. On the 17th the latter closed the heads of his columns toward Crittenden. ”

“ Early on the 29th fifty boats, each carrying fifty men, were brought out of the woods near Caperton's, rushed across an open field, launched, and quickly rowed to the opposite shore. The Confederate cavalry pickets were driven off and twenty-five hundred men held the south bank. The bridge was promptly laid. Davis was soon over, and then McCook's entire corps, with cavalry, started promptly for Valley Head, forty miles down the Lookout range. Reynolds collected boats at Shellmound, Brannan had built rafts and cut out canoes at the mouth of Battle Creek. ”

“ Lytle fell where death was thickest for his comrades. His brigade, and that of Bradley, with Wilder, who had also fought to the extremity to assist, were all borne to the rear and forced to join the fugitive columns falling off from the Union right toward Rossville. General Rosecrans had just ridden the lines from the left, and had passed in the rear of McCook's position, when the line was severed. ”

“ Walker's reserve corps of two divisions was brought up, and its five brigades distributed along the shattered points of Breckinridge's and Cleburne's lines. The organizations of rebel divisions being thus destroyed, the attack became largely one of brigades acting independently, each rushing at the Union works. There were ten rebel brigades engaged in the movement from the Union left to Palmer's position, and beyond this point Stewart's division co-operated by assaulting Reynold's narrow front and Brannan's lines. ”

“ The crossing of the Cumberland was but the first step of the imposing diversion. Though the mountain roads were few and very difficult, Crittenden's movements over them had been completed exactly on time. The advance over Walden's Ridge, equally difficult, though it was not quite as high as the main range, was immediately undertaken. Minty, on the extreme left, appeared on the Tennessee more than thirty miles above Blythe's Ferry, where he made most energetic commotion. Hazen reached the river in the vicinity of Dallas. ”

“ General Rosecrans had crossed the Tennessee with an effective force of all arms equipped for duty of a few hundred more than 60,000. Of this number Wagner's brigade, with 2,061 effectives, held Chattanooga, leaving the Union force in front of Bragg slightly less than 58,000. It was several thousand less at the battle, Post's brigade of Davis' division and three regiments of infantry and one battery being engaged in guarding supply trains. ”

“ Our troops attacked again and again with a courage worthy of their past achievements. The enemy fought with determined obstinacy and repeatedly repulsed us, but only to be again assailed. As showing the fierceness of the fight, the fact is mentioned that on our extreme left the bayonet was used and men were also killed and wounded with clubbed muskets."
Of the attack of Steedman's men in the ravine, where they rushed on the Confederate line with the bayonet, pushed in among the guns and killed gunners at their posts, Hindman further says: "I have never known Federal troops to fight so well. ”