Chickamauga

“ In the campaign and battle of Chickamauga Thomas was second in command to Rosecrans, but in all its important actions his is the principal figure. The story of Chickamauga has been often, and, in one or two instances, well told; but the whole truth about it must be reserved until time shall permit the historian to tell it without fear or favor. Thomas stands forth the undisputed hero of that day—the single spirit upon whom all depends. He is the central figure. There are no heroes beside him. ”

“ The bravery of our men at Chickamauga was fully equaled by their patience and endurance of the siege of Chattanooga—a siege for two long months that were full of all that goes to make the soldier’s life something to be dreaded, except for a noble and holy cause. ”

“ At the foot of the cliffs on which we stand is White House plateau, the battlefield of Lookout Mountain. Chattanooga itself is spread out before us, with Orchard Knob, Cameron Hill, and the national cemetery. Yonder stretches the long line of Missionary Ridge, and farther south, recognizable by at least one of the government towers, is the battlefield of Chickamauga. Here, if anywhere, we may see places that war has made sacred. ”

“ In 1849, when the state of Georgia finished the Western and Atlantic Railroad, a station and post office was established there known as Chickamauga, Tennessee. It became a busy village where thousands of dollars worth of farm produce was bought and shipped. After General Bragg abandoned Chattanooga, Chickamauga became the terminus where the Confederate troops and supplies were loaded and unloaded.
In 1777 the Cherokee settlements from Virginia to the Chattahoochee River were destroyed by the whites. ”

“ And so the little remnant of gray marched through an atmosphere of profound respect, and on through a mist of memories to the rocky little point where the Federal Virginian Thomas—"The Rock of Chickamauga"—stood against seventeen fierce assaults of hill-swarming demons in butter-nut, whose desperate valour has hardly a parallel on earth, unless it then and there found its counterpart in the desperate courage of the brothers in name and race whose lives they sought that day. ”

“ The last letter in this series left the Army of the Cumberland on the morning of the 19th of September, concentrated for battle on the field of Chickamauga. By an energetic night march the army had been thrown forward on its left by inversion into line, and thrust between the enemy and Chattanooga, the objective of the campaign. It was a difficult and dangerous movement, where two armies, intent on battle, were only separated by such a stream as the Chickamauga, which was everywhere easily fordable above Lee & Gordon's. ”

“ Those assaulting Missionary Ridge had Chickamauga to avenge and Lookout Mountain to surpass, and the firm and resolute sweep of the charging column for more than a mile expressed in advance the resistless character of the attack. When fifty battle flags forming the foremost line approached the crest, the Confederate soldiers knew that they would wave over their defenses or those who bore them, and many of the 20,000 men who followed would fall. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV. THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
Dick, after eating the cold food which was served to him, sank into a state which was neither sleep nor stupor. It was a mystic region between the conscious and the unconscious, in which all things were out of proportion, and some abnormal.
He saw before him a vast stretch of dead blackness which he knew nevertheless was peopled by armed hosts ready to spring upon them at dawn. The darkness and silence were more oppressive than sound and light, even made by foes, would have been. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Never had a man more thoroughly earned the title of honor that he bore throughout the rest of his life, “The Rock of Chickamauga.”
Chickamauga, though, was a sinister word to the North. Gettysburg and Vicksburg had stemmed the high tide of the Confederacy, and many had thought the end in sight. But the news from “The River of Death” told them that the road to crowning success was still long and terrible.
CHAPTER XV. BESIDE THE BROOK
When the slow retreat began Dick looked for the sergeant. But a stalwart figure, a red bandage around the head, rose up and confronted him. ”

“ Troops from all the States, both North and South, participated in the battle of Chickamauga. Most of them have erected imposing monuments to their respective soldiers. A forest of monumental spires is to be seen in any direction one may travel over the great field of battle, every one of which, as it lifts its tall shaft to the skies, tells of the soldiers who fought there, whether they wore the blue or the gray.
As I have said before, the Confederate armies never enlisted more than six hundred thousand soldiers from first to last. ”

“ Now the farmers are gone, but their names remain; and as long as the national government endures, pilgrims from far and near will come to walk over the historic acres. "This is the Dyer house," they will say, "and this is the Kelly house, and this is the Snodgrass house." So Fame catches up a chance favorite, and consigns the rest to oblivion.
My first visit to Chickamauga left so pleasant a taste that only two days afterward I repeated it. In particular I remembered my midday rest among the treetops, and my glimpse of the blue-winged warbler. ”

“ Missionary Ridge divides the valleys of the Chattanooga and Chickamauga. It rises abruptly, like a mighty rampart, to a height of 1600 feet above the Tennessee River, and at an average distance of about two miles from Chattanooga. From the nearest part of its summit every quarter of the town is commanded. The rebel lines stretched from near the abutment of the Ridge on the Chickamauga along its brow to and beyond Chattanooga Creek, up the slopes of Lookout Mountain facing the town. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No better or braver man than Billy Webster ever drew the breath of life. His bones lie yonder today, upon the battlefield of Chickamauga. I loved him; he was my friend. Many and many a dark night have Billy and I stood together upon the silent picket post. Ah, reader, my heart grows sick and I feel sad while I try to write my recollections of that unholy and uncalled for war. But He that ruleth the heavens doeth all things well.
CHAPTER IX CHICKAMAUGA BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA Sunday morning of that September day, the sun rose over the eastern hills clear and beautiful. ”

“ In front of them the forest and hills were silent.
“It's just as General Thomas thought,” said Dick. “The main volume of their attack will be on our right and center. They know that Thomas stands here and that he's a mighty rock, hard to move. They expect to shatter all the rest of the line, and then whirl and annihilate us.”
“Let 'em come!” exclaimed Warner, with heightening color. “Who's afraid?”
The dawn was spreading. The heavy mists that hung over the Chickamauga floated away. All the east was silver, and the darkness rolled back like a blanket. ”

“ Dragging Canoe was the leader of the militant minded Indians there.
In 1770 there passed down the Tennessee River at the site of the Chickamauga Dam a Scotch trader by the name of John McDonald. With him was a half-breed Cherokee by the name of William Shorey. They turned their boats which held their possessions up the South Chickamauga Creek and paddled and poled for about seven miles upstream, halting at the crossing of the Great War Path where the Lee Highway now crosses the Chickamauga Creek. ”

“ The field of Chickamauga—a worthily resounding name for one of the great battlefields of the world—lies a few miles south of the Tennessee and Georgia boundary, and is distant about an hour's ride by rail from Chattanooga. A single morning train outward, and a single evening train inward, made an all-day excursion necessary, and the time proved to be none too long. ”

“ Sherman's officers and men erected a beautiful monument to Willie, and had inscribed on it, "Our little Sergeant Willie, from the First Battalion Thirteenth United States Infantry."
After the dreadful battle of Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 20, 1863, in which we lost 15,851 men, and the Confederates 17,804, Grant went to Chattanooga to retrieve that disaster. In this battle Thomas, "who," says General Fullerton, "never retreated and had never been defeated," so wonderfully held his ground that he was ever afterwards called the "Rock of Chickamauga." ”

“ In the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park many grand and beautiful monuments have been erected by several of the states of the North and South in honor of their fallen soldiers. The Park contains 6965 acres, mostly at Chickamauga, but also at Orchard Knob, at different points on Missionary Ridge, at the battlefield on the slope of Lookout Mountain, at the Point Park on the summit, in Lookout valley and at Ringgold, Georgia. It contains one of the finest cavalry posts in the United States: Fort Oglethorpe. The improved roads in the Park are eighty miles in extent. ”

“ The armies of Generals Bragg and Rosecrans, which were to fight the battle of Chickamauga on the 19th and 20th of September, 1863, were widely separated in the early part of August, Bragg at Chattanooga and Rosecrans beyond the Cumberland mountains, with the Tennessee river rolling between them. ”

“ The Chickamauga River, rising from the mountains south, flows in its general course a little east of north to conflux with the Tennessee River. The Ridge runs nearly parallel with the river, and opens up a valley a mile wide. It is a bold outcropping of limestone about one hundred feet above the valley, with occasional passes, or gaps, that are strong points of guard for defence. Four miles northwest from the Union left was the gap at Rossville, called for the old Cherokee chief. On its right was the pass of the Dry Valley road, and immediately in its rear was the McFarland Gap. ”

“ Between Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge flows Chattanooga Creek, and between Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain the West Branch of Chickamauga Creek. These are tributaries of the Tennessee, which they enter respectively below and above Chattanooga. The valley of the West Chickamauga bears the name of McLemore's Cove. Pigeon Mountain is separated by Pea Vine Creek from Chickamauga Hills, the next minor ridge. Between this and Taylor's Ridge runs Middle Chickamauga Creek, which, dividing, flows along the western base of the latter ridge as East Chickamauga Creek. ”

“ In the great battle of Chickamauga, Forrest's division fought upon the right of Bragg's line. They were all dismounted, and did not see their horses for three days. After the retreat of Rosecrans, Forrest pursued up to within cannon shot of Chattanooga. He sent repeated messages to Bragg, urging him to press on the flying and disordered army of Rosecrans, and occupy Chattanooga. Had this been done, there would have been no foundation for the claim that Chickamauga was a great Federal victory. It was the hardest stand-up fight ever made by the Confederate and Federal armies of the West. ”

“ Later, Daniel Ross married Molly McDonald, daughter of John McDonald, and John Ross, who later became the most distinguished Chief of the Cherokee Nation, was their son. Ten miles northeast of Dragging Canoe’s Chickamauga Town was another Cherokee settlement known as Ooltewah. Some of the Cherokees most prominent men once lived in that region, especially along Ooltewah Creek, which name has been corrupted to Wolf Tever. Much of the land there which was formerly occupied by the Cherokees, has been inundated by the Chickamauga Dam. ”

“ Rosecrans, overwhelmed amid the rush of fugitives, and thinking that all was lost, also hastened thither to take charge of the fragments. In truth all would have been lost, had it not been for Thomas. This able and resolute commander won in this fight the rhetorical but well merited name of "the Rock of Chickamauga." Under him the Federal left stood immovable, though furiously assailed by odds, and tried by the rout of their comrades. ”

“ In July, 1863, two additional companies were added and the Fifty-eighth Alabama was formed.
Consolidated with the Eighth Tennessee, under Col. Bushrod Jones, it was placed in Bate's brigade and took part in the battle of Chickamauga. On the first day of this great conflict it assisted in the capture of four pieces of artillery; and on the second day it was in the desperate charge which broke the enemy's line, losing in the battle 148 out of 254 men engaged. This regiment was one of the most distinguished at Chickamauga. It was saluted on the field by General Bate, its brigade commander. ”

“ The Chickamaugas were not ready to give up after their towns had been destroyed in 1779. They rebuilt Chickamauga Town, but in 1782 John Sevier, in command of a troop of mounted Tennesseeans, descended on them, and after burning Chickamauga, marched up the creek and destroyed Little Owl’s village. Fourteen years later John Sevier became the first governor of Tennessee.
It is of interest to note that the land on which Little Owl’s village was situated, containing 105 acres, has been The Elise Chapin Wild Life Sanctuary, owned by the Chattanooga Audubon Society. ”