Home Brewed Mojo: CHARGING UP MISSIONARY RIDGE

11/25/1863 - On this day in Tennessee, in 1863, just outside the railroad hub that was the city of Chattanooga, one of most dramatic battles of the American Civil War takes place on the 400-500 foot heights that stretch from the Tennessee River and arc around the town on the northeast, east, and southwest ... a high filled with roughly 44,000 Confederate troops called Missionary Ridge.

View From The Ridge

The result of North and South battling for control of the border state of Tennessee for two years, after the loss of the Battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863, the defeated Union Army of the Cumberland finds itself encircled within Chattanooga ... and so Lincoln gives the heave-ho to General William Rosecrans and puts command of the region in the hands of its rising star, the recent victor of Vicksburg, Major General Ulysses S. Grant. By November, Grant is ready to orchestrate a breakout, positioning himself to attack by taking 2,389 foot Lookout Mountain on 11/24/1863.

Rosecrans

Grant

View From Lookout Mountain

Missionary Ridge Ahead

Spread out atop the ridge are 44,000 combat veterans of the Southern Army of Tennessee ... there is a problem though, the Confederate force has a much less skilled general at its head, one that is deeply disliked by his officers and men for his extremely cantankerous nature (many in his command believe that with proper leadership the Northern army would have already be defeated and a petition asking for his replacement is sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis), 46-year-old General Braxton Bragg.

Bragg

Battle plan ready, Grant's intention is to break Bragg out of his formidable defensive position by launching a double envelopment of the Confederate line ... Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and elements of the Union Army of the Tennessee will attack the northern end of the line, and XI Corps of Major General Joseph Hooker (the loser against Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville and the man who gives his name to the occupation of prostitute!) will strike the southern end of the ridge. And as these things seem to often go, the plan does not work well at first, with both pushes blunted.

Sherman

Hooker

Seeking to help Sherman's halted men, at around 2:30 in the afternoon, Grant decides to put the Army of the Cumberland, under the command of Major General George H. Thomas (now nicknamed "The Rock of Chickamauga" for saving the Union army at that disastrous engagement) into action by sending the division's of Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood (a classmate of Grant at West Point) and Major General Phillip H. Sheridan against the Confederate fire pits at the center and base of Missionary Ridge. Grant then seethes as it takes until 3:40 for the men of the Cumberland army to move forward against the 9,000 soldiers manning the firing pits (there are approximately 14,000 men in the center of the Confederate line).

Thomas

Wood

Sheridan

Dome Of The Union Guns

Revenge shouting "Chickamauga! Chickamauga," the Union troops quickly swamp the Southern firing pits, but the victory brings them under the 100 Confederate artillery pieces on the crest of the ridge. Blown to pieces by cannon balls or covered in mud, without orders, in ones and twos, and then masses of men, the troops of Thomas rise and charge up the hill at their tormentors.

The Battle of Missionary Ridge

Suicide expected storming up a hill to attack an adequately manned defensive position, Grant is both shocked and livid when he sees a major portion of his command charge up the hill. "Who ordered those troops forward?" he asks first Wood, and then nearby Major General Gordon Granger of the IV Corps. "When those fellows get started, all hell can't stop them," Granger answers his commander.

Battle of Chattanooga by Thure de Thulstrup

Grant watches the charge through glasses and is

joined by Granger (L) and Thomas

But the attack does not produce a slaughter as the Union troops quickly discover that the Confederate defensive line has holes and blind spots ... with no reinforcements behind it. Alive and atop the ridge, officers take control of the charge and turning right and left, roll up the Southern line until panic results and the Army of Tennessee is in full flight, saved only thorough the leadership of Major General Patrick Cleburne (known as the "Stonewall Jackson of the West" with good cause), whose troops hold the road to Tunnel Hill, Georgia open as Bragg's force retreats from the Chattanooga area. By evening the battle is over and the town is encircled no more at a cost of 5,824 Union casualties (753 dead) and 6.667 Confederate casualties (361 dead).

Major General Cleburne

Charge Of The 2nd Minnesota

Battle

Unordered, but the charge does not also go unrewarded. Leading the way, a Congressional Medal of Honor will be awarded to an 18-year-old youth from Wisconsin who inspires others to follow him up the ridge by planting the regimental flag at the crest and yelling, "On Wisconsin!" The young man's name is Lt. Arthur MacArthur (he will eventually retire from in 1909 as Lt. General), and because of the awarded medal, his son Douglas will be allowed to attend West Point and go on to become one of the most famous figures in American military history. Also rewarded for the victory is the man that didn't order the charge ... having seen enough in the victories at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, and now Missionary Ridge, Lincoln calls Grant to Washington D.C. to take command of all the Union forces ... a decision that will bring doom to Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the entire Confederacy by 1865!