Chickamauga Chattanooga Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga-Chattanooga NMP

James N.

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Orchard Knob
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A jumble of state monuments, tablets, and cannon dot Orchard Knob today.

Following the Confederate victory at Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 20, 1863, William Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland retreated back to Chattanooga, Tenn., just across the state line where it soon found itself besieged by Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. By November of that year, conditions had changed markedly, with George Thomas replacing Rosecrans; the opening of the supply route called "the Cracker Line"; reenforcements arriving from the eastern Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker and the western Army of the Tennessee under William T. Sherman; and arrival of Ulysses S. Grant to command and co-ordinate the whole. Meanwhile Bragg seriously weakened his own army by sending his own reenforcement from Lee's army under James Longstreet away to Knoxville, Tenn., on a fool's errand and neglecting to properly position what was left on the heights surrounding Chattanooga.

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The battle for Chattanooga began in earnest on Nov. 23, when Grant ordered Thomas to advance a skirmish line to see if reports of a Confederate withdrawl were true. Instead, Thomas made a bolder move forward with four of his divisions toward the high ground between Union-held Chattanooga and Bragg's main Confederate position atop Missionary Ridge over a mile distant. The bold move paid off as Confederates defending the outpost were taken completely by surprise by what they thought was merely a review of troops, briefly resisting before withdrawing back to their main line. Grant and Thomas quickly took advantage of their unexpected success, reenforcing Orchard Knob as an advance position from which to attack Missionary Ridge itself.

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The division of Thomas Wood which had created the fatal gap in Rosecrans' line at Chickamauga had siezed Orchard Knob, while that of Phillip Sheridan that had been driven from the field at the same battle advanced to the south capturing land now occupied by the National Cemetery. Above is a monument to one of Sheridan's brigades in the cemetery today; another can be seen in the distance. Union troops held this position the following day, Nov. 24, while Hooker's troops fought and won the Battle of Lookout Mountain, seen in the background here; meanwhile Sherman's men crossed the Tennessee River to the east and prepared to attack the northern end of Missionary Ridge.

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Sherman's Army of the Tennessee which had formerly been led by Grant himeself from Fort Donelson through Shiloh and Vicksburg was supposed to be the decisive element in this battle as well, but fate decided otherwise. Faulty reconnaissance and bad leadership from Sherman down doomed his attack on Nov. 24 - 25 to a series of futile and easily-repulsed assaults. Late in the afternoon a fuming Grant bypassed Thomas and corps commander Gordon Granger in the chain of command and directly asked Wood who was standing nearby if he thought he could successfully create a diversion in Sherman's favor by threatening Missionary Ridge itself. About 4 pm Wood and Sheridan, joined by the divisions of Absalom Baird to the north and Richard Johnson to the south, moved out in line-of-battle toward the ridge as Grant and Thomas watched nervously from here on Orchard Knob; in the view above, Missionary Ridge rises in the background from the unseen valley between them.

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As I noted previously in my thread on Chickamauga Battlefield, when this, the very first National Military Park, was created all monuments dedicated to former Confederate states were placed there; while those dedicated to the Northern states were placed at Chattanooga. Orchard Knob in particular became home to a great many of them, no doubt because of its importance as the location of Grant's headquarters. Monuments that can be seen here include that of Illinois, above. Today Orchard Knob sits surrounded by a mostly-black middle-class neighborhood, and I get the distinct idea it is much-the-less-visited of Chattanooga's other Civil War sites, Missionary Ridge, the National Cemetery, and certainly Lookout Mountain. However, it shouldn't be missed for a complete picture of what happened here; normal security provisions like not going alone should suffice, though on-the-street parking is necessary and the terrain quite steep in places.
 
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Sherman Reservation
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Center of the Confederate position at the Sherman Reservation; the closeness of the markers indicates the intensity of the combat in this particular part of Pat Cleburne's defenses.

The north end of Missionary Ridge is the site of the largest of what are termed "reservations", this one named Sherman Reservation in honor of the failed attacks he launched here. Much more fittingly, this should be called the Cleburne Reservation, since no Federals broke the defense by arguably the South's finest division commander in one of his two most stellar performances at the head of his Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas troops. At the beginning of the battle of Chattanooga, Cleburne's Division was scheduled to follow Longstreet to Knoxville and was only diverted to the virtually undefended northern end of the ridge in time to meet Sherman's first probes. Mistaking a detached hill for Missionary's northern spur Sherman had halted on the evening of Nov. 24, sending word to Grant he had "captured" the ridge; discovering his mistake the following morning, he then began a series of disjointed regimental and brigade-sized assaults that Cleburne repulsed with relative ease.

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Cleburne moved his own brigades skillfully, parrying Sherman's thrusts and even successfully counterattacking to drive the Federals back. This scene along the trail leading from the parking area to the summit shows the tangled nature of this part of the line. The fallen trees are reminiscent of the sort of hastily built breastworks erected here by Cleburne's men. Unbeknownst to Grant, who was waiting futilely on Orchard Knob, by mid-afternoon Sherman had given up his attacks and gone over completely to the defensive and therefore played no further part in the battle.

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The relative steepness of the ridge can be seen by the way these cannons representing one of Cleburne's batteries are displayed in stair-step fashion. Sherman Reservation borders on a "bad" neighborhood; the narrow street leading to the lower positions was completely blocked by uncooperative residents, though the park could still be accessed from the tiny parking area near these guns. This part of the park is the most problematic and normal precautions like not visiting here alone and locking your vehicle should be rigorously observed. The remainder of the ridge is safely visited on twisting Crest Road which is narrow, steep in places, and passes through a turn-of-the-twentieth-century upper-class suburb, replete with numerous artillery pieces and position markers.
 
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Missionary Ridge
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The remainder of Missionary Ridge is divided ino other smaller NPS plots like the DeLong Reservation seen here with the Minnesota State Monument at its center. Parking is limited and extreme care should be exercised while driving on Crest Road which was designed for horse-and-buggy traffic!

Not knowing the details of Sherman's repulse and thinking a distraction was needed to draw Confederate attention away from that area, Grant ordered Thomas to send Wood, Sheridan, Johnson, and Baird against the rifle-pits at the base of Missionary Ridge. Meanwhile, Joe Hooker was crossing the valley between Lookout Mountain and the southern end of the ridge at Rossville, delayed for a time by a burned bridge that had to be replaced. Stupidly, Braxton Bragg had made poor dispositions to recieve such an attack, thinking the ridge inaccessable; many of the defenders were deployed in the rifle pits where they were too few to halt Thomas' attack and only got in the way of the fire of defenders higher up when they bolted for cover!

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There was no order given at higher levels for the continuation of the attack up the sides of Missionary Ridge; when Grant saw the Union line surge uphill, he turned on Thomas demanding to know who had ordered it - all Thomas could reply was, "I dont know; I did not." The reason was simple: plunging Confederate fire from above made staying where they were more dangerous now to the advanced Federal divisions than either advancing or retreating, which was unthinkable to the recent losers of Chickamauga. Individual leaders like Sheridan, Wood, Johnson, and some of their brigade and regimental commanders urged the men on, but many simply went forward to get out of direct Confederate fire. Breakthroughs were made about simultaneously in several places like the Ohio Reservation with its state monument above.

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No place on the Confederate defense line was more surprised or unprepared for what happened than here at the Bragg Reservation, site of a small log cabin that served as headquarters for the Confederate commander ( below ). The top of the ridge is too narrow along which to easily shift units to attempt to seal the numerous breaches; most of the artillery pieces seen here were lost because they could be neither turned or successfully withdrawn down the steep eastern slope in the rapidly fading daylight and were abandoned in what became the first rout of a major Confederate army in the history of the war. A distraught and unhorsed Bragg was seen vainly appealing to men to stop and face the enemy, shouting "Stop men - here's your commander!"; supposedly one fleeing Reb grabbed him around the waist and swung him in the air replying "And Here's Your Mule!" before dropping him back to the ground!

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The Battle of Chattanooga was an unnecessary and complete Confederate disaster, though as great battles go, it was relatively low in casualties: out of some 60,000 Fedrals, there were 5,824, compared to 6,667 out of approximately 40,000 Confederates, many of whom became prisoners. On the plus side, it cemented the reputation of U. S. Grant, who would be called next to serve as General-in-Chief of all Union armies until war's end; and it marked the end of the career of the unloved and unlamented Braxton Bragg as a field commander, much to the pleasure of his men. Bright spots included the heroism of individual Union soldiers and officers like Lt. Arthur MacArthur who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his part; and the stubborn defense by the men of Pat Cleburne's Division who only retreated that night when they learned of the breakthroughs and then served as the army's rearguard during the retreat, most notably at Ringgold Gap, Ga., two days later on Nov. 27, 1863. Below is the recent monument to Cleburne at Ringgold.

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Was there ever a more vindictive and mentally unbalanced army commander in the Civil War than Braxton Bragg? For his stout defense of Tunnel Hill and Ringold Gap, Pat Cleurne should have been promoted to Lt. General but not being a Bragg crony and being a heretic on enlisting Black soldiers, he was never seriously considered. Sherman was a far better army commander then a corps commander.
 
I went to Chick and Chatt a year ago. I remember that going to Orchaard Knob as kind of sketchy due to the area.

I didn't think Orchard Knob looked bad; the houses and yards surrounding it were neat and well-kept, though the bars on some of the windows told a tale of possible mischief. I was traveling with a friend of mine and visited on a beautiful Sunday morning in May, and we didn't see anyone either on the street where we parked or inside the park itself. The park encompasses several acres and though crisscrossed by paved paths and trails is very steep on its eastern face. My photos were all taken on the relatively flat summit where most of the cannon, markers, and monuments are. It's best to park "behind" it on the west side nearer the summit and where it's not as steep.

There are two "entrances" into the Sherman Reservation; one was completely blocked by a van parked in the middle of the narrow "street" which looked more like a driveway. It's apparant owner claimed it was broken down or else he just didn't want to be bothered moving it! I therefore missed finding the position marker (tablet) for Lowery's Brigade of Cleburne's Division, which was actually detached on another hill to the northeast protecting the right flank of the main body. Where we did park farther uphill on the ridge in a designated space we had a longer hike to the center of Cleburne's position (pictured), but nothing too bad. As you can see though, the woods here are thick and since this is a relatively isolated area, I wouldn't suggest anyone entering it alone or too late in the day.
 
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Since this is now the actual anniversary of Orchard Knob-Lookout Mountain-Missionary Ridge, here's another photo showing the length of Missionary Ridge ( the dark mass seen across the middle of the photo ) as seen from Lookout Mountain's Point Park, taken over a half-century ago in 1961 during the Centennial. Here's also a link to the "Lookout Mountain" part of the story of the battles at Chattanooga:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/lookout-mountain-chickamauga-chattanooga-nmp.91735/#post-747515
 
Here are a few wartime photographs of Missionary Ridge taken by George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office in 1864, shortly after the battle.

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A view of the center of Missionary Ridge.

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Missionary Ridge from Orchard Knob.

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Orchard Knob from Missionary Ridge.
 
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Really great photos. I would like to see how it looks in Fall.

Have you walked any of the areas covered by advancing or retreating units? Those slopes must have been tough.
Were they as rocky as the slopes of Lookout Mtn? Some parts of Lookout Mtn slopes seem like any wooded area but a steep slope. Then there is areas that is covered with stone, such that you had to walk with care on the Trail to prevent twisting an ankle.
 
To touch on Cleburne once more, actually Bragg had recommeneded him for promotion after Chickamauga, also when Bragg left the army he presented Cleburne with his saddle. Im not so sure the annimosity toward Cleburne by Bragg was that great. Cleburne's biggest obstacles in my opinion were not being a West Pointer and being Irish.
 
To touch on Cleburne once more, actually Bragg had recommeneded him for promotion after Chickamauga, also when Bragg left the army he presented Cleburne with his saddle. Im not so sure the annimosity toward Cleburne by Bragg was that great. Cleburne's biggest obstacles in my opinion were not being a West Pointer and being Irish.
The Army of Tennessee did not have nearly as many West Pointers./V.M.I. as the Army of Northern Virginia had, however Cleburne did have military (although not combat) experience in the British Army.
 
Was there ever a more vindictive and mentally unbalanced army commander in the Civil War than Braxton Bragg? For his stout defense of Tunnel Hill and Ringold Gap, Pat Cleurne should have been promoted to Lt. General but not being a Bragg crony and being a heretic on enlisting Black soldiers, he was never seriously considered. Sherman was a far better army commander then a corps commander.
Bragg was not mentally all there and frankly I am starting to think that Jefferson Davis could be unbalanced as well.
 
James, thanks for your posting these pictures and your commentary. You have accurately described the action at Missionary Ridge. You also accurately stated the security precautions one should take when visiting these sites, particularly the Sherman Reservation. I would only add that one might well skip the Sherman Reservation , but don't let your caution fade when stopping at the other park locations along the crest of Missionary Ridge. Always lock your car, do not go alone, keep an eye on your car, do not go after dark.

Will
 
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