Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga

James A. Hoobler

Description

The campaign from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Chickamauga, Georgia, followed by the siege of Chattanooga, is one of the most dramatic stories of the entire Civil War. Union Major General William S. Rosecrans led a brilliant advance into Georgia, taking Chattanooga with the loss of only six men. Near Chickamauga Creek, Confederate General Braxton Bragg routed Rosecrans' army, then laid siege to it from the heights around Chattanooga.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant, recently given command of virtually all Federal armies in the Western Theater, arrived to break the siege. A climatic Union charge routed Bragg's demoralized army.

Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga tells this story and much more, for it includes the important struggle to preserve America's Civil War battlefields, which began with Chickamauga. Striking black-and-white images of aging veterans, reuniting to preserve their history, join photos of the rugged terrain over which they fought in 1863. This is a compelling American story told in photographs, with text by a noted historian.

Sujets

• Loisirs
• Collections photographiques
• Histoire
• State
• South
• United States
• History
• Local

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781618586124
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF
CHICKAMAUGA
CHATTANOOGA
T EXT AND C APTIONS BY J AMES A. H OOBLER

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF
CHICKAMAUGA
CHATTANOOGA
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Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga
Copyright 2007 Turner Publishing Company
All rights reserved.
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007933776
ISBN-13: 978-1-59652-412-5
Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14-0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C ONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
P REFACE
T HE T ULLAHOMA C AMPAIGN (J UNE -J ULY 1863)
T HE C HICKAMAUGA C AMPAIGN (A UGUST -S EPTEMBER 1863)
T HE S IEGE OF C HATTANOOGA (S EPTEMBER -N OVEMBER 1863)
R EMEMBRANCE , R EUNION, AND P RESERVATION (1865-1938)
N OTES ON THE P HOTOGRAPHS
The U.S. Army publicity photo seen here is captioned: Grant and Lee are fighting on the same side in this war. Second Lieutenants Rose O. Grant of Colorado and Sarah E. Lee of Texas now stationed at the Third WAC Training Center, Fort Oglethorpe, shake hands over a Civil War cannon at nearby Chickamauga National Military park.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume, Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga , is the result of the cooperation and efforts of many individuals, organizations, and corporations. It is with great thanks that we acknowledge the valuable contribution of the following for their generous support:
Albert Gore, Sr., Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University
Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections and Preservation Division
Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park
Collection of Jim Hoobler
Library of Congress
National Archives
P REFACE
The photographs in these pages comprise a unique story. They tell not only of the valor and destruction of war, but of the patriotism and determination that founded a movement to preserve America s heritage after that war. For the men who fought during 1861-1865, the Civil War was at once the most terrible and most glorious time of their lives. The months and years of following their flags down dust-choked roads; the nights spent on sentry duty in pouring rain; the long, long hours away from home and loved ones; the times of sheer terror with the smell of powder smoke in their nostrils and the blood of friends soaking into their clothes-these were shared experiences, privations accepted in order to defend their cause. Civilians could never fully understand what those experiences meant, but their comrades could. So could the men who had been their enemies.
On both sides, the war had been fought by men defending different interpretations of the same thing-the ideals expressed in the American Constitution. Among the casualties of Chickamauga was Benjamin Hardin Helm, a Confederate brigadier general married to President Abraham Lincoln s sister-in-law, the former Emilie Todd. Unlike previous wars, this one had been entirely American, fought by American soldiers on American soil in defense of their versions of American ideals. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that when the war was over, they joined first with old comrades and then with former enemies to preserve the memories of their actions and the places where so many of their fellows had given the last full measure of devotion. The young, ever-expanding nation had never concerned itself much with preserving its past for future generations, but the men of blue and gray changed that.
They began a new campaign, waged in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, to buy and forever set aside the fields, hollows, and mountains where the future of America had been decided with fortitude and blood. The first battlefield preserved was that of Chickamauga in North Georgia, which was expanded with the addition of land in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the areas that had comprised the Chickamauga-Chattanooga Campaign in the late summer and autumn of 1863. Other hallowed ground would be preserved around the country in the years to come, but the movement to save these important parts of American history saw its first success here.
That is, perhaps, appropriate. The year of 1863 marked the turning point of the war, a turning point that concluded with the fighting in the undergrowth along Chickamauga Creek and on the slopes outside Chattanooga.
The year began with a Confederate reverse in Middle Tennessee, at the Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro, which ended January 2. In May, the pendulum swung back; Confederate General Robert E. Lee won a stunning victory around a crossroads called Chancellorsville in Virginia. A month later, he set off on an invasion of Pennsylvania, carrying the war into the North. In Mississippi, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant won a victory at Champion s Hill on May 16, but his army was now engaged in siege warfare around Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. In Middle Tennessee, the antagonists of Stones River, Union Major General William S. Rosecrans and Confederate General Braxton Bragg, awaited each other s next move, their armies several miles apart.
By mid-July, everything had changed. Lee s army had been repulsed at Gettysburg. On July 4, the day that army began its withdrawal back to Virginia with a hospital train twenty-seven miles long, starving Confederate forces in Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. Another Southern army was beaten at Helena, Arkansas. Then, on July 16, Rosecrans moved out of his camps around Murfreesboro. The coming months would see both the apogee and the nadir of the military careers of both Rosecrans and Bragg. A brilliant campaign of maneuver would end in ignominious flight at Chickamauga Creek, but the victor would throw away the South s last, best hope by failing to follow up quickly on his disordered enemy, choosing instead to besiege the town of Chattanooga.
The photographs in this book represent that campaign in Tennessee and Georgia. Sadly, there was no Matthew Brady with a studio close to hand to record photographic images following the titanic struggle at Chickamauga, as Brady had done at its Eastern Theater counterpart, Gettysburg. Many more photographs exist of Chattanooga, some taken during the siege but most afterward.
Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga presents readers with images that may help them understand the nature of the fighting soldiers faced in those battles, by showing them the fields and woods, the extremely steep slopes and the broken terrain where brave men fought and died.
Some of these old photographs show the fading and damage of age. Other than correcting these imperfections and cropping where necessary, no other changes have been made to them.
This book is divided into the three major campaigns that comprised the entirety of the Chickamauga-Chattanooga Campaign. Its second half tells the story of preservation carried out by old soldiers who were determined their sacrifices would not be forgotten, that they and their fallen comrades and all they fought for would be preserved in a manner that would insure future generations of Americans could walk upon these hallowed grounds and ponder the meaning of duty, sacrifice, and valor.
The public square in Murfreesboro became an encampment site for Federal troops during the occupation of the town. Part of the wall around the courthouse lawn has been demolished in order to make chimneys for the soldiers tents. This view is to the west and shows the town s well to the right.
T HE T ULLAHOMA C AMPAIGN
(J UNE -J ULY 1863)
Following the defeat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro. Tennessee), December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863, Union Major General William S. Rosecrans entrenched around that town. From January until June, both his Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee established defensive positions. Fortress Rosecrans, the largest fortress constructed during the Civil War, was put up around Murfreesboro. It covered 225 acres and consisted of curtain walls and abatis, connecting eight lunettes and four redoubts. Within it, Brigadier General James St. Clair Morton, chief engineer, built warehouses, magazines, quarters, quartermaster depots, and sawmills.
This provided a logistical base of support for the planned Federal advance on Chattanooga. The Pioneer Brigade, the 1st Michigan Engineers, who had built fortifications and repaired railroad lines in the advance south, were put in charge of constructing the fortress. They supervised the work of more than forty thousand men stationed in Murfreesboro. Working in eight-hour shifts of four thousand men each, the work began on January 23, 1863, and continued after Rosecrans advance toward Tullahoma began on June 24. A convalescent camp was established northwest of the fortress in a bend of Stones River, and two thousand troops were left in Murfreesboro on garrison duty to defend and hold the position.
Confederate General Braxton Bragg s Army of Tennessee was waiting to the south, in a line that reached from Shelbyville in the west to Wartrace in the east. Bragg had deployed his infantry under Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk to the west and Lieutenant General William Hardee to the east, in a line running for thirteen miles. Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Major General Joseph Wheeler helped to hold the western and eastern flanks, respectively, with their cavalry units. Combined, Bragg s forces numbered around 43,000 men.
Rosecrans moved upon them with around 60,000 troops and executed a masterful maneuver around the forces of