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Down the Mountain
 fter
dark on the 28th, about 3,200 Confederates under Generals Jenkins
and Law moved down and across the northern talus of Lookout Mountain.
They crossed Lookout Creek a mile north of Wauhatchie. About 1700 men
under Law were placed on Smith's Hill and another hill overlooking
the road that connected Hooker’s main force with Geary. The
remainder, under Col. John Bratton, went to attack Geary.
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Jenkins
and Law were about
the same age and rivals for division command. Jenkins was in overall
command partly because he had a few months seniority, but primarily
because he had Longstreet's favor. |
Wauhatchie
 The
attack on Geary started shortly after midnight. In the darkness, the
Yankees formed a horseshoe shaped defensive battleline around the
knoll were the cannon battery stood. Neither side knew how many
troops their opponent had.
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Apparently, the
Confederates thought the Union force was smaller than it was. The
Yankees, on the other hand, thought the Confederate force was larger
than it was. |
The battle was fought
with soldiers firing at the gunpowder flashes of the opposing side.
The Union soldiers only carried 60 rounds of ammunition, and after
two hours of fighting they began to run out. With the Confederates
closing in, many desperately went through the pockets of fallen
comrades, searching for ammunition.
Smith's Hill
When Hooker heard the
firing at Wauhatchie, he ordered six brigades to Geary’s aid.
But the force got lost in
the dark and then ran into and had to fight the Confederates on
Smith's Hill. In the darkness, Union Col. Orland Smith lead his
brigade up the hill that now bears his name. Through the heavy
underbrush and thick timber, his men approached Law's fortified
position at the top of the hill. Despite heavy casualties and
considerable confusion, his brigade took the hill.
After three hours of
vicious fighting and two hours before sunrise, the Confederates
retreated back across Lookout Creek. The primary result of this
battle was to increase the already high tension in the Confederate
command, especially between Bragg and Longstreet.
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At
sunrise, General Geary found the body of his son on the knoll, Lt.
Geary died next to the battery he commanded. |
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On the
other side, the Confederates were busy blaming each other for the
debacle. Eventually, Law (perhaps the least responsible) took most of
the blame. |
The
Yankees had broken the siege. Bragg now faced the reality that (1)
his strategy of starving the Yankees into submission had failed and
(2) he now faced two Union Armies. It appears, however, that Bragg
was more concerned with the fighting within his ranks than he was
with fighting Grant.
Longstreet's Exit
Sherman's Entrance
Primarily as a result of
the infighting and tension between Bragg and his top commander, Bragg
ordered Longstreet to attack Knoxville. On November 5, Longstreet
left for Knoxville with 15,000 men reducing Bragg’s forces in
Chattanooga to about 32,000. The Union forces facing Bragg at this
time numbered about 45,000 and were about to increase. Longstreet
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At this
time, General Ambrose Burnside and the Union's Army of the Ohio
occupied Knoxville. Knoxville was a vital railroad link connecting
the Army of Northern Virginia with the Army of Tennessee and most of
the South. |
In mid-November, Sherman
with the Union's Army of the Tennessee arrived in Chattanooga. They
came down Lookout Valley taking the same route as Hooker a few weeks
earlier. Most crossed the river at Brown's Ferry, but the pontoon
bridge was destroyed before they could all cross.
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The
Confederates destroyed the bridge by throwing logs in the river and
launching rafts with timed explosives upstream. |
The about 20,000 soldiers
that did cross camped just across the river from Chattanooga out of
view of the Confederates on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. By
doing this, they lead Bragg to believe that Sherman was going after
Longstreet (toward Knoxville). Those that didn't get across joined
Hooker in Lookout Valley. |
