Reinforcing Chattanooga

Reinforcing Chattanooga. Grant's and Sherman's Deception. After the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans retreated to Federal-occupied Chattanooga, a strategically vital rail center, where Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg laid siege from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took command in October and began his efforts to break the siege. Bragg detached forces under Gen. James Longstreet to attack Knoxville as a diversion. After Gen. William T. Sherman reinforced Grant in November, the Federals attacked the heights, and Bragg retreated. The Union army held the city for the rest of the war., After being defeated at Chickamauga in September 1863, the Union army found itself under siege in Chattanooga. By the end of October, the Federals had opened the "cracker” or supply line at various points on the Tennessee River. Food, supplies, and reinforcements began to arrive in the beleaguered city. As the supply and troop situation improved, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's thoughts turned to driving the Confederate forces from Missionary Ridge, overlooking the city., Late in November, Union Gen. William T. Sherman led his command, veterans who had helped capture Vicksburg earlier in the year, toward Chattanooga. Hoping to give the Confederates the impression that the column was moving to reinforce Knoxville, which was also under Confederate attack from Confederate forces, Sherman marched past Chattanooga, crossed the pontoon bridge over the Tennessee River, and disappeared into the hills of Stringer's Ridge north of the city. Once Sherman's column was no longer visible to Confederate observers on Lookout Mountain and other sites, the Confederates assumed that he had continued to Knoxville., The ruse worked. Sherman's advance units arrived near here on November 21, and the remainder had filed into the camp by November 23, unobserved by the Confederates. Early the next morning, Sherman marched his men two miles east to the Tennessee River, where they crossed over a pontoon bridge to assault the northern end of Missionary Ridge later that day. By evening, Sherman's force occupied vital ground on the ridge, contributing to the Union victory the next day.