The Civil War in Chattanooga

The Civil War in Chattanooga. . , As the conflict between the North and South became more intense, many residents of Chattanooga had mixed sympathies. The town was obviously in the South, but further economic growth could only come as a result of increased trade with the North. However, when states began to secede from the Union, Chattanooga stood firmly on the side of the Confederacy. With this support they differed from the rest of Hamilton County and from the rest of East Tennessee. There were many staunch Unionists in the county, and many of them joined the Union Army. William Crutchfield, whose brother owned a large hotel near the railway depot, nearly struck a blow for the Union before the war even began by offending the visiting Jefferson Davis so much that a duel was mentioned. Crutchfield joined the Union Army, and in 1863, returned home for the Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, where several members of his family fought against him., After an unproductive 1862 campaign in Kentucky, General Braxton Bragg wintered in Murfreesboro. In the spring of 1863 he retreated across the Cumberland Plateau, and by July his army and many retreating civilians occupied Chattanooga. In the first week of September, a Union artillery group appeared on the north bank of the river and began to shell the town. The bombardment did little damage to either the city or to the occupying army, but it was effective cover for General Rosecrans, who had crossed the river at Bridgeport and was bringing his army to Chattanooga from the southwest. When Bragg realized he had been outflanked, he left Chattanooga without a fight, moving southeast into Georgia. On September 9, 1863, Union soldiers took possession of the town and began to construct a pontoon bridge (inset drawing, bottom right) to help supply their army as they chased the retreating Bragg., The two armies finally met at Chickamauga on the 19th of September. The fighting on this day and the next would prove to be some of the bloodiest of the war. On the second day, mistaken information led Rosecrans to send a division to fill a gap in his line of battle. There was no gap to be filled, but the execution of his order created one. Longstreet soon exploited this gap, and split the Union lines. Rosecrans ordered a retreat, but there remained several hours of daylight, and a full retreat would have led to the destruction of his army. General George H. Thomas, who led the Army of the Cumberland, stood firm for the rest of the afternoon, and as night fell, retreated into Chattanooga. By September 22, Federal soldiers occupied Chattanooga's town limits and their back was protected by the river. All other directions were guarded by Confederate forces on Orchard Knob, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain., Though many of his men continued to support General Rosecrans after Chickamauga, his detractors in Washington began to plead for his removal. Lincoln combined the three western armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio and placed them under the command of Ulysses S. Grant. The decision about Rosecrans' future was given to Grant. On September 19, Grant sent General Thomas, 'The Rock of Chickamauga,' the order relieving Rosecrans of his command, and Rosecrans left quietly the next morning, the one-month anniversary of his defeat at Chickamauga., During the first month after Chickamauga, the Union Army was besieged with only one supply line--a sixty mile route from Bridgeport that required crossing Walden's Ridge. When even this line was threatened, by Wheeler's cavalry raid, Rosecrans' and his staff hatched a plan to take Brown's Ferry from the Confederates. When Grant arrived shortly after Rosecrans' departure, he agreed with the plan and ordered that it be done. On October 28, Union forces captured Brown's Ferry, and the 'cracker line' was open. Instead of a sixty mile trail over difficult terrain, the Union could now transport supplies by river from Bridgeport to Brown's Ferry, and then wagons could carry the supplies the short distance across the 'ankle' of Moccasin Bend., On the high ground surrounding Chattanooga, General Bragg was having his own difficulties, many of which were caused by his own difficulties, many of which were caused by his own indecisiveness. Most of his officers disagreed with him about his decisions after Chickamauga, and several of them agitated unsuccessfully for his removal. Bragg was almost alone in his decision to besiege the Union Army in Chattanooga. Many of his best officers favored a direct attack on the weakened forces immediately following the success at Chickamauga. Bragg chose to wait, though, causing further dissent in his own ranks and allowing the Federals time to resupply and gather reinforcements., Just over two months after Chickamauga, General Grant attempted to break the siege. On November 23, the Union gained control of Orchard Knob. The following day the armies fought the 'Battle Above the Clouds,' where the Union faced the toughest terrain of the war and forced the Confederates to retreat from Lookout Mountain. On November 25, an entire day of fighting on Missionary Ridge had left neither army with much gain when the Army of the Cumberland broke through the center of the Confederate lines. The Confederates made a disorderly retreat into Georgia, and Bragg resigned a few days later., For the remainder of the war, Chattanooga remained in Union hands and served several important purposes for the occupying army. Chattanooga's status as a port for riverboats and railroads made it a supply depot for many later Union operations, and though the devastation of war would require much rebuilding, the army did not leave the town empty-handed., The Federal Army built the first reservoir for a city water supply on the flank of Cameron Hill. They also established several sawmills, a riverboat shipyard, several warehouses, and a rolling mill that produced wheels and rails for repairing railroad cars and tracks. In 1865, the Union Army built the first semi-permanent bridge across the Tennessee at Chattanooga, which is shown in the main and inset photographs above. The main photograph shows the construction of the piers, which was accomplished with the help of pontoons. The left inset photograph shows a later stage in the construction of the bridge, which required timber falseworks. To the right of this is the completed bridge as viewed from the bluff (the swing ferry and a buoy are also visible, bottom right). To the right of this is the Meigs Bridge as seen from the north bank of the river, with Cameron Hill and Lookout Mountain in the background., The Meigs Military Bridge was named after the Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army, General M.C. Meigs. Because of its cost (an estimated $750,000) and because it was not meant to be permanent, it was often called Meigs' Folly. The bridge had a drawspan which allowed boats to pass in high water, but in 1867, just two years after its construction, extremely high water would rid Chattanooga of its need for a drawspan by washing away the entire bridge.