The Tullahoma Campaign

The Tullahoma Campaign. Prelude to Chattanooga. You are in the midst of the southern Middle Tennessee landscape that was the setting of the Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863. The campaign takes its name for the town that stood at the mid-point of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, control of which was a goal of the campaign., After the bloody Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862 - January 2, 1863, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland stayed in the Murfreesboro area for months to regroup and plan an attack. , Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg and his Army of Tennessee retreated to the hills and high ground from Shelbyville to Tullahoma to monitor any Union advance on the railroad line and prevent Union forces from reaching the rail junction at Chattanooga ., On June 23, 1863, Rosecrans's army marched from Murfreesboro, and his victories at Hoover's Gap and Liberty Hill forced the Confederates to retreat and then abandon Tullahoma by July 1. Two days later, the Union army moved farther south along the railroad, taking control of Decherd and Winchester. The Confederates lacked the time to blow up the vital Cumberland Tunnel at Cowan. Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan entered the abandoned town and almost captured the last rail cars as they rolled out. By July 3, Bragg's command had retreated to Chattanooga, which soon became the next major battleground in Tennessee. The 11-day Tullahoma Campaign netted Rosecrans control of southern Middle Tennessee at the cost of 550 wounded, captured, or killed., (captions) , Gen. William S. Rosecrans Library of Congress , Gen. Braxton Bragg Library of Congress , Gen. Philip H. Sheridan Library of Congress , Cowan Rail Depot, c.1880 Courtesy Tennessee State Library and Archives , Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad entering Cumberland Mountain Tunnel, ... Line overpass - Courtesy Cowan Railroad Museum