Cameron Hill

Cameron Hill. "... most excellent shots". , After the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Union General William S. Rosecrans retreated to Federal-occupied Chattanooga, a strategically vital rail center, where Confederate General Braxton Bragg laid siege from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Union General Ulysses S. Grant took command in October and began his efforts to break the siege. Bragg detached forces under General James Longstreet to attack Knoxville as a diversion. After General 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., During the siege of Chattanooga in October and November 1863, a Union observation post on Cameron Hill, which looms high over the city, kept watch on the Confederates surrounding Chattanooga. At 1 P.M. on October 2, for example, Capt. A.S. Cole reported from Cameron Hill, "I see an omnibus filled with people driving along top of Missionary Ridge, stopping often, apparently to make observations." On November 24, a little after noon, the Cameron Hill signal station reported the exciting news that "Our forces have carried the works near white house, on Lookout [Mountain]." After the battles for Chattanooga ended, the Federals strengthened the Cameron Hill earthworks, constructed camps, built water works, and constructed a sawmill for lumber for warehouses and other structures. , In 1862-1863, Confederate troops built artillery batteries on Cameron Hill. After Union General William S. Rosecran's army pushed Confederate General Braxton Bragg's forces out of Middle Tennessee during the Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863, the Federals attacked Chattanooga. On August 21, Colonel John T. Wilder reached the Tennessee River and ordered Captain Eli Lilly's 18th Indiana Light Artillery to bombard the city. The Confederate guns atop Cameron Hill responded but with little effect. Wilder reported that "few of their guns could reach us, being mostly 12-pounder howitzers and 6-pounders rifled. They opened on us with nineteen different guns. One 32-pounder rifled gun covers all on this side. Lilly made most excellent shots, dismounting guns at 2,000 yards." On September 7, Bragg abandoned the Cameron Hill artillery position and left Chattanooga to the Federals.