What was chickamauga

Bragg divides his forces into two wings. Longstreet commands the left; Lt. Leonidas K. Polk takes charge of Confederate troops on the right. The battle resumes at a. About an hour later, Rosecrans, believing a gap exists in his line, orders Brig. Wood, however, knows that the order is a mistake; no such gap exists in the Federal line, and moving his division would open a large swath in the Union position. However, Wood who already been berated twice in the campaign for not promptly following orders, immediately moves, creating a division-wide hole in the Union line.

This is the chance the Confederates need. Longstreet masses a striking force, led by Gen. Hood, of eight brigades divided into three lines. He and his men form a defensive position, and although Confederates continue to assault and press to within feet of the Union line, the Federals hold firm. Thomas withdraws as darkness falls. Thomas urges Rosecrans to lead the army in an attack the next day, but the general rejects the idea and remains in Chattanooga.

With more than 16, Union and 18, Confederate casualties, Chickamauga reaches the highest losses of any battle in the Western Theater. The cutting-edge weapon that wreaked havoc at Chickamauga was the Spencer repeating rifle, which allowed a soldier to fire an average of 14 to 20 rounds per minute.

The action relied on the manual down and back movement of a trigger guard or lever which brought a fresh cartridge into the chamber and cleared any spent shell casings. A hammer was then manually locked into place bringing the weapon into firing condition. Wilder was frustrated by trying to fight the Confederate cavalry with infantry troops. He received permission to mount his infantrymen on horseback, which enabled them to move quickly. Unlike cavalrymen, who normally stayed mounted, the Lightning Brigade dismounted once they engaged the enemy and fought on foot.

Colonel James Connolly of the rd Illinois later chronicled the experience:. On September 18, , the Lightning Brigade defended a key crossing over Chickamauga Creek and prevented the advancing Confederates from flanking the rest of the Union line. Two days later, the Brigade attacked and stalled a rebel breakthrough on the Union right flank long enough for Maj. George Thomas to set up a defense that ultimately saved the Army of the Cumberland from destruction.

George Thomas recommended that Wilder be promoted to brigadier general. James Garfield, the future 20th president of the United States, joined the Union Army in and served with distinction at the battles of Shiloh and Corinth.

By September , he carried the rank of brigadier general and was named chief-of-staff to Gen. While Maj. Thomas was trying to rally his broken units after an exhausting fight at Chickamauga on September 20, , Rosecrans thought all was lost and fell back to Chattanooga.

At the end of the day, the Union troops had withstood repeated attacks without losing their connection to Chattanooga. That night they pulled back to a defensive position along the LaFayette Road, which they strengthened by constructing log breastworks. During the night and early morning of September 19 and 20, Bragg divided his army into two wings, the right or northern wing under Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk and the left or southern wing under Lieutenant General James Longstreet , who had arrived from Virginia with additional Confederate reinforcements.

Ineptitude on the part of Polk and one of his subordinates caused the attacks to begin several hours late. Although a small force of Confederates briefly turned the enemy troops left, Union reinforcements drove back the Southerners.

Shortly after 11 a. Rosecrans came to believe that a Union division in the center of his line had created a gap by moving out of position. In order to rectify the situation, Rosecrans ordered another division under Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood northward to fill the supposed hole.

By noon, disaster had engulfed the center and right wings of the Union army, sending Rosecrans, several of his principal subordinates, and many of their men into a retreat northward to Chattanooga.

Some Northern soldiers eventually formed a line on a series of steep, wooded knolls known as Snodgrass Hill or Horseshoe Ridge. Although the Confederates continued to attack Snodgrass throughout the afternoon, they were unable to capture the position.

Chickamauga was an extremely costly battle for both armies. While the battle was considered a Confederate victory because it pushed the Union army back to Chattanooga rather than letting it proceed into Georgia it would be the next year before the Union army tried again , Rosecrans achieved his objective for the campaign, the capture of Chattanooga.

Bohannon, Keith. Bohannon, K. Battle of Chickamauga. In New Georgia Encyclopedia. With 34, casualties,…. Rosecrans from entering Georgia, but each side sustained heavy casualties; around 16, Union and 18, Confederate. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder. The Union lost more than 16, men killed, wounded, and missing, while the Confederate troops of roughly 68, men sustained more than 18, casualties.

NPS Photo In the late summer of the Union Army of the Cumberland under the command of General William Rosecrans maneuvered south from middle Tennessee with the objective of capturing the city of Chattanooga, the gateway to the Confederacy.

On September 18, , the Confederate army attempted to cross West Chickamauga Creek at several bridges and fords. By the next day, September 19, the skirmishing along the creek crossings had blossomed into full scale battle. Throughout the day on September 19, Confederate troops poured into the fight from the east, reinforced by General James Longstreet and his men from the Army of Northern Virginia, while Union reinforcements moved in from the north and south.

It was a terrifying fight as the wooded terrain concealed troop movements and positions, leading to chaos as units blindly attacked each other. Throughout the day the battle see-sawed back and forth through the woods east of the LaFayette Road, although by nightfall the Union army was anchored in a strong position along the LaFayette Road.

The Wilder Brigade Monument is an 85 foot tower that overlooks the south end of the battlefield where John Wilder's "Lightning Brigade" fought. It is open for visitors to climb seasonally in the spring, summer, and fall, with weather permitting. Bragg planned an early morning assault, but miscommunication between Bragg and his subordinates delayed the attack until around am. The assault began on the Confederate right, with Confederate troops under the command of former Vice President John C.

That morning, General William Rosecrans experienced its own miscommunication, and it had catastrophic consequences for the Army of the Cumberland. In the heat of battle, he gave conflicting orders to General Thomas Wood regarding how he should position his troops.

Wood pulled his troops out of line and began to move them to the north, creating a gaping hole in the center of the Union army. At that moment, disaster struck, as Longstreet's Confederates attacked the spot Wood had just vacated near the Brotherton Cabin. The center and right of the Union army collapsed and was routed towards Rossville. General George Thomas rallied his corps on the Union left at Snodgrass Hill, and with support from the Reserve Corps commanded by Gordon Granger, fended off relentless Confederate attacks throughout the afternoon, saving the Union army from annihilation.

For his work that day, Thomas became known as the Rock of Chickamauga.