Viewed solely from the microcosm of Virginia, by the summer of 1863, the Civil War appeared to be at a stalemate. Confederate forces had frustrated repeated Federal offenses through two long years of war and occupied roughly the same ground they had held in 1861. But in the Western Theater, the war was anything but static, and by nearly any measure was turning decisively against the Confederacy. The vast spaces and plethora of navigable rivers offered Union forces access into the interior of the rebellious states.
By 1863, a trio of the South's most important cities — Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans — were under Federal control. It was the third summer of the war, and momentous events were unfolding across the country. Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate thrust into Pennsylvania was well underway. Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was tightening his grip on the Rebel bastion of Vicksburg, Miss., in a siege now into its second month. On the main Western front in Tennessee, however, Federal inactivity cast a long shadow.
When the final week of June arrived, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans decided his Army of the Cumberland was ready to move. During the resulting Tullahoma Campaign in late June and early July, Rosecrans outmaneuvered Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, forcing him from a strong defensive position, driving the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and threatening Chattanooga, where Southern troops then entrenched. After some weeks of recuperation and logistical preparation, Rosecrans moved against the Confederate stronghold.
On August 21, Union troops appeared opposite the city and opened fire, taking the Confederates completely by surprise. On August 29, Rosecrans began his main crossings downstream, but Bragg — wedded to the idea that Rosecrans would maintain a connection with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who was advancing from Knoxville — dismissed these efforts as a feint for too long. Realizing the truth of the situation, Bragg withdrew southward. By the morning of September 8, only one cavalry regiment remained in the city, while a 75-man detachment of cavalry clung to Lookout Mountain. The next day, Chattanooga — a logistical hub and one of the most important cities in the South — officially fell into Union hands, with barely a shot fired.
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