View From Lookout Mountain: A Victory

After their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, the surviving troops of the Federal Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Major General William Starke Rosecrans, fled to what they believed to be the safety of the town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The victor of Chickamauga, Confederate General Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of Tennessee, followed the Federals to Chattanooga and seized control of most of the high ground around the city turning what the Union troops thought would be a sanctuary into a trap where they would eventually have to surrender or starve. The two most important points of high ground the Confederates occupied were Missionary Ridge to the east and north of the city and a huge rock known as Lookout Mountain. Chattanooga was a small but strategically important city which was needed for control of Central Tennessee. Federal forces at Chattanooga were commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate forces by General Braxton Bragg. At Lookout Mountain Federal forces were commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker and the Confederates by Major General Carter Stevenson. With 10,000 men under his command Hooker launched an assault on Lookout Mountain, defended by 8,700 Confederates. Formidable natural obstacles supplemented by defensive works made the Confederate position very strong. Hooker launched his attack on November 24, 1863 sending two columns forward with a plan for them attack up the western slope of the mountain and to converge at the Cravens farm about two-thirds of the way up the mountain on a small flat strip of level land, a bench, where the strongest Confederate defenses had been placed. Starting in the morning, the Federal forces advanced relentlessly.