Existing comment:
Field Headquarters of the Union Armies.
Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Nov. 25th, 1863.
General Grant was assigned to the Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, October 16th, 1863. He arrived at Chattanooga on the 23d.
He had under his command for the Battle of Chattanooga the Army of the Cumberland, General George H. Thomas; the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, General Joseph Hooker, and four divisions of the Army of the Tennessee, General W. T. Sherman. General Hooker's command was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. On the afternoon of November 23d Sheridan's and Wood's Divisions of the Fourth Corps supported by the Eleventh Corps on the left and Baird's Division of the Fourteenth Corps in reserve on the right, carried Orchard Knob and Indian Hill to the south of it, constituting the enemy's central line through the plain. On the afternoon of the 24th, Sherman's Army with Davis' Division of the 14th Corps having crossed the Tennessee River at the mouth of the Chickamauga during the night of the 23d, occupied and fortified the detailed range of hills overlooking the north end of Missionary Ridge.
On the same day, Hooker's forces in Lookout Valley, consisting of Geary's Division of the 12th Corps, Cruft's of the 4th, and Osterhaus' of the 15th, carried Lookout Mountain.
On the 25th these forces advanced to Rossville Gap and carried the south end of Missionary Ridge in the afternoon of that day. At 3:15 P.M. of the 25th Johnson's, Sheridan's, Wood's and Baird's Divisions, formed from right to left in the order named, starting from this central line captured on the 23d, assaulted and carried first the rifle-pits at the base of the ridge, and immediately thereafter the crest of Missionary Ridge for a distance of three miles. The whole movement occupied a little over an hour, and the captures were 40 guns and about 2,000 prisoners. |