Existing comment:
Carnage at Chickamauga Creek: September 1863:
A broad front, multi-column Union advance forced the Confederate Army of Tennessee to abandon Chattanooga in early September. Federal forces occupied the city and continued to push on into Northwest Georgia. Emboldened by the arrival of significant reinforcements, the Confederates turned to attack before Union forces fully consolidated their gains.
On September 18, 1863, the two armies came to clash in the forests and occasional fields in the valley of West Chickamauga Creek. Union forces largely parried Confederate thrusts that day and the next, but on the 20th, the fatigued and mentally exhausted Union General Rosecrans made a serious error. Coming to believe that there was a gap in his lines, Rosecrans began shifting troops to fill this supposed gap and in the process created a real opening just where a massive Confederate column was attacking. Rosecrans and many of his troops were swept from the field but a valiant stand by General George H. Thomas (earning him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga") allowed the Union army to retreat to it's [sic] recently won prize, Chattanooga.
The Confederates were too battered and bloodied to immediately follow up their victory at Chickamauga. With 34,000 casualties, it was one of the costliest battles of the Civil War. |