ABOUT THIS BOOK

When the Confederates emerged as victors in the Chickamauga Campaign, the Union Army of the Cumberland lay under siege in Chattanooga, with Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee on nearby high ground at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. A win at Chattanooga was essential for the Confederates, both to capitalize on the victory at Chickamauga and to keep control of the gateway to the lower South. Should the Federal troops wrest control of that linchpin, they would cement their control of eastern Tennessee and gain access to the Deep South. In the fall 1863 Chattanooga Campaign, the new head of the western Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, sought to break the Confederate siege. His success created the opportunity for the Union to start a campaign to capture Atlanta the following spring.

Woodworth’s introduction sets the stage for ten insightful essays that provide new analysis of this crucial campaign. From the Battle of Wauhatchie to the Battle of Chattanooga, the contributors’ well-researched and vividly written assessments of both Union and Confederate actions offer a balanced discussion of the complex nature of the campaign and its aftermath. Other essays give fascinating examinations of the reactions to the campaign in northern newspapers and by Confederate soldiers from west of the Mississippi River.

Complete with maps and photos, The Chattanooga Campaign contains a wealth of detailed information about the military, social, and political aspects of the campaign and contributes significantly to our understanding of the Civil War’s western theater.

Univeristy Press Books for Public and Secondary Schools 2013 edition

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Steven E. Woodworth, a professor of history at Texas Christian University, is the author or editor of thirty books, including The Shiloh Campaign, The Chickamauga Campaign, and Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861–1865.

Charles D. Grear, an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University and a new coeditor of the series, has written five books, including Why Texans Fought in the Civil War and The House Divided: America in the Era of the Civil War.

REVIEWS

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"The Chickamauga Campaign is the second volume in the Southern Illinois University Press series Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland. Once again editor Steven E. Woodworth has assembled an impressive collection of essays meant to enhance and challenge our knowledge of an important campaign in the western theater. As more Civil War scholars embrace the West as the place where the war was decided, such studies will become more relevant and more prevalent.

The volume's first essay, by Ethan S. Rafuse, examines two of General William S. Rosecrans's corps commanders, Generals Alexander M. McCook and Thomas L. Crittenden. Rafuse provides a sympathetic look at their performance from the campaign of maneuver around Tullahoma, Tennessee, to the bloody clash at Chickamauga Creek, in northern Georgia. Woodworth follows with a chapter on the Confederate debacle at McLemore's Cove that seeks to uncover what caused General Thomas C. Hindman's spectacular failure. In the same vein, Alexander Mendoza analyzes not only Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill's downfall at McLemore's Cove but also his lackluster performance throughout the Chickamauga campaign. The following two pieces, written by Lee White and John R. Lundberg on Alexander P. Stewart and Patrick Cleburne, respectively, dissect the performance of two storied Confederate divisions and their commanders at crucial points in the battle. Next, two essays delve into the controversial personalities of Confederate general James Longstreet and Union general James S. Negley. William G. Robertson provides a detailed and critical analysis of Longstreet's role in the campaign, giving "Old Pete" little credit for the Confederate assault that shattered the Union line on the final day of fighting. David Powell is equally critical of Negley, asserting that the Union general deserved the harsh censure he received for his disastrous performance during the battle. In the book's final chapter Timothy B. Smith explores the development of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and the influence of Henry Van Ness Boynton, a journalist and veteran of the battle, on how Chickamauga and other Civil War battlefields would be commemorated.

This book is an excellent companion piece for readers already familiar with such detailed studies as Peter Cozzens's This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga (Urbana, 1992) and Woodworth's Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns (Lincoln, Neb., 1998). Indeed, The Chickamauga Campaign is not designed for the novice: it is neither an introduction to the subject nor a detailed examination of the Chickamauga campaign. The essays do not encompass a comprehensive view of the battle, instead focusing on neglected aspects of the campaign and broadening the knowledge of those who are already familiar with the campaign's key people and events.

The volumes in the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series provide fresh insights and perspectives on the vast amount of scholarly information already accumulated. This anthology's well-written, well-conceptualized, and well-argued essays offer more than a mere detailed account of a battle or campaign. Instead, these able authors debate and explore the importance and implications of decisions, events, and actions. Clearly, the scholarship on the American Civil War is neither stagnant nor exhausted. The current generation of Civil War researchers still has much to say about our nation's greatest calamity. With this series Woodworth has achieved his goals of shedding more light on the western campaigns and sparking new scholarship on the western theater." --JOHN D. FOWLER

— John D. Fowler, The Journal of Southern History

"The Chickamauga Campaign is the second volume in the Southern Illinois University Press series Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland. Once again editor Steven E. Woodworth has assembled an impressive collection of essays meant to enhance and challenge our knowledge of an important campaign in the western theater. As more Civil War scholars embrace the West as the place where the war was decided, such studies will become more relevant and more prevalent.

The volume's first essay, by Ethan S. Rafuse, examines two of General William S. Rosecrans's corps commanders, Generals Alexander M. McCook and Thomas L. Crittenden. Rafuse provides a sympathetic look at their performance from the campaign of maneuver around Tullahoma, Tennessee, to the bloody clash at Chickamauga Creek, in northern Georgia. Woodworth follows with a chapter on the Confederate debacle at McLemore's Cove that seeks to uncover what caused General Thomas C. Hindman's spectacular failure. In the same vein, Alexander Mendoza analyzes not only Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill's downfall at McLemore's Cove but also his lackluster performance throughout the Chickamauga campaign. The following two pieces, written by Lee White and John R. Lundberg on Alexander P. Stewart and Patrick Cleburne, respectively, dissect the performance of two storied Confederate divisions and their commanders at crucial points in the battle. Next, two essays delve into the controversial personalities of Confederate general James Longstreet and Union general James S. Negley. William G. Robertson provides a detailed and critical analysis of Longstreet's role in the campaign, giving "Old Pete" little credit for the Confederate assault that shattered the Union line on the final day of fighting. David Powell is equally critical of Negley, asserting that the Union general deserved the harsh censure he received for his disastrous performance during the battle. In the book's final chapter Timothy B. Smith explores the development of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and the influence of Henry Van Ness Boynton, a journalist and veteran of the battle, on how Chickamauga and other Civil War battlefields would be commemorated.

This book is an excellent companion piece for readers already familiar with such detailed studies as Peter Cozzens's This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga (Urbana, 1992) and Woodworth's Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns (Lincoln, Neb., 1998). Indeed, The Chickamauga Campaign is not designed for the novice: it is neither an introduction to the subject nor a detailed examination of the Chickamauga campaign. The essays do not encompass a comprehensive view of the battle, instead focusing on neglected aspects of the campaign and broadening the knowledge of those who are already familiar with the campaign's key people and events.

The volumes in the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series provide fresh insights and perspectives on the vast amount of scholarly information already accumulated. This anthology's well-written, well-conceptualized, and well-argued essays offer more than a mere detailed account of a battle or campaign. Instead, these able authors debate and explore the importance and implications of decisions, events, and actions. Clearly, the scholarship on the American Civil War is neither stagnant nor exhausted. The current generation of Civil War researchers still has much to say about our nation's greatest calamity. With this series Woodworth has achieved his goals of shedding more light on the western campaigns and sparking new scholarship on the western theater." --JOHN D. FOWLER

— John D. Fowler, The Journal of Southern History

“This excellent book is the most authoritative and invigorating study of the Chattanooga Campaign ever produced. Focused upon strategy and tactics, commanders and soldiers, as well as postwar commemorations, these essays offer a rich panorama of one of the most pivotal and decisive campaigns of the Civil War.”—T. Michael Parrish, Baylor University

“This handy group of essays on the Chattanooga Campaign in the Civil War is a worthy companion to an earlier similar treatment of the Battle of Chickamauga. Like its predecessor it is expertly edited to shed light on that key campaign in the heartland of the West in late 1863. Its ten chapters by ten different historians brightly illuminate the multiple aspects of that important campaign. It is meticulously and deeply documented, drawing on virtually every source touching the battle, to give us a revealing consolidated view—a work well done, to be relied on, and very worth reading.”—John C. Waugh, author of The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox—Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers.

"The Chattanooga Campaign continues the format of the much-esteemed Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series by employing contributions from leading military scholars and presenting a wide-ranging study of such familiar episodes as the command controversy at Orchard Knob between Grant and George H. Thomas, as well as lesser-known battle actions at Wauhatchie and Ringgold Gap."--Christopher S. Stowe, United States Army Command and General Staff College

“This is military history at its finest. Woodworth and Grear have assembled an outstanding group of military scholars who give us a sweeping and engaging overview of one of the West’s most crucial Civil War campaigns. Superbly researched, lucidly written, The Chattanooga Campaign is another outstanding addition to the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series.”—Stephen D. Engle, author of The American Civil War: The War in the West 1861–July 1863

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Jacket flaps

Title page

Copyright

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. A Perfect Storm of Ineffectiveness: The First Corps and the Loss of Lookout Mountain

2. “Lookout Mountain Frowned Down upon Us”: The Union Army and the Struggle for Lookout Valley

3. “The Very Ground Seemed Alive”: Sherman’s Assault on the North End of Missionary Ridge

4. Baptizing the Hills and Valleys: Cleburne’s Defense of Tunnel Hill

5. What Happened on Orchard Knob? Ordering the Attack on Missionary Ridge

6. This Grand and Imposing Array of Brave Men: The Capture of Rossville Gap and the Defeat of the Confederate Left

7. Saving the Army of Tennessee: The Confederate Rear Guard at Ringgold Gap

Gallery of Illustrations

8. From the Chickamauga with “Old Rosy” to Missionary Ridge with Grant: The Fall 1863 Struggle for Chattanooga and the Press

9. “What I Am Doing I Do Not Consider Desertion”: Trans-Mississippian Reactions to Chickamauga and Chattanooga

10. A Chattanooga Plan: The Gateway City’s Critical Role in Civil War Battlefield Preservation

Contributors

Index

Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland

Other Books in Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland Series

Back Cover