The battle at Chickamauga would be particularly bloody, even by the standards of the Civil War. Much of the terrain and vegetation is the same now as it was then. I was particularly struck on my visit to the battlefield, by the dense nature of the trees and scrub that cover that mountainous area.  It does not strike you as a natural place for a battle with any degree of movement.

The Brotherton cabin.  Photo J Dillon

The following is a description of the terrain from Glenn Tucker’s book on the battle.

“Much of the area over which the armies fought was in thickets, with a low growth of dogwood, scrub oak, cedar, and pine, matted with underbrush of blackberry briars, honeysuckle, poison oak and trumpet vine.  As these two armies had struggled and floundered through tangles of cedar at Stone’s River, so they were again to meet this bristling, sticky, irritating obstacle along the Chickamauga. Here and there the underbrush gave way to more cathedral-like forests of great hardwoods: hickory, black gum, maple, white and Spanish oak; while all about were great cedars and short-leaf pine. Occasionally there were clearings - cultivated farms and pasture lands - almost all of them having the small log houses built by the pioneers who had come over the mountains from North Carolina when Tennessee was still a part of that state, and occupied now by the sons and grandsons of the first settlers.”

The books above are the Army of Tennessee and an excellent book of maps of the various Civil War battles. Available via Amazon.

The photo above shows the wood and scrub through which the two sides had to move.  This shot is from the area that was occupied byt Reynolds divisions, but is typical of much of the battlefield.  Photo J Dillon, Sept. 2002.

As events moved towards a conflict between Federal and Confederate forces at Chickamauga it is worth briefly restating the intentions of the two commanders, Rosecrans (Federal) and Bragg (Confederates).  They had fought the battle of Murfreesboro, and then faced each other off as they had gradually withdrawn to the Tennessee River and the city of Chattanooga.  Rosecrans wanted to take Chattanooga and Bragg’s supply line, at the same time defeating him or forcing him into a considerable retreat.

Rosecrans intended to move his Federal forces, split into three, across the mountain barriers east of the Tennessee towards Dalton, south-east of Chattanooga, and so threaten or cut-off Bragg’s communications and supply.  Part of this plan had been a feinting move by Crittenden to fool Bragg into believing that the Federal threat would come from Walden Ridge, north of Chattanooga.

Great Civil War art by Mort Kunstler

Bragg had initially fallen for the feint and on the 9th September he withdrew his forces from Chattanooga towards Lafayette, twenty-five miles south of the town.  He wanted this to look like a full-scale retreat to Rosecrans, but he now knew that the Federal plan was to advance eastwards through the passes in the mountainous terrain south of Chattanooga.  His position at Lafayette would be ideal for taking these Federal units apart separately as they emerged from the mountain passes.

Following the action in McLemore’s Cove, Rosecrans realized the vulnerability of his army, split in three, with some sixty miles between the northern wing under Crittenden and the southern under McCook. Rosecrans drew his units together; McCook was to close on Thomas, Thomas’ and then McCooks corps would move out of Stevens Gap to McLemore’s Cove, then move north to join Crittenden at Crawfish Sorings and Lee & Gordon’s Mill.  unfortunately McCook took longer than expected and did not join the others until the 17th, on the west bank of Chickamauga Creek. This delay on the part of McCook had unfortunate consequences;

1. Rosecrans did not withdraw and regroup at Chattanooga, but in the area of Chickamauga.

2. It gave time for Longstreet’s divisions to arrive and support Bragg; 3 of Hood’s brigades and 2 of McLaws’ arrived in time to take part in the battle, though many of them had spent eight days on rail cars because of all the problems with rail movement caused by different guage railways, poor terminals in towns which meant men had to de-train, march across town, and then en-train again.

Rosecrans’ Reserve Corps was commanded by Maj. Gen. Granger but consisted only of Brig. Gen. Steedman’s Division and Colonel McCook’s Brigade. It was ordered by Rosecrans to move to Rossville and protect the gap there through Missionary Ridge and so help to make Chattanooga secure.  They reached Rossville on the thirteenth.

Because of McCook’s delay in joining Thomas, Rosecrans was forced to fight in the wrong place and against a re-inforced Bragg. Bragg issued orders for an attack on the 18th.

The map above is from the Alabama map archive and shows the area of the battle at Chickamauga as well as the subsequent siege of Chattanooga and battle of Missionary Ridge.