CONFLICTING MISSIONS
ON A CHILLY SATURDAY MORNING, with a three-quarter moon lingering in a deep-blue sky, Sam Elliott and I stand atop Orchard Knob, site of Maj. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s headquarters during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. To our right, in the far distance, rises majestic Lookout Mountain. In front of us, about a mile away, rises its smaller cousin, Missionary Ridge.
As we discuss this pivotal battle, our only other companions are triumphant soldier figures atop Union monuments that dot this small hill in a working-class neighborhood in east Chattanooga, Tenn. It’s not surprising, Elliott, a Chattanooga attorney and historian, tells me. Despite the parklike setting, most locals avoid this historic ground, considering it more a cemetery than a recreational area.
My objective is to explore the distant ridge, where hundreds of stories lurk. Unlike the improbable but wildly successful assault by 54,000 Federals on November 25, 1863, a day after the
