Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga

By James A Hoobler

The campaign from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Chickamauga, Georgia, followed by the siege of Chattanooga, is one of the most dramatic stories of the entire Civil War. Union Major General William S. Rosecrans led a brilliant advance into Georgia, taking Chattanooga with the loss of only six men. Near Chickamauga Creek, Confederate General Braxton Bragg routed Rosecrans' army, then laid siege to it from the heights around Chattanooga.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant, recently given command of virtually all Federal armies in the Western Theater, arrived to break the siege. A climatic Union charge routed Bragg's demoralized army.

Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga tells this story and much more, for it includes the important struggle to preserve America's Civil War battlefields, which began with Chickamauga. Striking black-and-white images of aging veterans, reuniting to preserve their history, join photos of the rugged terrain over which they fought in 1863. This is a compelling American story told in photographs, with text by a noted historian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Nov 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781618586124

Book preview

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF

CHICKAMAUGA

CHATTANOOGA

TEXT AND CAPTIONS BY JAMES A. HOOBLER

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF

CHICKAMAUGA

CHATTANOOGA

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Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga

Copyright © 2007 Turner Publishing Company

All rights reserved.

This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007933776

ISBN-13: 978-1-59652-412-5

Printed in the United States of America

07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14—0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN (JUNE–JULY 1863)

THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN (AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 1863)

THE SIEGE OF CHATTANOOGA (SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 1863)

REMEMBRANCE, REUNION, AND PRESERVATION (1865–1938)

NOTES ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The U.S. Army publicity photo seen here is captioned: Grant and Lee are fighting on the same side in this war. Second Lieutenants Rose O. Grant of Colorado and Sarah E. Lee of Texas now stationed at the Third WAC Training Center, Fort Oglethorpe, shake hands over a Civil War cannon at nearby Chickamauga National Military park.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This volume, Historic Photos of Chickamauga Chattanooga, is the result of the cooperation and efforts of many individuals, organizations, and corporations. It is with great thanks that we acknowledge the valuable contribution of the following for their generous support:

Albert Gore, Sr., Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University

Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library

Chicago History Museum

Chicago Public Library, Special Collections and Preservation Division

Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park

Collection of Jim Hoobler

Library of Congress

National Archives

PREFACE

The photographs in these pages comprise a unique story. They tell not only of the valor and destruction of war, but of the patriotism and determination that founded a movement to preserve America’s heritage after that war. For the men who fought during 1861–1865, the Civil War was at once the most terrible and most glorious time of their lives. The months and years of following their flags down dust-choked roads; the nights spent on sentry duty in pouring rain; the long, long hours away from home and loved ones; the times of sheer terror with the smell of powder smoke in their nostrils and the blood of friends soaking into their clothes—these were shared experiences, privations accepted in order to defend their cause. Civilians could never fully understand what those experiences meant, but their comrades could. So could the men who had been their enemies.

On both sides, the war had been fought by men defending different interpretations of the same thing—the ideals expressed in the American Constitution. Among the casualties of Chickamauga was Benjamin Hardin Helm, a Confederate brigadier general married to President Abraham Lincoln’s sister-in-law, the former Emilie Todd. Unlike previous wars, this one had been entirely American, fought by American soldiers on American soil in defense of their versions of American ideals. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that when the war was over, they joined first with old comrades and then with former enemies to preserve the memories of their actions and the places where so many of their fellows had given the last full measure of devotion. The young, ever-expanding nation had never concerned itself much with preserving its past for future generations, but the men of blue and gray changed that.

They began a new campaign, waged in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, to buy and forever set aside the fields, hollows, and mountains where the future of America had been decided with fortitude and blood. The first battlefield preserved was that of Chickamauga in North Georgia, which was expanded with the addition of land in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the areas that had comprised the Chickamauga-Chattanooga Campaign in the late summer and autumn of 1863. Other hallowed ground would be preserved around the country in the years to come, but the movement to save these important parts of American history saw its first success here.

That is, perhaps, appropriate. The year of 1863 marked the turning point of the war, a turning point that concluded with the fighting in the undergrowth along Chickamauga Creek and on the slopes outside Chattanooga.

The year began with a Confederate reverse in Middle Tennessee, at the Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro, which ended January 2. In May, the pendulum swung back; Confederate General Robert E. Lee won a stunning victory around a crossroads called