Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 8.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[191] till dark this evening, I believe I am not premature in announcing a complete victory over Bragg. Lookout Mountain top, all the rifle-pits in Chattanooga Valley, and Missionary Ridge entire, have been carried and now held by us.

I have no idea of finding Bragg here to-morrow.

The operations of to-day have been more successful than yesterday, having carried Missionary Ridge from near Rossville to the railroad tunnel, with a comparatively small loss on our side, capturing about forty pieces of artillery, a large quantity of small arms, camp and garrison equipage, besides the arms in the hands of the prisoners. We captured two thousand prisoners, of whom two hundred were officers of all grades, from colonels down.

We will pursue the enemy in the morning. The conduct of the officers and troops was every thing that could be expected. Missionary Ridge was carried simultaneously at six different points.

General Davis, commanding division, Four-teenth corps, operating with General Sherman, gained possession of Chickamauga depot at half-past 12 to-day. My troops having pursued by the Rossville and Greysville road, came upon the enemy's cavalry at New-Bridge, posted on east side of creek. They retired on the approach of our troops. The column will be detained for a few hours to rebuild the bridge, but Hooker thinks he can reach Greysville, and perhaps Ringgold, to-night. Many stragglers have been picked up to-day, perhaps two thousand. Among the prisoners are many who were paroled at Vicksburgh.

I am just in from the front. The rout of the enemy is most complete. Abandoned wagons, caissons, and occasionally pieces of artillery, are everywhere to be found. I think Bragg's loss will fully reach sixty pieces of artillery. A large number of prisoners have fallen into our hands. The pursuit will continue to Red Clay in the morning, for which place I shall start in a few hours.

General Palmer reports Johnson's division, Fourteenth corps, surprised A. P. Stewart's division last night, taking four guns, two caissons, and many prisoners. Hooker reports his arrival at Ringgold at nine A. M. to-day; found the road strewn with caissons, limbers, and ambulances. He commenced skirmishing with enemy at eleven A. M., in Railroad Pass or Gap, near Ringgold — about half Osterhaus's and third Geary's division engaged, and forced the enemy to abandon the position he had taken in the passes. Both divisions suffered severely, the enemy making obstinate resistance. On the morning of the twenty-fourth, I sent Colonel Long, commanding Second brigade, Second cavalry division, across South-Chickamauga to make raids on East-Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. He returned this evening, bringing two hundred and fifty prisoners, and reports he has destroyed the railroad from Tyner's Station to the Hiawassee, and ten miles south-west of Cleveland. He also destroyed eighty wagons and large quantity commissary stores and other supplies at Cleveland. The prisoners we have taken since the twenty-third now sum up more than five thousand.

Colonel: In pursuance of General Orders No. 337, War Department, of date Washington, October sixteenth, 1863, delivered to me by the Secretary of War at Louisville, Kentucky, on the eighteenth of the same month, I assumed command of the “Military division of the Mississippi,” comprising the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, and telegraphed the order assuming command, together with the order of the War Department referred to, to Major-General A. E. Burnside, at Knoxville, and to Major-General W. S. Rosecrans, at Chattanooga.

My action in telegraphing these orders to Chattanooga in advance of my arrival there, was induced by information furnished me by the Secretary of War of the difficulties with which the army of the Cumberland had to contend in supplying itself over a long, mountainous, and almost impassable road from Stevenson, Alabama, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his fears that General Rosecrans would fall back to the north side of the Tennessee River. To guard further against the possibility of the Secretary's fears, I also telegraphed to Major-General Thomas, on the nineteenth of October, from Louisville, to hold Chattanooga at all hazards, that I would be there as soon as possible. To which he replied, on same date: “I will hold the town till we starve.”

Proceeding directly to Chattanooga, I arrived there on the twenty-third of October, and found that General Thomas had, immediately on being placed in command of the department of the Cumberland, ordered the concentration of Major-General