General Hooker and Staff at
Lookout Mountain.
Hooker's forces of about 9,700 men had been sent from the
East to reenforce
Rosecrans, but until the arrival of
Grant they were simply so many more mouths to feed in the besieged city.
In the
battle of Wauhatchie, on the night of October 20th, they drove back the
Confederates and established the new line of communication.
On November 24th they, too, had a surprise in store for
Grant.
Their part in the triple conflict was also ordered merely as a “demonstration,” but they astounded the eyes and ears of their comrades with the spectacular fight by which they made their way up
Lookout Mountain.
The next day, pushing on to
Rossville, the daring
Hooker attacked one of
Bragg's divisions and forced it into precipitate retreat.