Nov. 25, 1863. |
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there, and then moved in equal silence to a point just below the mouth of the last-named stream.
Then the boats, with the assistance of a river steamer and two barges, ferried over troops., and at dawn eight thousand were on the south shore of the Tennessee.
These, under the direction of General W. F. Smith, commenced the construction of a pontoon bridge there thirteen hundred and fifty feet long, and also one across the Chickamauga.
By noon both bridges were finished, when the rest of Sherman's troops passed over, and in a slight drizzle of rain from the low, hanging clouds, which, as we have seen, hooded Lookout Mountain, proceeded in three columns, en echelon,1 to attack the Confederates on the northern end of the Missionaries' Ridge, between the Chickamauga and the tunnel, where the railway passes through.
Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon the desired point was gained, after some sharp fighting, and near the tunnel Sherman rested and fortified his position, making it a strong point of departure for the grander movements the next day. In the mean time Colonel Loring, with a brigade of Thomas's cavalry, had been raiding on Bragg's communications with East Tennessee, along the line of the railway between Chattanooga and Cleveland.
He burned Tyner's Station, and, pushing on to Cleveland, captured two hundred Confederates, with one hundred wagons, and destroyed the railway station there, a gun-cap factory, and a large amount of stores, gathered for the supply of Longstreet.
The night of the 24th was spent in preparations for a great struggle on the morrow.
The nearly full moon shone out resplendently in the unclouded sky. Camp-fires blazed along the heights from Lookout Mountain to the Chickamauga.
On Bragg's flanks, in strong positions gained by hard struggling, hung two of the most determined fighters in the armies of the Republic.
Hooker was on his left, holding the field of victory on Lookout Mountain, and Sherman was on his right, well intrenched, on the north end of the Missionaries' Ridge.
There was now an uninterrupted communication between these extremes of Grant's army, Carlin, as we have seen, connecting Hooker with the center, and now Howard, with his (Eleventh) corps, connected that center with Sherman.
The Headquarters of the chief were with Thomas, at Orchard Knob.
Bragg, in the mean time, had also been preparing for the inevitable encounter.
He went to the summit of Lookout Mountain toward sunset, and found, to his dismay, that all the advantages of position at that point were irretrievably lost.
He then gave orders for the ground to be disputed until he could withdraw all the troops of his left across Chattanooga Creek to the Missionaries' Ridge.
That movement was accomplished during the night, and on Wednesday morning
his whole force was concentrated on the Ridge, and extended heavily to the right, to meet what seemed to be the point chosen for the most formidable assault on his lines, and to protect the railway between the Ridge and Dalton, to
1 The left column was that of direction, under General M. L. Smith, and followed the general line of the Chickamauga River. The center, under General J. E. Smith, in columns doubled on the center at full brigade intervals, to the right and rear; and the right was Ewing's column, prepared to deploy to the right, on the supposition that an attack might be made from that direction.
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