Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[169] Nationals did not waver for a moment. They pressed on, and Lieutenant-Colonel Langdon, of the First Ohio, with a group of men of his own regiment and several others, who were foremost in the chase, sprang forward and made the first lodgment on the hill-top, within five hundred yards of Bragg's Headquarters, with shouts that were repeated by thousands of voices.¹ This gap in the Confederate line speedily widened as the assailants pressed up, and it was not long before the entire battle-line of the Missionaries' Ridge was in possession of the Union troops, with all the Confederate cannon and ammunition, and many of the soldiers in the trenches; and the captured artillery was soon playing fearfully upon the defeated columns with an enfilading fire. Sherman soon drove the Confederates from his front, when the battle ceased at that end of the line; but the divisions of Wood and Baird, on the right, were obstinately resisted until dark, for the Confederates in their front were re-enforced from Bragg's right. Yet these were steadily pressed back; and at the edge of the evening they fled in haste, Breckinridge barely escaping capture. Thus ended the battle of Chattanooga, in complete victory for the National arms. Grant modestly summed up the result, in a dispatch to Halleck, saying, “Although the battle lasted from early dawn 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 are now held by us.” ²

During the night succeeding the battle, the Missionaries' Ridge blazed with the Union camp-fires, while the discomfited Confederates were retreating in haste toward Ringgold, by way of Chickamauga Station. Early the next morning, Sherman, Palmer, and Hooker were sent in pursuit, the first directly in the track of the fugitives, the other two by the Rossville road, toward Ringgold. Bragg destroyed the bridges behind him, and Hooker was very much delayed at Chickamauga River by a failure to supply him promptly with bridge materials. Sherman found every thing in flames at Chickamauga Station, which he passed and pushed on toward Greysville, encountering on the way, just at night, a rear-guard of the fugitives, with which he had a sharp skirmish. There General Grant overtook him. On the following morning he marched on to Greysville, on the East Chickamauga, where he found Palmer and his command, who, on the previous evening, had struck a rear-guard under General Gist, and captured three of his guns and some prisoners. There Sherman halted, and sent Howard to destroy a large section of the railway which connected Dalton with Cleveland, and thus severed the communication between Bragg and Burnside.

Hooker, meanwhile, had pushed on to Ringgold,

Nov. 27, 1868.

Osterhaus in advance, Geary following, and Cruft in the rear, and finding at every step evidences of Bragg's precipitate flight. Stragglers were numerous, and were made prisoners. When the head of the pursuers