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the first line of rifle pits running over the knoll twelve hundred yards in front, taking about two hundred prisoners, besides killed and wounded.
Our loss small.
The troops moved under fire with all the precision of veterans on parade.
Thomas' troops will entrench themselves and hold their position until daylight, when
Sherman will join in the attack from the mouth of
Chickamauga, and a decisive battle will be fought
General Grant in his formal report of the
battle of Chattanooga, has this to say upon the point under consideration:
‘Thomas having done on the 23d, with his troops in Chattanooga, what was intended for the 24th, bettered and strengthened his advanced positions during the day, and pushed the Eleventh Corps forward along the south bank of the Tennessee River, across Citico Creek, one brigade of which, with Howard in person, reached Sherman just as he had completed the crossing of the river.’
General Sherman must have thought all this rather lively work for troops that could not be induced to leave their trenches till they had been persuaded by the inspiring spectacle of his men making a breakfast of the enemy.
The next day (24th) looker, acting under the orders of
General Thomas, attacked and carried Lookout;
Sherman attacked, but failed to carry the point he was ordered to occupy on the north end of
Missionary Ridge.
The day following this
Sherman still struggled unsuccessfully to carry his objective point.
Thomas' army, that up to this time had not even seen
Sherman's troops, stormed
Missionary Ridge, and ‘it was not till night closed in,’ as
Sherman writes in his official report, ‘that I knew that the troops in
Chattanooga had swept across
Missionary Ridge and broken the enemy's center.
Of course the victory was won, and pursuit was the next step.’
The records which this chapter contains were accessible to
General Sherman when he penned the statements which they so effectually refute.
