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skirmishing on the first day of the battle, November 23d, was for position, and that
Dana, in his despatches of 7.30 P. M. of that day, said:
... Grant has given orders for a vigorous attack at daybreak by Sherman on the left, and Granger [commanding a corps of Thomas's army] in the centre, and if Bragg does not withdraw the remainder of his troops, we shall have a decisive battle. ...
It is to be specially noted that
Sherman's attack was neither delivered on time nor was it successful, that it did not commence till after 9 A. M., and that
Granger's was not delivered till after 4 P. M. It is also to be noted that
Granger, instead of giving his attention to his corps, wasted his time in personally supervising the noisy but harmless service of a field-gun close to headquarters, greatly to the annoyance of
Grant, and finally that this incident, trivial as it was, became the first step towards
Granger's undoing.
It convinced
Grant that the “
Marshal Ney of the army,” as
Dana had styled him, was a trifler instead of a great soldier, and it was well known at the time to
Rawlins and myself that it produced the same effect upon
Dana.
With these facts well in mind, it is easy to understand that part of
Dana's despatch of November 26th-10 A. M., in which, referring to the final attack at the
battle of Missionary Ridge, he says:
... The storming of the Ridge by our troops was one of the greatest miracles in military history.
No man that climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front can believe that eighteen thousand men were moved up its broken and crumbling face, unless it was his fortune to witness the deed.
It seems as awful as the visible interposition of God.
Neither Grant nor Thomas intended it. Their orders were to carry the rifle-pits along the base of the Ridge and capture their occupants, but when this was
