Category Archives: American Civil War

TUNNEL HILL – MAGIC OF SHERMAN; GONE FOR A DAY

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The small Pennsylvania Reservation at the bottom of Tunnel Hill with monuments and tablets telling the story of Sherman and his repulse 25 November 1863.
The small Pennsylvania Reservation at the bottom of Tunnel Hill with monuments and tablets telling the story of Sherman and his repulse 25 November 1863.

The Chattanooga section of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park consists of several disparate sections separated by over a century of urbanity.  Two of the lesser-known parts of the park lie at the northern end of Missionary Ridge – the Sherman and the Pennsylvania Reservations.  These two reserves remember the heavy fighting of 25 November 1863 on Tunnel Hill.  Tunnel Hill, so-called for the railroad tunnel for the Chattanooga & Cleveland Railroad.  Here, the better part of the Army of the Tennessee, led by Major General William Sherman, with additional troops provided by the division of Jefferson C. Davis and the Federal 11th Corps hit the northern flank of Braxton Bragg’s Missionary Ridge position.  The goal was to gain Tunnel Hill and roll up Bragg’s position from that end.

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ORCHARD KNOB – DRESS REHERSAL TO GAIN THE HEIGHTS

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Monuments and cannons crowd the top of Orchard Knob.
Monuments and cannons crowd the top of Orchard Knob.

REHERSAL TO GAIN THE HEIGHTS

The battle of Chickamauga over the last days of September 1863 delivered a severe blow to the Union Army of the Cumberland pushing that army back into the fortifications of Chattanooga while the victorious Confederate Army of Tennessee stood upon the heights surrounding the city – Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.

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CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL CEMETERY – DREAMS OF SOUTHERN MAGIC GONE

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Federal dead - two probably from actions at Rocky Face during the opening of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign - Chattanooga National Cemetery with Lookout Mountain background on the left.
Federal dead – two probably from actions at Rocky Face during the opening of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign – Chattanooga National Cemetery with Lookout Mountain background on the left.

With the onset of the Civil War in April 1861, 700,000 soldiers would die on both sides in the next four years.  It was not until 11 September before the War Department began to have commanding officers keep records of deceased soldiers.  At the same time, the Quartermaster General became responsible for tending to the needs of soldiers in death.  Each grave marked with a headboard.  Not long after, the graves gained numbers on the headboards and recorded in a register.

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LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN – SOUTHERN MAGIC DISIPATES IN FORECAST OF FUTURE

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Idealized painting of the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Joseph Hooker rides the white horse in center.

Flying from the west into Atlanta, looking out the window it is hard to miss the waves of mountains sprawling in long ranks southwest to northeast not unlike a series of geographically arranged ribs.  Chattanooga, Tennessee lies smack dab in the middle of these ancient ripples.  And flowing right through the middle of the long mountain spines is the Tennessee River looping back and forth onto itself as it brushes through the city.  The long ridges, extending for vast distances from Birmingham. Alabama in the southwest all the way to the northeastern edge of Pennsylvania in the northeast, represents a vast area once an ancient seabed that underwent uplift.  Eons have worn down the region, though Lookout Mountain still rises 1,500 feet above the city below. 

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CHICKAMAUGA – STORIES TOLD IN GRANITE ON THE RIVER OF DEATH

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Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.
Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.

The second deadliest battle of the American Civil War, Chickamauga is nowhere near as well-known as other battles such as Gettysburg, Antietam, or Vicksburg.  The first two were fought by the Army of the Potomac, the main Federal army fighting in the eastern theater of the war centered on Virginia.  If this army had been destroyed, the Federal cause would have been defeated.  Neither Gettysburg nor Antietam were large-scale Federal victories.  They both were emphatic ending notes to the two invasions of the Northern States in 1862 and 1863 by General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  Vicksburg meant the Confederate States were split into two as Federal control over the Mississippi came into being.

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STONES RIVER – “BRAGG’S A GOOD DOG, BUT HOLD FAST’S A BETTER!”

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Graves of men of Hazen's Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.
Graves of men from the 41st Ohio Infantry of Hazen’s Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.

A three-day affair to end 1862 and begin the new year, the Battle of Stones River – also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro – resulted in the highest percentage of casualties of any major battle of the American Civil War.  32.7% of the 78,400 who fought died, became wounded or went missing or captured after the battle’s end.  Four brigadier generals died either outright or from mortal wounds from the battle – two on each side.  Braxton Bragg’s newly renamed Army of Tennessee moved first on the morning of 31 December rolling through the Federal lines.  But true to his nature, Bragg would find a way to turn victory into a tactical defeat.  Much of Tennessee remained under Federal control as 1863 began.

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MCCLELLAN ON A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHWEST

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Sign noting McClellan's passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.
Sign noting McClellan’s passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.

As future generals for the Federal Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan are also remembered for their service in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850’s.  Another, George Brinton McClellan made a cameo appearance. He led a group tasked with identifying a possible rail route through the Cascades.  In addition, they potential were to build a military road across the mountain chain so emigrant wagons could more easily reach the Puget Sound of Washington Territory.  This reconnaissance gave McClellan his first extended period of independent command since graduating from West Point with the Class of 1846.

Before George McClellan became the leading Federal general in the early Civil War, he served in the wilds of Washington, surveying for railroad routes.

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U.S. GRANT – OREGON STRINGS TIED TO THE CIVIL WAR

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1854 view of Columbia Barracks looking south across the Columbia River to Oregon. James Madison Alden – Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University, CT

Oregon, California and the western territories of the United States played little roles in the devastation seen in the East known as the American Civil War.  In the era before transcontinental rail, the two Pacific states were simply too far away to matter much in the conflagration.  To reach the far west, six months needed to come into play, whether the journey was overland or by sea – choice there of around Cape Horn or across the disease-ridden Isthmus of Panama.  A surprisingly number of men with Oregon ties did play roles in the titanic struggles.  Most of those men had military ties to the Northwest, spending time on duty in the 1850’s helping bring order and stability to the newly settling lands of Oregon, California and Washington Territory.  The most famous soldiers who spent time in Oregon, one Ulysses S. Grant.

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JAMES NESMITH – PIONEER TO THE SENATE – FORGOTTEN OREGON GIANT

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Final resting place of James W. Nesmith
Final resting place of James W. Nesmith

Oregon in its early days featured many folks who by today’s standards would score very low with Political Correctness points.  James Willis Nesmith falls into that category, but with some redeeming qualities.  One of Oregon’s first politicians, his time began with the Provisional Government, extending through the Territorial period well into Oregon’s early Statehood years.  A member of the so-called Salem Clique, a group of Democratically inclined politicians who were prominent in that era, Nesmith outlasted the Clique’s breakup with the Civil War, serving as one of Oregon’s senators through the war years. 

He was one of only eight Democratic senators – four Border State Democrats and four Union Democrats – to vote in favor of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery.  He abstained from the senate vote on the 14th allowing equal rights to all citizens under the law.  Here, he was following the lead of President Andrew Johnson, a fellow Unionist.  His allegiance to his fellow Democrat would cost him in the years to come.

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FORT STEVENS – FRONT DOOR CLOSED ON THE COLUMBIA

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Replica of a 6-inch disappearing gun at Battery Pratt.

A visit to semi-restored Fort Stevens on the Point Adams along the southern mouth of the Columbia River transports one part way back in time. Here you see three or four distinct flavors of the month in terms of ideas on how to properly defend the nation.

Fort Stevens became the lynchpin of three forts developed in the latter half of the 19th century to defend the mouth of the Columbia River from would-be invaders, whether they be British, Confederate, German or Japanese. The other two forts forming the Columbiad triad forming on the north side of the river in Washington – Forts Canby and Columbia.

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