JAMES NESMITH, JOSEPH HOOKER – A UNIQUE MIX TOGETHER FOR THE UNION

James Nesmith from Centennial History of Oregon.
James Nesmith senator and congressman for Oregon friend of General Hooker – Centennial History of Oregon.
Major General Joseph Hooker - photograph by Matthew Brady.
Major General Joseph Hooker – photograph by Matthew Brady.

The union of Oregon Senator James Nesmith and California-Massachusetts rancher-soldier Joseph Hooker worked at high levels within the Federal attempts to quell the rebellion of 1861-1865.  The two men were not necessarily meant for each other.  However, life has twists and turns.  The same turns that brought Hooker into the doghouse with such Federal luminaries as Henry Halleck, William T. Sherman, and Winfield Scott brought Hooker into the light with Nesmith, Edward Baker and most conspicuously, Abraham Lincoln.

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TUNNEL HILL – MAGIC OF SHERMAN; GONE FOR A DAY

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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