Battle Of Chickamauga Essay

The Battle of Chickamauga initiated after Major General William Rosecrans was coming off his successful Tullahoma Campaign, with the Army of the Cumberland, in the summer of 1863. Rosecrans had outmaneuvered the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg, in Murfreesboro Tennessee, forcing him to move into Chattanooga this maneuvering costed him around 500 troops. President Lincoln was persistent to make Rosecrans move into Chattanooga because of the pivotal role the city had on the South. Chattanooga had important rail lines leading to Nashville, Knoxville, and even as south as Atlanta carrying their iron resource. Chattanooga also held a very good defensive position with the terrain features of Lookout Mountain, Missionary

The Confederate army in Murfreesboro was commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg. Bragg had just returned from invading Kentucky before he arrived in Murfreesboro. In Kentucky, he had commanded the Army of Mississippi, and then he was joined my Maj. Gen. Kirby Smith’s army. This new combined army of around 38,000 was renamed the Army of Tennessee. Just like the Union General Buell, Bragg was cautious about engaging the Union troops and decided passivity was wise.

As the Union troops dug in to withstand the attack, General Johnston’s Confederate Army jumped on railcars and headed for Bull Run to reinforce General Beauregard’s Confederate Army. Meanwhile, at Bull Run, General McDowell was attempting to flank General Beauregard’s Confederate Army by moving north and west in order to flank him and his Army. The Union Army began to launch what would be several attacks upon Confederate Forces, to include attack along Bull Run Creek and attacks at the center of the Confederate line at Henry House. Attempting to wear down the Confederate troops at Bull Run, General McDowell was unaware of the reinforcements that were on their way from Harrier’s Ferry to assist the Confederates who were losing ground.

In 1863, tensions ran high between the Confederates and the Union as they were in a race to claim Chattanooga, Tennessee. Between both of their armies stood each other, with hundreds of men, thousands of weapons, and two skillful commanders, Braxton Bragg and William Rosecrans. Through the video, Bragg and Rosecrans have very similar ideas on attacking their opponent, most of the time; it was division of the large army into multiple parts and attack on different sides. In the video, Bragg is described to be a non-social man, with no one really liking him and him not really liking anyone else. For Bragg, one of the most detrimental moments of the war which was suppose to be the signal for the Confederate’s to attack was the exchange with Lieutenant

The confederate army was worn out from their march to Shiloh. The next day, Grant’s army once gain clashed with Beauregard’s. This battle lasted until about mid-day, and resulted in Beauregard retreating to Corinth. This led to the battle of Corinth, which was an easy victory for the Union Army. After the union took over the railroad station, they cut off the supplies that were being taken to the confederate Army.

The Battle of Fort Donelson happened in February of 1862 at Fort Donelson Tennessee along the Cumberland river. It took place just ten days after the Union Victory at Fort Henry. The battle of Fort Donelson was significant for the Union for a widespread number of reasons, not only was it the first major victory for the Union it also secured Kentucky as union state and opened up Tennessee to Union influence. The Union victory at Fort Donelson also opened up both the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, an important asset for the Union's invasion of the South. The Victory over Fort Donelson would also cut off large numbers of confederate forces from their supplies and create confidence in General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union's Naval ravine forces leading to the Union's victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga.

Polk had been given orders to attack the right flank at first light but failed to execute. The battle did not resume until 9:30 a.m. the next morning. Once the attack on the right commenced Longstreet coordinated the Confederate attacks on the Union left flank. About an hour later, Rosecrans, was given erroneous information that a gap existed in his line. He forcefully ordered Brig.

Though the battle may be called “Bunker Hill”, most of the fighting occurred on Breed’s hill. The British won the battle but there were a lot of deaths in the process, 268 soldiers and officers were killed and another 828 were wounded; this battle was a pyrrhic* victory for the British. *Pyrrhic- won at too great a cost to be worthwhile for the victor. (www.merriam-webster.com)

After winning approval from Major General Halleck Grant embarked with 30,000 troops into Tennessee. The fort was bombarded by ironclads and wooden ships. Before Grant could storm the fort, two naval officers went out to accept the Confederate surrender. Although 3,000 rebels escaped, the battle was very important because it gave the Union an opening to Tennessee and

Alternatively, on August 29, 1863, the Union troops cut across the Tennessee River at many acess spots west and southwest of Chattanooga. The troops of the Cumberland, with almost 60,000 men, advanced southeastward in three separated groups over the mountain and valley of northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia to threaten Bragg’s railroad supply line. As Bragg learned of the enemy behind him, he became worried, he then deserted Chattanooga and fell back towards the south, even though Confederate reinforcements arrived from Mississippi and East

The Civil War is considered to be the bloodiest episodes of warfare in American History. During this war, there were numerous well known battles. One of the most famous battles was called the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Second Battle of Bull Run was fought over August 28-30, 1862. Although this battle lasted only 3 days, there were approximately 22,000 casualties during this span.

This took place on the hills south of Gettysburg where the Union successfully held their ground. On the second day they continued the battle where the Confederates gained very little ground but not enough to change the war involving 100, 000 soldiers and with 20,000 killed or injured. It was the final day where the Confederates took a full assault with 12,000 confederates known as Pickett’s Charge which was a center line attacked against the Union. The Union held their ground using artillery fire and rifles which led to retreat of the confederates while successfully pushing them back south.

Therefore, with the aggressiveness of the 54th Infantry, Shaw and his men went strong on their journey to assault Fort Wagner. Through the fight, there was a lot of blood and tears, and especially tears. In that same article, it reads, “Nearly half of the regiment’s troops were casualties, including Shaw, who was killed in the evening of July 18, 1863.” Since the 54th Infantry of Mississippi led the battle, it was horrible that they were the victims of death. When Gould-Shaw died in the fight at Fort Wagner, there was sadness but also gratefulness.

The Battle was fought on July 1-3, 1863 near and in the small Pennsylvanian town of Gettysburg. This Battle involved the most amount of casualties in the entire Civil War. The Union had both Generals George G. Meade and John F. Reynolds while the south only had Robert E. Lee as their commanding general. Small groups of both of the armies found each other at Gettysburg on July 1st. When news made it back to General Lee, in just a matter of hours, Lee moved a large sum of his troops to attack the Union head on.

Fights continue so coach Boone makes are choice to take the boys to the field that the Battle of Gettysburg had happened. Coach Boone speaks to the boys “Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight we are still fighting among ourselves today’’. There is more to the speech but this part really speaks volume and shows the struggle at the time. Two of the alpha’s on the team come together.