Battle Summary of Drewry's Bluff
The year of 1863 was a triumphant one for General Ulysses S. Grant. After the fall of Vicksburg, many believed that Grant could do no wrong. By the following season, he would be the commander of all of the Union forces and would achieve another great victory at Chattanooga, Tennessee in the autumn of that same year.
Chattanooga stood above the bend of the Tennessee river in the southeastern corner of the state. It was here where two important railroad lines met and was a place that many considered to be the gateway to the Confederacy. Just a short distance beyond were the Rebel war industries in Georgia and from Chattanooga, the Confederates launched expeditions into Tennessee and Kentucky. If the Union could capture the region, they could drive south into Georgia and divide the eastern Confederacy.
Throughout 1862, the Union had been trying to push the Confederates from Tennessee. For almost six months after Stones River, the northern and southern armies clashed and feinted at one another. Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan led a raid into Ohio, where he was captured, while the Union cavalry headed into Alabama, where they attempted to cut the Chattanooga-Atlanta Railroad. The Federals were captured by Nathan Bedford Forrest.
President Lincoln pushed Union General Rosecrans for more action but the commander refused, demanding more troops and a little more time. Finally, threatened with dismissal, Rosecrans executed a series of flanking maneuvers that pushed Confederate Commander Bragg back more than 80 miles, first past Tullahoma and then to Chattanooga. Rosecrans again pushed him back but then ran into trouble when Confederate reinforcements under General Longstreet arrived by train. The Rebels succeeded in luring the army out of Chattanooga and then attacked them along Chickamauga Creek.
The furious battle here claimed more than 35,000 casualties in all and lasted two days. Bragg hit the Union troops with brutal force and on the second day, Rosecrans accidentally ordered his men to close a gap in the Union line that did not exist. In doing this, he managed to open another hole and Longstreet plunged through it, routing two Federal corps and sending the entire Union army staggering back to Chattanooga.
The Confederates had won the day, but Bragg refused to follow-up on their advantage, infuriating the other officers. Longstreet was so angry that he demanded Bragg’s removal. A short time later, Jefferson Davis would actually travel to Bragg’s headquarters to settle a dispute among the officers. Bragg has dismissed three members of this staff for failing to obey orders and was blaming everyone for his decision not to follow through against the Federals. Nathan Bedford Forrest was so enraged by Bragg that he refused to serve under him. He departed the battlefield and left for Mississippi to set up an independent command. He warned Bragg that if he interfered with him, it would be “at the peril of your life.”
Davis finally asked each corps commander whether or not Bragg should be replaced. All said yes, but Davis disliked both of Bragg’s possible replacements, Gustave Beauregard and Joe Johnston, so he paid no attention to his commanders and left Bragg in charge.
Meanwhile, the Federal troops were holed up in Chattanooga. They were hungry and cut off from all but a thin line of supplies. They had demolished houses and had hacked down every tree and fence line they could find for fuel, and to make matters worse, the fall rains were beginning. They were in miserable shape and were badly in need of a morale boost.
In October, President Lincoln placed Grant in charge of all of the Federal troops between the Appalachians and the Mississippi. He quickly headed for Chattanooga and replaced Rosecrans with George Henry Thomas, a Unionist from Virginia who was well-liked by the men serving under him. He would go on to earn the nickname the "Rock of Chickamauga". Soon, food and supplies began arriving by way of a new line that Grant forged and the men were eating again.
The Confederate troop placement was still strong however. Bragg’s army occupied the six mile crest of Missionary Ridge, east of the city. They also had heavy guns on the 2,000 foot summit of Lookout Mountain which commanded a field of fire to the south and west.
Grant’s plan was to drive them off and the Battle of Chattanooga began on November 24. Sherman attacked Bragg on his left flank in a rather ineffectual thrust that merely opened the way for Hooker to storm Lookout Mountain. They succeeded in planting the Union flag atop the mountain in such dense fog that the fight was nicknamed the “Battle Above the Clouds”.
The following day, the troops under Thomas made an attack on the first line of Confederate trenches below Missionary Ridge, while Hooker attacked on the right. Despite the nearly impregnable Confederate placements (artillery on the crest of the hill; rifle pits on the slopes; and trenches at the base) Thomas’ men quickly swarmed over the trenches and then waited for orders.
Attacking with Thomas was General Phil Sheridan, who recklessly pulled a flask from his pocket and toasted the Confederate gunners on the ridge. “Here’s to you,” he shouted and rifles opened fire at him, showering he and his officers with dirt. Sheridan was furious. “That was ungenerous!” he shouted at them. “I’ll take your guns for that!”
Sheridan’s boast was all of the incentive the men needed and they began charging up the hill toward the Confederate artillery. Worried, Grant was said to have asked an officer just who had ordered the men up the hill. “No one,” his aide was said to have answered. “They started up without orders. When those fellows get started, all hell can’t stop them!”
And apparently he was right. The Federals were determined to avenge themselves for their recent defeat and as they scrambled up the ridge, they shouted “Chickamauga!” at the top of their lungs. They soon overran the rifle pits and kept going, whopping and hollering as they went. Sections of the slope were so steep that the men had to sometimes crawl, using tree branches and bayonets to haul themselves up.
The Confederates on the top began to break and run and those who remained became more desperate as the Federals grew closer, screaming the word “Chickamauga” as they came. The Rebels fired and fired again and began rolling shells with lighted fuses down the slope, but nothing slowed the force of the charge. In moments, the Confederate gunners and defenders began to run. Bragg tried to rally them, but it was no use. Not surprisingly, he would blame everyone but himself for the defeat, saying that their position “was one which ought to have been held by a line of skirmishers.”
True or not, 4,000 Confederate prisoners were taken on Missionary Ridge and sent north to the prison camps. The Federals had won the day and gained their revenge for the defeat at nearby Chickamauga.
While these two battles will be forever connected, it is actually the field where the Battle of Chickamauga was fought that is said to be haunted.
Many years before the Civil War, before the white man brought his armies to die here, the Native Americans of the region had already done their share of dying in this place. The Cherokee Indians had christened the stream “Chickamauga” or the “River of Death”. The white armies who came here would cause this river to run red with blood.
In September 1863, the terrible battle raged in which Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, reinforced by Longstreet, dealt a stunning blow to Rosecran’s Army of the Cumberland. This battle would turn out to be one of the last major Confederate victories of the war.
The fighting was especially dangerous here because of the rough terrain and the heavily wooded areas. Men became lost in the forest and separated from their units. Messages sent by commanders to their troops vanished without a trace and much of the fighting was chaotic and deteriorated into hand-to-hand combat. When the battle was over, the casualties numbered over 35,000.
After darkness fell on the last day of the battle, within hours of the last shots being fired, women were seen searching the battlefield by lantern light. It has been reported that this eerie lights, along with the voices and cries of the women, are still present on the field today.
Thirty years after the war, a camp was established on the old battlefield to train men for the Spanish-American War. The camp was named after Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga”. During the brief time the camp was in operation, disease ran rampant here and men died by the score.... ending with more deaths than the American forces suffered during all of the fighting in Cuba.
And the long record of death did not end there either. The sprawling park has been the continuing scene of death by murder and suicide. It has been reported that at least one death each year occurs in the huge park, which is accessible at night by many public roads. Thanks to this fact, the park is also used a dumping ground for victims who are murdered elsewhere.
One notable murder attempt in the recent past involved a woman and her boyfriend who plotted the death of the woman’s husband. The murder did not go as planned and the husband escaped, badly injured. He was chased screaming through the park and was discovered by rangers with the killers still in pursuit, both of them carrying knives.
But is not these strange and bizarre happenings, nor even the hauntings, which bring thousands of tourists to Chickamauga each year, it is the history. Of course, there are those tourists (like myself for instance) who are always in search of both.... history and ghosts.
Those who come to Chickamauga are not disappointed.
The park is one of the oldest and the largest of the battlefield parks. It is peaceful and tranquil in the daylight hours, but after the sun goes down, strange things are reported to happen...
The battlefield has long been associated with the macabre. Many of the corpses of the Union soldiers lay where they fell in battle for more than two months before they were buried... and they were buried everywhere in the park. One report claimed they were often buried in rows, from head to foot, and one grave would hold up to three or four bodies. There are no stones to mark these graves and it is said that even today, a park maintenance crew will occasionally uncover bodies were none were previously thought to be located.
There are said to be many ghosts and spirits roaming the woods and fields of Chickamauga. Rangers and visitors report many odd noises on the grounds, including sounds of men moaning and crying; shouts and screams when no one is present; and the sounds of horses galloping... where no horses ever appear. Some visitors, and even crew members, tell of feeling as though they are being watched in the woods at night. Others report seeing the underbrush move inexplicably, as though a squad of invisible soldiers are passing by. One of the rangers was even told by a “well-known minister” that he had witnessed a man on horseback ride past him at Chickamauga.... although the rider had no head.
One popular legend of the battlefield is that of the ghostly lady in white. She has been seen many times, by a wide variety of different people, roaming about the park. The legends say that she was the wife or lover of a soldier who was slain in the battle and that she is now searching for his spirit. Even after all of these years, she has reportedly never found him.
But despite all of the tales and stories of strange activity, there is one legend of Chickamauga who remains the most famous of all, “Old Green Eyes”. This mysterious entity was given this colorful nickname by park visitors and rangers who have encountered him over the years. Who is he? Well, that’s a good question, because there happens to be two very different legends to explain his presence in the park.
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