Grant Breaks the Siege: Chattanooga Liberated

Union artillery shells arced over the Tennessee River and slammed into Confederate positions on Lookout Mountain, opening one of the Civil War's most consequential battles. The Battle of Chattanooga, beginning November 23, 1863, broke a Confederate siege that had threatened to starve an entire Union army and opened the gateway for William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating march through Georgia the following year. After the Union defeat at Chickamauga in September, the Army of the Cumberland retreated into Chattanooga and found itself trapped. Confederate general Braxton Bragg occupied the high ground surrounding the city, controlling every supply route. Union soldiers were reduced to half rations, and thousands of horses and mules starved to death. The situation was dire enough that Washington dispatched Ulysses S. Grant, freshly promoted to command all western armies, to take personal charge. Grant arrived in late October and immediately reopened a supply line, the so-called "cracker line," restoring food and ammunition. Reinforced by troops under Sherman and Joseph Hooker, Grant launched his assault on November 23. Hooker's forces fought the dramatic "Battle Above the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain on November 24, driving Confederates from the summit in fog so thick that soldiers could barely see their targets. The climactic assault came on November 25, when Union troops at the base of Missionary Ridge charged uphill without orders, overrunning the Confederate line in a spontaneous attack that stunned both armies. Bragg's army retreated into Georgia in disarray. The victory at Chattanooga secured Tennessee for the Union, gave Grant the reputation that would elevate him to supreme command of all Union forces, and opened the road to Atlanta. Sherman's subsequent march through Georgia and the Carolinas, made possible by Chattanooga, broke the Confederacy's will and capacity to fight.