Chattanooga campaign

Overview

The Chattanooga campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West which was now consolidated under the Division of the Mississippi. Significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 18, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland and replaced him with Major General George Henry Thomas.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Chattanooga campaign resolved the strategic crisis created by the Union defeat at Chickamauga in September 1863. After that defeat, Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee besieged the Army of the Cumberland by occupying commanding terrain around Chattanooga, placing Rosecrans's force in a precarious position. The Union response consolidated Western forces under Ulysses S. Grant as commander of the newly formed Division of the Mississippi, bringing with it reinforcements drawn from both Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. Grant's first command decision was to relieve Rosecrans and replace him with George Henry Thomas, stabilizing Union leadership at a critical moment. The campaign thus marked a turning point in Union command structure in the West, concentrating authority and resources under Grant and positioning Union forces to press further into the Confederate interior.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (9)