Download The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Chattanooga Campaign AudioBook Free
In late September 1863, the Confederates started laying siege to the Union Army of the Cumberland around Chattanooga in what would be their last gasp for supremacy in the West. Following the devastating Union beat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, the army and its shaken commander, General William S. Rosecrans, started digging in around metropolis and waiting for reinforcements to reach. In the meantime, the Confederate Army of Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg, needed the surrounding heights, including Missionary Ridge to the east and Lookout Mountain to the southwest, allowing them control over the essential rail and river supply lines needed by the Union pushes in the town. Bragg planned to lay down siege to metropolis and starve the Union pushes into surrendering. Having lost faith in Rosecrans after Chickamauga, Washington delegated Ulysses S. Grant with the duty of lifting the siege by inserting him in control of nearly the complete theater. Grant substituted Rosecrans with George H. Thomas, who had saved the army at Chickamauga, and bought him to "carry Chattanooga by any means risks." Thomas replied, "We will hold the town till we starve." In the meantime, Chief executive Lincoln detached General Hooker and two divisions from the Army of the Potomac and sent them west to reinforce the garrison at Chattanooga. What adopted were some of the most remarkable businesses of the complete Civil Conflict. Hooker and his reinforcements helped start a vital supply series known as the "cracker series", effectively ensuring that enough materials could reach Knoxville.
