THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGNS. 



'53 



incurring serious loss to the federal army. Its consideration is also 

 appropriate in tin's article, since the plans of the commanders and the 

 movements of their forces were very largely controlled by the physiog- 

 raphy of the plateau. 



So deeply dissected is this plateau that, without exception, military 

 writers speak of it as the Cumberland 'Mountains.' Weathering and 

 stream work, continued through untold ages, have cut deep valleys and 

 carved hills until we have the present rough country to cross which, 

 even without an enemy in front, was no small undertaking. The soil, 

 derived from Carboniferous sandstone in general is a thin sandy loam, 



View in the dissected Cumberland Plateau, near Sewanee, Tenn. The Mountains 

 are formed by denudation, leaving an even sky-line. (Photographed by the U. S. Bureau 

 of Forestry.) 



and only in the valley bottoms where the streams have worn a trench 

 and partly filled it with alluvial sediment is the soil fairly fertile. 



The plateau descends towards the plains of middle Tennessee by 

 three great irregular terraces each roughly about five hundred feet high. 

 Through these terraces streams have carved narrow valleys through 

 which the roads pass to the lowlands. These gorges, called 'gaps' by the 

 mountaineers, were as important to the armies in that section as were 

 the 'wind gaps' between Virginia and the Shenandoah valley to the 

 confederates. They were easy to hold with a small force against a 

 numerous body of the enemy and were especially serviceable to a retreat- 

 ing army, since a small rear guard was able to give complete protection. 



