AKMY OPERATIONS. 



131 



communicated with Gen. Thomas'? right. That 

 night the enemy evacuated Lookout Mountain 

 top, and fell back from his front to the ridge. 

 Thus, on Tuesday night, Gen. Bragg was threat- 

 ened on both flanks, and with a heavy line of 

 battle in his front. It was difficult for him to 

 determine what the Federal move would be. 

 His railroad must be held at all hazards from 

 Gen. Sherman. The amount of Gen. Hooker's 

 force he could distinctly see. He reenforced 

 his right very heavily, leaving enough to hold 

 his left and front, as he supposed. On the 

 25th, Wednesday, Gen. Sherman commenced 

 to move. Two hills were taken. From the 

 third he was several times repulsed, and he 

 moved around more force, as if to get in rear 

 of Gen. Bragg's line, and the latter then com- 

 menced massing against him. The critical mo- 

 ment had now arrived. Gen. Hooker moved 

 his columns along the Rossville road toward 

 Gen. Bragg's left, and this drew still more force 

 from the latter's centre. 



" General Grant now ordered Gen. Thomas 

 to advance and take the rifle-pits at the base 

 of the mountain. The Army of the Cumber- 

 land, remembering Chickamauga and impatient 

 by reason of remaining spectators of the opera- 

 tions of Gens. Sherman and Hooker for two 

 days, went forward with a will; drove the 

 enemy in disorder from his lower works ; and 

 went on, heedless of the he&vy artillery and 

 musketry hurled against them from the crest 

 of the ridge. Half-way up they seemed to 

 falter, but it was only for breath. Without 

 returning a shot they kept on, crowned the 

 ridge, captured thirty-five out of the forty-four 

 pieces of artillery on the hill, turned some of 

 them against the masses in Gen. Sherman's 

 front, and the routed line fell back, while the 

 rest of Gen. Bragg's army, including Bragg and 

 Hardee, fled, routed and broken, toward King- 

 gold. Thousands of prisoners and small arms 

 and quantities of munitions of war were taken. 

 Gen. Hooker took up the pursuit, and that 

 night Mission Ridge blazed resplendent with 

 Union camp-fires. The next day Gen. Hooker 

 pushed the enemy to Ringgold, where he made 

 a show of stubborn resistance, but was forced 

 to retire. Gens. Sherman and Howard pushed 

 for the railroad, which they smashed com- 

 pletely. About sixty pieces of artillery and a 

 thousand prisoners were captured." When the 

 attack was planned, orders were sent to Gen. 

 Burnside to lure Gen. Longstreet as far away 

 as possible, and fall back to ~a position where 

 he could stand a siege and subsist from the 

 country. Some skirmishes with the enemy 

 still in East Tennessee, had previously taken 

 place. On the 21st of September, one occur- 

 red between Col. Foster and a body of the en- 

 emy near Bristol, and on the 10th and llth of 

 October a sharp engagement took place at 

 Blue Springs. The enemy was defeated with 

 a heavy loss in killed and wounded, and one 

 hundred and fifty prisoners. The Federal loss 

 was about one hundred. Subsequently Gen. S. 



Jones, who had held a threatening position 

 with a small force of the enemy 'near the Vir- 

 ginia line, moved down on the north side of 

 the Holston river to Rogersville, with some 

 three thousand five hundred cavalry, and sur- 

 prised the garrison at that place, and captured 

 four pieces of artillery, thirty-six wagons, and 

 six hundred and fifty men. 



Previous to t^ie advance of Gen. Longstreet 

 into East Tennessee, Gen. Burnside had occu- 

 pied Philadelphia, and other points on the 

 south side of the Holston river with small gar- 

 risons. Some of these forces were surprised 

 and six or seven guns captured, with forty 

 wagons, and between six and seven hundred 

 prisoners. The remainder retreated to Lou- 

 don. Upon receiving the orders from Gen. 

 Grant, Gen. Burnside moved from Knoxville 

 toward Loudon, to meet Gen. Longstreet. The 

 latter placed his main force on the north side 

 of the river Holston, but sent his cavalry up 

 the south side, expecting that it would slip 

 into Knoxville during Gen. Burnside's absence, 

 and thus compel him to make a flank retreat. 

 But the cavalry of Gen. Burnside was also on 

 the south side of the Holston with a small force 

 of infantry, and they fell back into the works, 

 thus covering the town on that side. Gen. 

 Burnside also fell back to Campbell's Station, 

 and made a stand. A contest ensued for sev- 

 eral hours in which Gen. Longstreet was re- 

 pulsed. Gen. Burnside then withdrew to the 

 neighborhood of Knoxville, and fortified his 

 position. Gen. Longstreet then came up and 

 commenced a siege. Knoxville waa surrounded 

 by Gen. Longstreet on the 17th and 18th of 

 November. A constant fire was kept up on 

 the line of Gen. Burnside until the evening of 

 the 28th, when an attack was proposed on a 

 small fort mounting six guns, on a hill near the 

 town, and commanding the approaches to it on 

 that side of the river. The fort was occupied 

 by the 29th Massachusetts, the 79th New York 

 and two companies of the 2d, and one of the 

 20th Michigan. On its front and flanks was 

 once a thick field of pines, which had been cut 

 down with the tops falling in all directions, 

 making an almost impassable mass of brush 

 and timber. A space around the fort was 

 cleared. The ditch in front was. about ten 

 feet deep, and parapet nearly twenty feet high. 

 The assault was made near daylight, on the 

 29th, by the Confederate brigades of Gens. 

 Bryan and Humphrey, with a party from Wol- 

 ford's. The enemy advanced in three lines and 

 made the attack fiercely, but all attempts to 

 scale the sides of the fort failed, and they were 

 finally repulsed with a loss of two hundred 

 killed and wounded, and several hundred made 

 prisoners. Meantime the force of Gen. Burn- 

 side was closely pressed, and provisions became 

 so scarce, that his troops were put on half ra- 

 tions of bread. 



After the battle of Chattanooga, the pur- 

 suit of the enemy was discontinued through 

 want of strong animals to draw the artillery 



