By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard
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A 1998 reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga depicts the Confederate assault on Snodgrass Hill. Photo by William Carraway
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Final Positions
On the evening of Sept. 18,1863, Federal
commander, Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, sent Maj. Gen. George Thomas, commander
of the 14th Corps, north along the Lafayette Road. His intent was to extend his
defensive line and maintain the Federal army’s line of retreat north to
Chattanooga. By the morning of September 19, Thomas’s men had taken up position
in the fields of the Kelly Farm.
Having received a report from Federal Col. Daniel McCook about an isolated
rebel brigade trapped on the west side of the river, Thomas dispatched the Third
Division of Maj. Gen. John Brannon to advance and develop the situation.
Brannon, a career Army Soldier and Mexican American War Veteran dispatched the
order to get the men on the move. Quickly downing coffee and half-cooked
breakfast, Brannon’s men began moving east with Col. John Croxton’s Brigade
moving to the Brotherton Road and Col. Ferdinand Van Derveer orienting on Reed’s
Bridge Road.
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Opening actions on Sept. 19, 1863. Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com.
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The Confederate troops McCook had
encountered were cavalrymen of the 1st Georgia, who had thrown up skirmish
lines south of Jay’s Mill, approximately ½ mile west of Reed’s Bridge. Having
already received orders to withdraw, McCook left the field to the Georgians
before reporting his findings to Thomas. Thus, by the time Thomas’s brigades
moved east in search of the isolated Confederate brigade the Georgians were
prepared in skirmish order across Reed’s Bridge Road ready to receive Van
Derveer’s skirmishers. Moving east through the woods just one quarter mile
south of the 1st Georgia, Croxton’s skirmish line comprised of the 10th
Indiana encountered cavalry forces of Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Dispatching
couriers to inform Brannon of contact to his front, Croxton began maneuvering
his infantry regiments into line, a difficult process in wooded terrain. Forrest,
meanwhile, ordered his cavalry to dismount and hold the ground while infantry
support was summoned.
Receiving one of Forrest’s messages
Maj. Gen. William T. Walker, commanding the Confederate reserve corps ordered
fellow Georgian, Col. Claudius Wilson to make haste with his brigade to the
sound of contact. Walker, like Brannon, was a career Army Soldier and Mexican
War Veteran, and like Brannon, he would soon have two brigades heading to the
vicinity of Jay’s Mill as the Texas Brigade of Brig. Gen. Matthew Ector fell in
behind Wilson.
The Confederate cavalry held long
enough for Wilson to deploy his regiments to threaten Croxton. Wilson’s
regiments, the 25th, 29th and 30th Georgia with the 1st Georgia
Battalion Sharpshooters and 4th Louisiana Sharpshooters pressed
Croxton’s line which bent, but did not break.
Over the next two and a half hours, brigades would be sucked into the growing
fight at Jay’s Mill.
Confusion and Reinforcement
The action alarmed both Rosecrans and
his Confederate adversary, General Braxton Bragg. Bragg’s battle plan called
for 25,000 men to assault Federal lines along the Lafayette Road, well south of
Jay’s Mill. The unexpected presence of Thomas to the north threatened Bragg’s
right flank. Rosecrans, meanwhile, had ordered Thomas into defensive positions,
only to have his subordinate engage a division with an enemy of unknown
strength.
Before launching his Lafayette Road
offensive, Bragg determined to secure his flank in the vicinity of Jay’s Mill.
He dispatched his reserve corps and five brigades of Maj. Gen. Ben Cheatham’s
Division. Rosecrans meanwhile shifted divisions from the 20th and 21st Corps
north to bolster Thomas. Both the Federal and Confederate commanders were
dispatching units without regard to the chain of command, a breakdown in
command and control that would be further exacerbated by the terrain and lack
of visibility.
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Actions on the afternoon of Sept. 19, 1863. Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com.
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The Fighting
Moves South
Cheatham’s 7,000 Confederates slammed
into the Federal divisions shortly after noon, in the vicinity of the Brock
farm.
After committing Cheatham, Bragg dispatched a third division under command of
Maj. Gen. A. P. Stewart and ordered him to move to the sound of the guns.
Stewart arrived south of Cheatham’s lines shortly before 2:00 p.m. in time to
stabilize the faltering Confederate line. Moving with Stewart were the 4th
Georgia Sharpshooters and the 37th Georgia Infantry.
The Georgians were able to dislodge the stubborn Federal defenders of Maj. Gen.
Van Cleve’s Division from their positions on the Lafayette Road. Having taken a
significant amount of ground, Stewart had insufficient men to maintain his
position and was forced to withdraw east of the Lafayette Road.
Georgians Enter
the Ditch of Death
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Brig. Gen. Hans Christian Heg. NPS
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Intent on finding the enemy flank,
Rosecrans met with the improbably named Brig. Gen. Jefferson Davis, and
directed him to move his division across the Viniard Field, well south of the
engaged forces. Expecting to find the Confederate left flank, Davis instead
encountered the main body of Bragg’s waiting assault force-25,000 strong. In
the next two and a half hours the most savage combat of the battle would swirl
about the Viniard Field until the Federal line collapsed at 4:30 p.m. and the
Northerners were sent streaming back across the Lafayette Road. Attempting to
rally his 3rd Brigade, Norwegian-born Col. Hans Christian Heg rode
along the front line of his men admonishing them by personal example of
courage. As he wheeled his horse about, Heg was struck by a bullet which
pierced his abdomen. He reeled from the wound but kept to the saddle and
remained with his men.
Pursuing the fleeing Federal troops,
the Georgians of Brig. Gen. Henry Benning poured volley after volley into the
backs of the retreating Federal Soldiers. Sgt. W.R. Houghton of the 2nd Georgia
recalled the action:
“We stood there… shooting them down…
It was horrible slaughter.”
The slaughter would soon be visited upon Benning’s men as they advanced into
the field of fire of the brigade of Col. John Wilder, whose men were armed with
seven shot repeating rifles. Benning’s Georgians were cut to pieces. Of 1,200
Georgians 490 became casualties. The Federals had also suffered. Among the
fallen was Heg who would die of the effects of his wound at a field hospital
the next morning.
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Monument to the 2nd Georgia Infantry at Chickamauga. Photo by Maj. William Carraway
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A Restless Night
By 6:00 p.m., fighting had mostly
ended in the Viniard Field where 15 brigades had contended. After nearly 12
hours of continuous combat the fighting was concluded, except for a rare night
assault initiated by the division of Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne across the
Winfrey Field. The men of both armies settled in for a restless night. Despite
temperatures that plunged below freezing, Soldiers of both armies were
forbidden from starting campfires due to the proximity of enemy forces.
With the arrival of Lt. Gen. James
Longstreet on the field, Bragg reorganized his army into two wings. Longstreet
was given command of the left wing while Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk commanded the
right. Bragg’s battle plan remained unchanged: attack and drive the Federal
army south, away from its line of retreat to Chattanooga.
On the opposite side of the Lafayette
Road, Rosecrans, having gone without sleep, surveyed his lines with the intent
of supporting Thomas’ lines to the north. Rosecrans would agree to reinforce
Thomas – a decision that would have fateful consequences on the second day of
the battle.
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Monument to Col. Peyton Colquitt at Chickamauga.
Photo by Maj. William Carraway
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Action Resumes,
The Federal North in Peril
Although Bragg had intended to attack
at dawn, the Confederate assault did not get underway until 9:30 a.m. when the
corps of Lt. Gen. D.H. Hill struck Thomas. Though bloodily repulsed on part of
their lines, two brigades of Hill’s Corps succeeded in turning Thomas’s left
flank. The Confederates drove south down the Lafayette Road into the Kelly
Field and threatened the entire Federal position. Rosecrans, sensing the
threat, shifted forces from the south and by 11:30, Hill was forced back, but
not before Brig. Gen. James Deshler, a brigade commander in the division of Maj.
Gen. Patrick Cleburne, was killed, struck in the chest by an artillery shell. Moving
in support of Hill, Col. Peyton Colquitt, commanding Gist’s Brigade of Georgian’s
and South Carolinians was mortally wounded. Colquitt, had formerly commanded
the 46th Georgia Infantry Regiment.
Federal Disaster
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| Lt. Gen. Longstreet's Assault. Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com. |
Hill’s success worried Rosecrans, who
began shifting additional forces north. In the course of redeployment, the Federal
exposed a division-wide gap in their line. Just as the gap opened, Longstreet
launched an assault into the gap. The divisions of Davis and Maj. Gen. Phillip
Sheridan were crushed by 12,000 surging Confederates.
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Brig. Gen. W. H Lytle
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Commanding Sheridan’s 1st
Brigade was Brig. Gen. William Lytle, an Ohioan, Lytle had been a celebrated
poet before the war and was popular in the north and south. Pressed by a
brigade of Alabamians, Lytle was mounted and directing the movement of his
troops when he was struck in the back by a musket ball. He remained in the
saddle continuing to issue orders until he was struck in the head spattering blood
on a staff officer’s uniform. Lytle’s men attempted to bear him away from the conflict,
but he asked to be left on the field where he expired. Surging
forward, Confederate Soldiers recognized Lytle and formed a guard around his
body. News spread among the gray ranks. Presently, Confederate Brig. Gen.
Patton Anderson, overwhelmed with grief, stood before Lytle. Anderson and Lytle
had been good friends before the American Civil War. They parted amicably in
Charleston in 1860 promising that nothing would interfere with their
friendship. Weeping, Anderson removed Lytle’s wedding ring and secured a lock
of his hair to send home to his widow.
With defeat swiftly degenerating into
a rout, Rosecrans, his chief of staff and future president, James Garfield, and
three corps commanders were driven from the field. One third of the Federal
army ceased to exist as a fighting force. If not for the determined stand of
Maj. Gen. Thomas’s men on Snodgrass Hill, the entire Federal army might have
been destroyed in detail. Thomas held just long enough to preserve the Federal
army before withdrawing to Rossville to the North. Nevertheless, hundreds of Federal
Soldiers were captured by onrushing Confederates.
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| Maj. Gen. George Thomas' desperate stand. Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com. |
Aftermath
On the morning of September 21,
Confederates awoke to find that the Federal army had slipped away. Rosecrans
would reestablish his base at Chattanooga but his tenure as army commander was
drawing to a close. In just over a week Rosecrans would be replaced by a hard
fighting western general named Ulysses Grant.
Although he was technically the
victor, Bragg had failed in his objective of destroying Rosecrans. He would
continue to bicker with his subordinate commanders until November when he would
challenge the Federal army for control of Chattanooga.
More than 34,000 of the 125,000
Soldiers engaged at Chickamauga became casualties. But D.H. Hill remembering
the battle years later observed that true casualty of Chickamauga was hope.
“It seems to me that the élan of the
Southern Soldier was never seen after Chickamauga; the brilliant dash which had
distinguished him was gone forever. He fought stoutly to the last, but after
Chickamauga, with the sullenness of despair, and without the enthusiasm of
hope. That ‘barren victory’ sealed the fate of the Southern Confederacy.”
