Chapter II: The Chickamauga Campaign and Battle (3)

Both days’ fighting illustrates the fact that when troops are outflanked or attacked in the rear, however brave they may be in other positions relative to the enemy, they will as a rule go to pieces. It was repeatedly shown on both sides, especially on the 19th, during the battle, that the veteran troops as well as the new regiments, would become disheartened and confused in such a position; many of the regiments on the left during the second day, who did not flinch when attacked in flank and rear on the day before, then went to pieces.

The protected troops on the Union left fought through the entire day of the 20th, entirely unconscious that they were frequently surrounded not only in front and rear of their own line, but that the two flanks of the army were only about three-fourths of a mile apart, although in the morning they were two and a half miles apart. At noon the Union right was contracted, and thrown back against the left. The order to retreat late in evening of the 20th came as a surprise and shock to these troops, who had been repulsing the enemy all day with comparative ease. Thousands of musket bearers were so stiff and sore from the two days’ conflict and the marches over the mountains during the preceding days, that when a regiment lying down on the evening of the 20th attempted to rise there was a distinct creaking of bones and an accompanying groan, slight, but perceptible. Many of them while moving back to Rossville at night, took the desperate chance of lying down for a nap in the woods by the roadside, intending to rest for an hour or two and then join their regiments again before daylight; but hundreds of these awoke to find it was already daylight and many were captured by the enemy’s cavalry.

The Confederate Army itself did not advance from the battlefield until the 23rd; only a small part leaving on the 22nd. The fact is that the Confederate Army was much more used up than the Union Army; General Bragg said to General Longstreet on the 20th that his troops upon his right were used up.[34] The same Confederate troops which had penetrated the line and driven Davis, Sheridan, and others from the field, were so roughly handled by Brannan and Granger on Snodgrass Hill that they could not be brought forward for another attack. The slowness with which the Confederate Army moved to their positions around Chattanooga proves that they were practically defeated. At the time the orders were sent to the divisions behind the log works on the left to prepare for withdrawal, their commanders sent word back to General Thomas that there was no reason for them to retreat; they had been, and were at that moment repulsing easily every assault. They did not know of the disaster to the right, caused by Wood’s withdrawal, nor did General Baird and his brigade commanders know of the movements of either Union or Confederate forces until after the retreat. Many writers have expressed the opinion that the Union Army should not have retreated. But to a soldier who was present on the field and knew the facts--such as the absence of the commander of the army; his order sent from the far rear to fall back to Rossville; the absence of ammunition and rations; the utterly exhausted condition of the rank and file by the superhuman exertions of the two days’ fighting and the preceding hard marching; the fear that if the Union Army remained, the Confederate Army might yet wedge its way between it and Chattanooga, the Union commander not being aware at that time of the exhausted and discouraged condition of the Confederate Army--it seems that the falling back in the way and at the time it did was the correct thing. At least it seems as if Thomas had really nothing else to do than to fall back when the order from General Rosecrans was received. Had General Thomas been the commander of the army, it might have been different.

The Union cavalry did not properly cooperate with the other arms of the Union forces. Forrest, with his large Confederate cavalry force, was close to the right of the Confederate Army, and did fine service; the force was equal to the infantry in number. Forrest should have been opposed by a division of the Union cavalry. Only one cavalry brigade was needed at Crawfish Springs; the other cavalry brigade together with Wilder’s mounted infantry which closed up on the right of McCook, should have given better service at a time when it was most needed. This was not the fault of the cavalry commander, for he only obeyed orders from his superiors. In a dispatch to General R. B. Mitchell, the commander of the cavalry, at 7:15 p. m. September 20, General Rosecrans said, “Had you been on our right today you could have charged the enemy’s flank, and done much incalculable mischief.” Why was not his cavalry as close to the Union right flank as Forrest’s was to the Confederate right flank? Mitchell’s cavalry was too far away to be effective, when disaster overtook the wing: it was supposed to be protecting, but it was farther away from Snodgrass Hill on the right than were the forces of Gordon Granger, at McAffee’s church on the left.