Battle of Chickamauga: Colonel John T. Wilder and the Lightning Brigade

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Wilder’s men, McCook’s Corps and more specifically Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s division, which had arrived in the West Viniard field area late on the 19th, were cut off by Longstreet’s drive. In a vain attempt to stop the attack, Rosecrans sent two brigades of Sheridan’s men to the left. Wilder was ordered to fill the gap created by their departure.

Sheridan’s men hit a tidal wave before they even got into position. Like most of the Union line at this point of the battle, utter chaos prevailed, and they started fleeing. Rosecrans gave up trying to rally his troops, and fled his headquarters.

With Sheridan’s division routed, the last semblance of hope on the far right of the Union line lay with the Lightning Brigade. Wilder brought his regiments out of a small patch of woods to the right of the Widow Glenn’s and set up Lilly’s battery within striking distance of Glenn field, saturated with Confederate colors at this point.

The rush of the Lightning Brigade surprised the advancing gray columns. With Lilly’s guns in play and the Indiana and Illinois regiments sweeping the field with their Spencer rifles, they were able to halt the Confederates.

The action soon turned into a Union counterattack, with Wilder’s men routing one enemy regiment, the 34th Alabama, and forcing the 28th Alabama to fall back. By the time the brigade had fully secured the field, they would tally 200 prisoners.

A lull ensued in the vicinity of the Glenn property, though sounds of fierce fighting could be heard to the north. Wilder ordered his men back to their horses. While the unit regrouped, he was deciding on a course of action. The rest of Thomas’ corps was doing the fighting to the north, and all evidence pointed to the fact that it was what remained of the Union line. Although cut off by Longstreet’s breakthrough, Wilder reasoned he could re-form his unit and push north, wrapping up the Confederates while he slashed his way to his corps.

Wilder sent dispatches to McCook and Sheridan, hoping that both would follow his lead and form up beside him along the attack. Meanwhile, he set up his brigade in a hollow square, with two regiments up front, two on the flanks, one in the rear and Lilly’s battery in the middle.

Just as Wilder was about to put his plan into action, a hatless, shaken civilian came galloping toward him: Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana. After inquiring what command he had stumbled across, Dana demanded to be escorted back to Chattanooga to send word to officials in Washington of the retreat. In his own personal account of the battlefield encounter, Wilder said he had offered Dana a few scouts, to which Dana had agreed, but again emphasized to Wilder to fall back to Chattanooga and guard the withdrawal.

Dana would later disagree with accounts of what happened, stating he had not given Wilder any orders and had decided to ride to Chattanooga himself. Regardless, the Lightning Brigade withdrew from the field and covered the retreat of the Union army, finally taking a position along Missionary Ridge east of Chattanooga. That left the field to Thomas, who held out on Snodgrass Hill until the last possible moment in order to save the army from total defeat.

Wilder’s brigade had certainly proven itself in the Battle of Chickamauga. It had held back an entire Confederate division from crossing Chickamauga Creek on September 18, pushed back the elite Texas Brigade the following day and deflected part of James Longstreet’s advancing attack on the 20th. At a cost of 125 casualties, the five regiments and their accompanying battery had been the plug in multiple holes and the catalyst of a couple of crucial counterattacks.

Wilder’s Lightning Brigade remained a force in the Western theater for the remainder of the war, but its commander did not. Soon after his brigade was assigned a defensive position in Chattanooga, Wilder fell ill and requested a leave of absence. While he was at home the Army of the Cumberland broke the siege of Chattanooga, and he rejoined his brigade in April 1864 in time to take part in Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign.

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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