Desperate Stand at Chickamauga - July ‘99 America’s Civil War Feature

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Desperate Stand at Chickamauga

By James B. Ronan II

Brigadier General John King’s disciplined brigade of Union Regulars found itself tested as never before at Chickamauga. For two bloody days, the Regulars dashed from one endangered spot to another, seeking to save their army from annihilation.

In the cold, clear predawn of September 19, 1863, the last of some 1,500 men of the Regular brigade filed into position near the Kelly farm in northwest Georgia, 13 miles south of Chattanooga in the valley of West Chickamauga Creek.

Comprising five infantry battalions and a battery, the brigade was the largest body of U.S. Regulars west of the Appalachian Mountains. Although some of the officers and sergeants were veterans of the prewar army, most of the troops had no previous military experience. The soldiers accepted the stern ways of the Regulars because their state regiments had no vacancies or were slow to be mustered into state service. The battalions themselves were “New Army” outfits formed in the 1861 expansion of the standing army.

The Regulars comprised the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, XIV Corps, of the 57,000-man Army of the Cumberland. The army had been fighting in the Western theater of the Civil War since 1861 to prevent the Southern occupation of Kentucky and to dislodge the Confederates from Tennessee. During June and July 1863, army commander Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans had maneuvered the Confederates out of central Tennessee in the brilliant and nearly bloodless Tullahoma campaign. In August 1863, the Cumberlanders advanced to give battle over the prize city of Chattanooga, a rail hub linking Virginia to Georgia and situated at a gap in the Appalachian Mountains that was the gateway to the lower South. Possession of the city would deprive the Confederacy of a vital conduit for foodstuffs and military stores and give the Federals access to central Georgia.

The Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by the bilious General Braxton Bragg, opposed Rosecrans’ army. Bragg’s combination of physical debilities and personal deficiencies, plus the touchiness and insubordination of his subordinate commanders, threatened to fracture the chain of command. His army had already been driven out of Kentucky and Tennessee. This dearth of success, plus Bragg’s harsh views on discipline, hardly endeared him to his 71,000 soldiers.

On August 16, Rosecrans moved south from Tullahoma. To confuse Bragg, Rosecrans divided his four army corps, moving the XXI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden, north of Chattanooga to threaten Bragg’s right flank, while the XIV and XX corps traveled in an arc south of the city through northeastern Alabama and into Georgia. A reserve corps under Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger followed to reinforce the army. By September 8, Rosecrans had forced Bragg to evacuate Chattanooga.

Seeking to further damage the Confederate army, Rosecrans began a risky pursuit, during which he failed to keep his corps in supporting distance of one another. Twice the Confederates missed a chance to destroy the widely separated Union columns, and reports of the Rebels’ proximity made Rosecrans realize that Bragg had ceased to retreat and had concentrated his army to give battle. At that point, Crittenden’s XXI Corps was in contact with Confederate forces on the banks of West Chickamauga Creek, near Lee and Gordon’s Mill. Major General George Thomas’ XIV Corps was six miles southwest at Pond Springs, and Maj. Gen. Alexander McCook’s XX Corps was 10 miles away, on south Missionary Ridge. During the next six days both armies began to concentrate in the area north of La Fayette, Ga.

Brigadier General John King’s Regular brigade, under the divisional command of Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird, was among the many brigades that left their bivouacs early on the morning of September 18 and plodded northeastward as the army consolidated. Both Thomas and McCook were moving toward Crittenden to ward off what Rosecrans correctly perceived as a threat to his left flank and main supply route through Chattanooga.

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