USS Chattanooga
October 18, 1863 – October 31, 1863
By Phil Kohn
Phil Kohn can be reached at USCW160@yahoo.com
Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on October 18, 1863, officially takes command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which stretches from the Mississippi River eastward to the Appalachians. His first move is to replace Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans — whose reputation has been tarnished by the defeat at Chickamauga and for allowing himself to be surrounded at Chattanooga — with Maj. Gen. George Thomas as head of the Army of the Cumberland. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman takes Grant’s place as commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside remains in command of the Army of the Ohio.
To quell rumors in the ranks that the Union Army might withdraw from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Maj. Gen. George Thomas, newly named commander of the Army of the Cumberland, on October 19 declares to his men, who are excruciatingly short of food and other supplies: “We will hold this town till we starve.”
Maj. Gen. William Franklin’s 20,000-man Union expedition, moving along Bayou Teche, in Louisiana, occupies Opelousas on October 21 after fighting there.
On October 23, Maj. Gen. Grant — still on crutches from his riding accident last month — arrives in Chattanooga to take direct command of operations. He notes that his soldiers have been on half-rations for a considerable time and that the quality of food they have is poor.
In Arkansas, Maj. Gen. John Marmaduke leads his Confederates against Union troops at Pine Bluff on October 26. Although victorious, Marmaduke withdraws after the battle to his base at Princeton, Arkansas, about 50 miles to the southwest. In South Carolina, Union troops begin their second bombardment of Fort Sumter.
Stealthily, in the very early morning hours of October 27, Federal troops establish a bridgehead below Chattanooga and build a pontoon bridge that allows Hooker’s force to cross from Bridgeport, Alabama. Union troops are thus reinforced and a secure supply route (“the cracker line”) is opened into the city. This breaks the siege, even though the Confederates still hold Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge overlooking the city and Federal positions.
Concerned by Federal attempts to relieve Chattanooga, Gen. Bragg on October 28 orders Lt. Gen. Longstreet to attack an isolated Union division (of Hooker’s troops) at Wauhatchie, Tennessee. The assault is launched at night — a rarity in the war — and the battle is extremely confused. After several hours of fighting, the Confederates are driven back. Casualties number around 400 for each side. The Federals’ “cracker line” supply route into the city remains secure.
Having moved on to Atlanta, Georgia, on his journey through the Western Theater, Jefferson Davis on October 29 meets with Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and agrees to give him his own command in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee. Forrest earlier in the month had stormed into Gen. Braxton Bragg’s tent at Chattanooga and declared that he would never again serve under Bragg’s command.
The Federal steamship USS Chattanooga arrives in its namesake city on October 30 with 40,000 rations and several tons of animal feed for the Union forces.
