On reaching Chattanooga, General Rosecrans rode up to Department Headquarters there, and was helped from his horse into the house.
He had the appearance of one broken in spirit, and as if he were bearing up as best he could under terrible blow, the full force and effect of which he himself did not at that time clearly perceive and only partly felt.This was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
He had been in the saddle all day from before daylight, with nothing to eat since then.Rarely has mortal man been called on to undergo the terrible mental strain that had been on him during the week just past, of which for two nights in succession his anxiety for McCook was so great as to prevent his sleeping.During the past week the peril of his army had weighed on him to the extent that his nervous system was stretched to its utmost tension.When he saw the rout of his right, supposing that it extended to his entire army, the blow was so strong that it staggered him.A short time after Rosecrans arrived, McCook and Crittenden, also caught in the drift from the right, reached headquarters.While seated in the adjutant-general's office comparing notes with each other as to the events of the day, Rosecrans received a despatch from Garfield, who had reached the front.Hastily reading it over he exclaimed, "Thank God!" and read the despatch aloud.In it Garfield announced his safe arrival at the front, that he was then with Thomas, who had seven divisions intact with a number of detachments, that Thomas had just repulsed a heavy assault of the rebels, and felt confident that he could successfully resist all attacks against his position.
Waving this over his head Rosecrans said, "This is good enough, the day isn't lost yet." Turning to McCook and Crittenden he said, "Gentlemen, this is no place for you.Go at once to your commands at the front." He then directed Wagner, in command of the post, to take his entire brigade, stop the stragglers and all others from the front on the edge of the town, and ordered rations and ammunition for his troops to be at once sent out to meet them at Rossville.
During the heavy fighting of the 20th, Thomas was the only general officer on the field of rank above a division commander.Learning some time later in the day of the disaster on our right, he gathered his troops together from all parts of the field to the position selected by himself after the break on the right.Here in a more marked degree even then Stone's River, he displayed his great staying qualities.Posting his troops on the lines he designated, he, so to speak, placed himself with his back against a rock and refused to be driven from the field.Here he stayed, despite the fierce and prolonged assaults of the enemy, repulsing every attack.And when the sun went down he was still there.Well was he called the "Rock of Chickamauga," and trebly well for the army of the Cumberland that George H.Thomas was in command of the left at that battle.
On the 20th, when the hour of supreme trial came and he was left on the field with less than one half of the strength of the army that the day before had been barely able to hold its own against the rebel assaults, he formed his 25,000 troops on "Horseshoe Ridge,"and successfully resisted for nearly six long hours the repeated attacks of that same rebel army, largely re-enforced until it numbered twice his command, when it was flushed with victory and determined on his utter destruction.There is nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga.
All things considered, the battle of Chickamauga for the forces engaged was the hardest fought and the bloodiest battle of the Rebellion.Hindman, who fought our right at Horseshoe Ridge, says in his official report that he had "never known Federal troops to fight so well," and that he "never saw Confederate soldiers fight better." The largest number of troops Rosecrans had of all arms on the field during the two days' fighting was 55,000 effective men.
While the return of the Army of the Cumberland for September 20, 1863, shows 67,548 "present for duty equipped," still taking out the troops guarding important points within the Department, the actual force was reduced to the figure just given.Of Gordon Granger's nine brigades, only two were on the battlefield.Wagner, of Wood's division, was in Chattanooga, and Dan McCook was holding Rossville.
Post's brigade was guarding the wagon trains and was not in the action.Rosecrans's losses aggregated killed, 1,687; wounded, 9,394;missing 5,255.Total loss, 16,336.Bragg during the battle, when his entire five corps were engaged, had about 70,000 effective troops in line.Among Bragg's troops were large numbers of prisoners of war captured at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, who had been falsely declared by the rebel authorities as exchanged and released from their parole, and in violation of the cartel were again placed in battle.His losses, in part estimated, were 2,673 killed, 16,274wounded, and 2,003 missing, a total of 20,950.A full report of the rebel losses was never made.
To the enemy the results of the engagement proved a victory barren of any lasting benefits, and produced no adequate results to the immense drain on the resources of his army.In a number of places Bragg's official report shows that his army was so crippled that he was not able to strengthen on portion of his line, when needed, with troops from another part of the field, and after the conflict was over his army was so cut up that it was impossible for him to follow up his apparent success and secure possession of the objective point of the campaign--Chattanooga.This great gateway of the mountains remaining in possession of the Army of the Cumberland, after Bragg had paid the heavy price he did at Chickamauga, proves that his battle was a victory only in name, and a careful examination of the results and their cost will show how exceedingly small it was to the enemy.
