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7 A.M. TO NOON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1863
Believing he could capture an isolated Confederate infantry brigade
near Jay's Mill, Thomas sent Brannan's division eastward from the Kelly
Farm. Instead, Brannan surprised Forrest's cavalry. Forrest was soon
reinforced by Walker's infantry division. Baird's division relieved
Brannan's, only to be driven off by Liddell.
These movements indicated the general pattern of the fighting on
September 19. The battle would flow from north to south as each side fed
one division at a time into the fight. Most divisions marched from the
south to the north before turning toward their enemy. By accident or
design, many units would strike their adversary's southern flank, or in
turn be struck in their own southern flank.
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Unable to determine Forrest's strength, Croxton cautiously engaged
the Confederates but did not resume his advance. Riding in search of
reinforcements, Forrest found Bragg and Walker near Alexander's Bridge
and requested the loan of an infantry unit. Walker provided Colonel
Claudius Wilson's brigade, which moved north around 9:00 A.M. Hitting
Croxton's flank, Wilson forced the Federal commander to change front to
protect his right. About the same time that Wilson went into action,
Forrest deployed Colonel George Dibrell's brigade to protect his own
right flank. Advancing dismounted in the vicinity of the Reed's Bridge
Road, Dibrell's men encountered Van Derveer's brigade and were halted by
its fire. To meet this new threat, Forrest commandeered Brigadier
General Matthew Ector's brigade of the Reserve Corps
without Walker's knowledge. Ector replaced Dibrell, but he too was
unable to drive Van Derveer from his position. Forrest had stabilized
the Confederate line, but he could not gain ground against Brannan's
division.
When Brannan's troops began to exhaust their ammunition, Thomas sent
Brigadier General Absalom Baird's division to their assistance. Like
Brannan before him, Baird advanced westward through the woods with two
brigades in his front line and one in reserve. Coming upon Croxton's
weary men, Brigadier General John King's brigade relieved them and
continued the battle against their mostly unseen opponents. Unique in
the Army of the Cumberland, King's brigade consisted entirely of regular
army units. Extending King's line southward was Colonel Benjamin
Scribner's brigade, while Colonel John Starkweather's brigade remained
in reserve. North of Baird, Van Derveer's brigade and part of Connell's
brigade maintained their original position on the road. Like Forrest,
Thomas had now stabilized his battle line; unlike Forrest, whose forces
were small and weakly armed, Thomas had enough combat power in Brannan's
and Baird's divisions to drive the Confederates, Accordingly, Scribner
and King gained ground against Wilson and Ector.
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THIS ROMANTICIZED PAINTING BY THOMAS MAST DEPICTS THE MOMENT WHEN
LIEUTENANT GEORGE W. VAN PELT'S BATTERY A, FIRST MICHIGAN LIGHT
ARTILLERY, WAS OVERRUN BY THE CONFEDERATE DIVISION OF ST. JOHN R.
LIDDELL. (COURTESY OF CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
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HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT AT THE BATTLE LINES IS CAPTURED IN
THIS PAINTING BY WILLIAM TRAVIS. (COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION)
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Nearer the action than Rosecrans who was just leaving Crawfish
Springs, Bragg could influence the situation more quickly than his
opponent. Thus when he committed Liddell's division to the fight, Thomas
had no fresh force immediately available to counter it. Forming Colonel
Daniel Govan's and Brigadier General Edward Walthall's brigades along
the Alexander's Bridge Road, Liddell sent them toward Baird's right
flank. First to be hit was Scribner's brigade on the west edge of the
Winfrey Field, Facing in two directions when Liddell's men came
screaming down upon them, Scribner's regiments disintegrated. Liddell
next encountered Starkweather's brigade, which also broke for the rear
in panic. Baird's last hope was King's brigade, but King too was caught
changing formation and the regulars fled north through Van Derveer's
brigade. Van Derveer waited grimly for Liddell's men to appear through
the underbrush, then unleashed a tremendous volley in their faces.
Winded after their long advance, Liddell's brigades sullenly withdrew.
Their departure was hastened by the return of Croxton's brigade, which
pushed Liddell's exhausted troops eastward beyond the Winfrey Field.
The respite gained by Liddell's repulse was fleeting, as Bragg now threw
another division into the fight. Major General Benjamin Cheatham's
five-brigade division was the largest in the Army of Tennessee. Part of
Polk's corps, Cheatham around 7:00 A.M. had crossed to the west bank of
the Chickamauga at Dalton's Ford. Ordered northward by Bragg around
11:00 A.M., the division was now available to extend the Confederate
line. As Liddell's division halted its withdrawal, Cheatham's men began
to form on its left. Cheatham placed three brigades in his front line,
from left to right the units of Brigadier
Generals Marcus Wright, Preston Smith, and John Jackson. In the
division's second line were the brigades of Brigadier Generals Otho
Strahl and George Maney. As soon as his command was formed in line of
battle, Cheatham advanced. He soon encountered Croxton's brigade and,
far overlapping its line, easily began to push it westward. By 12:30
P.M. Cheatham had gained the crest of a slight ridge 400 yards west of
the intersection of the Alexander's Bridge and Brotherton roads.
No sooner was Croxton's brigade out of Cheatham's sight than it was
replaced by Brigadier General Richard Johnson's division of McCook's corps.
Johnson had begun the day in McLemore's Cove but had been ordered
forward in haste by Rosecrans. Placed under Thomas's command, Johnson
was told to form a line of battle and advance eastward. Moving in the
traditional formation of two brigades forward and one in reserve,
Johnson arrived just as Cheatham chased Croxton's men toward the
LaFayette Road. Johnson's front line, Colonel Philemon Baldwin's and
Brigadier General August Willich's brigades, struck Jackson's Brigade
and halted its pursuit of Croxton. For a time Jackson held his own against
the more numerous Federals, but with his ammunition running low and
casualties depleting his ranks, he called for aid. Cheatham replaced
Jackson with Brigadier General George Maney's small brigade. Maney's men
were no match for two Federal brigades, and when both of his flanks
collapsed he hastily withdrew. Meanwhile, Johnson's division regained
the Winfrey Field and some woods to the south.
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THE CREATION OF THE FIRST NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purposes of
preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military
study the fields of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and most
brilliant fighting in the war of the rebellion." Thus begins the
legislation that established Chickamauga and Chattanooga National
Military Park as the first so designated park on August 19, 1890.
The idea of establishing a National Military Park began with General
Ferdinand Van Derveer, an officer of the Army of Cumberland, on his
second visit to the battlefield, the first being on two bloody days in
September 1863. He was a Washington newspaper correspondent for the
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette when he returned to Chickamauga in
June 1888. It was during a series of letters to the newspaper that the
idea to preserve Chickamauga Battlefield began to take form. "The
survivors of the Army of the Cumberland should awake to great pride in
this notable field of Chickamauga. Why should it not, as well as eastern
fields, be marked by monuments, and its lines be accurately preserved
for history? There was no more magnificent fighting during the war than
both armies did there. Both sides might well unite in preserving the
field where both, in a military sense, won such renown.
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THE WILDER BRIGADE MONUMENT WAS ERECTED
AT THE SITE OF THE WIDOW GLENN'S HOUSE, WHICH WAS ROSECRANS'S
HEADQUARTERS ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1863. (NPS)
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Whereas Gettysburg at the time had only the Union
side represented, it was proposed that Chickamauga have both Union
and Confederate positions marking the field, making it most unique and
at the same time providing a healing process.
When the Society of the Army of the Cumberland met a few weeks later,
a committee was formed whose purpose was to initiate a movement for the
purchase of the ground where the Battle of Chickamauga was fought. It
was recommended that monuments be placed to mark the location of the
troops that fought there and that it be preserved similar to
Gettysburg.
At the first meeting of the newly formed committee in Washington on
February 13, 1889, it was agreed to invite the Confederate veterans of
the battle of Chickamauga who were in Washington at the time. The united
committee became known as the Joint Chickamauga Memorial
Association.
The objectives of the association were declared in the charter to be
"to mark and preserve the battle field of Chickamauga, on which were
fought the actions of September eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth,
Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, together with
the natural and artificial features, as they were at the time of said
battle, by such memorial stones, tablets, or monuments as a generous
people may aid to erect, to commemorate the valor displayed by American
soldiers on that field."
On September 19, 1889, a joint meeting of Union and Confederate
veterans was called to be held in Chattanooga to consider the subject of
the Chickamauga Park. Many notable veterans of the Battle of Chickamauga
gave addresses that day, exactly 26 years after the battle, among them
Union General William Rosecrans. Rosecrans's speech best instills the
feelings of the veterans at that time. He begins: "This occasion is one
for which you will look through history in vain to find a second. To-day
twenty-six years ago began the great bloody battle of Saturday, the 19th
day of September, 1863, within twelve miles of this place, and the
survivors of that battle, both Blue and Gray, and the people who to-day
enjoy the fruits which grew out of that battle, are assembled together
to consider how they shall make it a national memorial ground, which
people of all time shall come and visit with the interest due to the
greatness of the events which occurred on that battle ground. One of
the most noble features to me of this occasion is this: It is very
difficult to find in history an instance where contending parties in
after years meet together in perfect amity. It took great men to win
that battle, but it takes greater men still, I will say morally
greater, to wipe away all the ill feeling which naturally grows out of
such a contest." Following Rosecrans's address General Henry Van Ness
Boynton (a Union colonel at Chickamauga), spoke of making Chickamauga a
"western Gettysburg, [but] the lines of both armies should be equally
marked."
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THE SECOND MINNESOTA MONUMENT ON SNODGRASS HILL IS ONE OF FOUR
MONUMENTS ERECTED TO THIS REGIMENT IN CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA
NATIONAL MILITARY PARK. (NPS)
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On September 20, 1889 a huge barbecue was held in Crawfish Springs,
Georgia (present day Chickamauga). The barbecue was attended by 12,000
people, making it one of the largest barbecues held in the South. This
festive occasion culminated the charter to establish Chickamauga
battlefield as a park. Representatives from each state which had troops
at Chickamauga were chosen as incorporators.
Some of the land was acquired through the aid of Congress. Additional
acreage was requested on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge to
commemorate the Battle of Chattanooga. Collectively, the acquired land
was to be preserved as Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military
Park.
The bill to establish Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military
Park passed through the House in twenty-three minutes. In the Senate
the bill moved even faster, a mere twenty minutes. That same night the
bill was taken to President Benjamin Harrison and signed. The bill
provided for fifteen square miles.
On September 19 and 20, 1895, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military
Park was formally dedicated. It
was the nation's first national military park and set a precedent
for subsequent national military parks. As stated in the enabling
legislation, the battlefield was used for military study and the War
Department was in charge until 1933. In 1933 the reigns of jurisdiction
were passed over to the National Park Service, which has been the
caretaker ever since.
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THE MONUMENTS ALONG POSTWAR BATTLELINE ROAD MARK UNION
POSITIONS ON SEPTEMBER 20, 1863. (NPS)
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Shortly after Johnson arrived, several more Federal units reached the
field. At Lee and Gordon's Mill Major General John Palmer's division
received orders around 11:00 A.M. to assist the Fourteenth Corps. On
reaching the battlefield, Palmer placed the brigades of Brigadier
General William Hazen, Brigadier General Charles Cruft, and Colonel
William Grose in a single line. Crashing southeastward into the forest,
the division soon encountered Smith's and Wright's Confederates. Taking
the brunt of Palmer's attack in the Brock Field, Smith called for relief
and was replaced by Strahl's brigade. No better able to stand the
Federal fire than Smith, Strahl's men soon withdrew also. Following
Palmer's division up the LaFayette Road were two brigades of Brigadier
General Horatio Van Cleve's division of the Twenty-first Corps. They
soon appeared on the left flank of Wright's brigade. Brigadier General
Samuel Beatty's brigade soon wrecked Wright's command and it joined
Cheatham's other units in retreat. South of Beatty, Colonel George
Dick's brigade extended the Federal line. Beyond Dick, Colonel Edward
King's brigade of Major General Joseph Reynolds's
division also faced eastward in the woods. In the field south of
George Brotherton's modest cabin Reynolds gathered several batteries as
a reserve.
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THE ATTACK OF STEWART'S CONFEDERATE DIVISION ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1863, RELIEVED THE
PRESSURE ON THE LEFT FLANK OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CHEATHAM. (USAMHI)
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A POSTWAR PHOTO OF GENERAL ALEXANDER PETER STEWART. WHO WOULD BECOME ONE
OF THE FIRST COMMISSIONERS OF THE CHICKAMAUGA BATTLEFIELD PARK. (NPS)
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