Chickamauga Civil War DVD
The Battle of Chickamauga
Special Widescreen Edition DVD
Chickamauga one of the fiercest engagements of the American Civil War. Over a period of two days, more than 100,000 men struggled for control of the south's transportation hub, Chattanooga.

History of Chickamauga
Civil War Georgia

American Civil War
1863


To Honor These Men: A History of the Phillips Georgia Legion Infantry Battalion
The Georgia Legion was formed shortly after secession and fought in nearly every major engagement on the Eastern Front, including Wilderness and Appomatox

On these fields and hills, Union and Confederate armies clashed during the fall of 1863 in some of the hardest fighting of the Civil War. The prize was Chattanooga, key rail center and gateway to the heart of the Confederacy. The campaign that brought the armies here began late in June 1863 when General William S. Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland, almost 60,000 strong, moved from Murfreesboro, Tennessee against General Braxton Bragg's 43,000 Confederates dug in 20 miles to the southwest defending the road to Chattanooga.

Months earlier, these same armies had clashed at Stone River where, after a 3-day struggle, the Confederates had retreated. Now, once more, through a series of skillful marches, Rosecrans forced the Southerns to withdraw into Chattanooga. There Bragg dug in again, guarding the Tennessee River crossings northeast of the city, where he expected Rosecrans to attack. But early in September the Federals crossed the Tennessee well below Chattanooga and again Bragg had to withdraw southward.

Eluding his Federal pursuers, Bragg concentrated his forces at LaFayette, Georgia (26 miles) south of Chattanooga. Here reinforcements from East Tennessee, Virginia, and Mississippi swelled his ranks to more than 66,000 men. Twice he tried unsuccessfully to destroy isolated segments of Rosecrans' army. Then, on September 18, hoping to wedge his troops between the Federals and Chattanooga, Bragg posted his army on the west bank of Chickamauga Creek along a line from Reed's Bridge to just opposite Lee and Gordon's Mill.

Fighting began shortly after dawn on September 19 when Union infantry encountered Confederate cavalry at Jay's Mill. This brought on a general battle that spread south for nearly 4 miles. The armies fought desperately all day, often hand-to-hand, and gradually the Confederates pushed the Federals back to LaFayatte Road. On September 20, Bragg again tried to drive between the Union force and Chattanooga, but failed to dislodge Rosecrans' line. Then a gap opened in the Federal ranks, and General James Longstreet's Confederates smashed through the hole, routing Rosecrans and half his army. General George H. Thomas took command of the remaining Federals and formed a new battleline on Snodgrass Hill. Here his men held their ground against repeated assaults, earning for Thomas the nickname "Rock of Chickamauga." After dark, Thomas withdrew his men from the field. The defeat forced the Union troops to retreat into Chattanooga. The Confederates pursued, occupying Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and Chattanooga Valley. By placing artillery on the heights overlooking the river and blocking the roads and rail lines, the Southerners prevented Federal supplies from entering the city. Unless something was done to break the Confederate stranglehold, Rosecrans' army must surrender or starve.

Aware of Rosecrans' plight, Union authorities in Washington ordered reinforcements to his relief. General Joseph Hooker came from Virginia late in October with 20,000 men and General William T. Sherman brought in 16,000 more from Mississippi in mid-November. Thomas replaced Rosecrans as head of Army of the Cumberland and General Ulysses S. Grant assumed overall command.

Within days of Grant's arrival at Chattanooga in October, the situation began to change dramatically. On October 28 Federal troops opened a short supply route (called the "Cracker Line") from Bridgeport, Alabama. On November 23 Thomas' men attacked and routed the Confederates from Orchard Knob. On the 24th, aided by a heavy fog that enshrouded the slopes of Lookout Mountain during most of the day, Hooker's soldiers pushed the Confederates out of their defenses around the Cravens House. On November 25, with most of Bragg's army now concentrated on Missionary Ridge, Grant launched Sherman's troops against the Confederate right flank, and sent Hooker's men from Lookout Mountain to attack the Confederate left. Thomas soldiers, in the center at Orchard Knob, were held in reserve.

Hooker was delayed crossing Chattanooga Creek and the Confederates halted Sherman's attack. To relieve the pressure on Sherman, Grant ordered Thomas' Army of the Cumberland to assault the rifle pits at the base of Missionary Ridge. This was quickly accomplished. Then, without orders, Thomas' men scaled the heights in one of the great charges of the war. The Confederates line collapsed and Bragg's troops fled to the rear. During the night they retreated into Georgia. The siege and battle of Chattanooga were over and Union armies now controlled the city and nearly all of Tennessee. The next spring, Sherman used Chattanooga for his base as he started his march to Atlanta and the sea.

Chickamauga Battle September 18-20, 1863


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The casual reader may find the quantity of information contained in Red Clay to Richmond somewhat daunting, but a reader possessed with a working knowledge of the war's people, places, and battles, will find this book to be an excellent synopsis of the war role of the 35th Georgia. The book's greatest strength, however, is the recounting of the experiences of the 35th's soldiers as they trekked through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania before coming home.
The most in-depth and complete account of the heroic but vain fight of the Georgia troops made up of militia, state line, Athens and Augusta work battalions in their stand against Sherman's hardened veterans on their March to the Sea. In defense of family and homes the 4,000-5,000 Georgia troops under Brigadier General Phillips attacked the Union right wing at Griswoldville, Georgia November 22, 1864. The Georgia troops surged forward seven times against the entrenched Union lines. Statistics show more casualties than any other fight of the Civil War in proportion to the number of troops engaged.
This book shows better than any other the disruptive effect of the Civil War on the lives of real Southern people. In 1,300 letters between many family members, this magnificant book chronicles the Jones family of Liberty County, Georgia from 1854 until the late 1860s. We see the family's lives from day to day as war clouds gather, the son becomes Mayor of Savannah, the army is raised, Sherman's army arrives and pillages the plantation every day for a month, the family becomes destitute refugees from the chaos of war, the slaves become free workers, etc. We see into the minds and hearts of this good family, experience their births and deaths, joys and sorrows and fears, at the time of the nation's greatest political crisis.
Carved In Stone is the story of the development of Stone Mountain, Georgia, from a natural wonder, to an historic site, to a recreational park. Stone Mountain is the largest exposed mass of granite in the world. Sixteen miles east of Atlanta, the 825-food dome rises to 1,683 feet above sea level. The northern face of the mountain is a perpendicular cliff nearly fifty stories tall. The world's largest piece of sculpture (where ride gigantic carved figures of three Confederate heroes: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson) is a part of Stone Mountain's majesty.
From the first conflict under General Nathan Bedford Forrest at Murfreesboro in 1862 to the desperate and often brutal battles with Union cavalry in the Carolinas during 1865, the Second Georgia was almost constantly in action. While the Second Georgia fought in such famous campaigns as Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Resaca, Atlanta, and Bentonville, they also participated in deadly encounters at Farmington, Mossy Creek, Noonday Creek, Sunshine Church, and Waynesboro. Many of these conflicts are obscure to all but the most ardent Civil War historians. This is the first regimental history of a Georgia Cavalry regiment ever published. The Second Georgia served under both Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joe Wheeler.


The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaign

Six Armies in Tennessee:

From Kirkus Reviews
A narrative history of crucial Civil War operations in the West after Grant's great victories at Vicksburg and Fort Donaldson in July 1863. Woodworth (History/Texas Christian Univ.) traces how several bloody campaigns, marked by serious blunders on both sides, helped seal the Confederacy's fate. The Union Army of the Cumberland, under the command of General William S. Rosecrans, a neurotic, slow-moving perfectionist, were under orders to seize Chattanooga, a city important both because it served as a Confederate rail center (and the area around it was a breadbasket for Confederate forces) and because it guarded the path to Atlanta and the deep South. Opposing Rosecrans was Braxton Bragg, in charge of the Army of Tennessee. Bragg was particularly unpopular, and his command was frequently hamstrung by dissension. The opposing armies, maneuvering in an immense mountainous and forested area, were intermittently crippled by a lack of intelligence and by the difficulty of moving large numbers of troops over inhospitable terrain. Woodworth offers some convincing portraits of Rosecrans, Bragg, and their officers, and catches with great clarity the nature of the deadly chess game the armies were engaged in. Rosecrans's errors led to a Union defeat at Chickamauga, costly for both sides, after which both armies were reinforced. General Longstreet joined Bragg, bringing elements of the Army of Northern Virginia, and deepening the professional jealousy that kept threatening to dissipate Confederate successes. Union forces were bolstered by the arrival of the armies of Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, all talented, aggressive fighters. Pressured by Lincoln, the Union forces finally captured Chattanooga, inflicting another humiliating setback on the Confederates and opening up the path for Sherman's march to Atlanta and the sea. A fine analysis of strategic and tactical operations, stressing the influence of commanders on the success, or failure, of their armies, while not losing sight of the grim experience of war for frontline troops

Source:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress