Chattanooga, with four railroads and access to several natural passes through the Southern Appalachian Mountains, was the gateway to the deep South, and the Union army could not capture and destroy the Confederacy's industrial centers in central Georgia and central Alabama without securing it. In the early fall of 1863, Federal commander Major General William S. Rosecrans planned a three-column attack on the city, where General Braxton Bragg's Confederate army guarded the railroad crossing. While Rosecrans and Major General Thomas L. Crittenden's columns maneuvered to confuse Bragg about the Federals' true point of attack, the main threat came from a third column of Major General George H. Thomas' 14th Corps and Major General Alexander McDowell McCook's 20th Corps, which moved up from the west and south to threaten the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Recognizing his supply line was in peril, Bragg pulled his forces out of Chattanooga by September 9, 1863, and withdrew to LaFayette, Georgia, where they met reinforcements from Virginia and Mississippi. With the Union army split into three columns and spread dangerously thin over 40 miles, Bragg decided to attack, and his first opportunity came in McLemore Cove on September 9 - 11, 1863.

Photo: Bradley Owen

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher