The orders were to take the rifle-pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge, then halt and re-form; but the men forgot them all, carried the works at the base, and then swept on up the ascent. Grant caught the inspiration, and ordered a grand charge along the whole front. Up they went, over rocks and chasms, all lines broken, the flags far ahead, each surrounded by a group of the bravest. Without firing a shot, and heedless of the tempest hurled upon them, they surmounted the crest, captured the guns, and turned them on the retreating foe. [Illustration: CHARGING UP MISSIONARY RIDGE.] That night the Union camp-fires, glistening along the heights about Chattanooga, proclaimed the success of this, the most brilliant of Grant's achievements and the most picturesque of all the battles of the war. _The Effects_ of this campaign were the utter rout of Bragg's army, the resignation of that general, and the possession of Chattanooga by the Union forces. This post gave control of East Tennessee, and opened the way to the heart of the Confederacy. It became the doorway by which the Union army gained easy access to Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. THE WAR IN EAST TENNESSEE. While Rosecrans was moving on Chattanooga, Burnside, being relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, was sent into East Tennessee, where he met with great success. In the meantime the Confederate President Davis visited Bragg, and thinking Chattanooga was sure to be captured, sent Longstreet with his corps to the defence of Tennessee. His men were in a deplorable state--hungry, ragged, and tentless; but under this indefatigable leader, they shut up Burnside's force in the works at Knoxville. Meanwhile, Grant, in the moment of his splendid triumph at Chattanooga, ordered Sherman's torn, bleeding, barefoot troops over terrible roads one hundred miles to Burnside's relief. Longstreet, in order to anticipate the arrival of these reinforcements, made a desperate assault upon Burnside (November 29), but it was as heroically repulsed. As Sherman's advance guard reached Knoxville (December 4), Longstreet's troops filed out of their works in retreat. THE WAR IN THE EAST.