Original Photographs Taken on the Battlefields during the Civil War of the United States
John Stuart Mill · en
[Illustration: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT IN MISSISSIPPI CAMPAIGN, 1863]
[Illustration: "BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS" ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IN
TENNESSEE--ENGINEERS OF ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND IN CAMP]
THE war cameras reached Nashville on the same day that Grant entered the
city, October 21, 1863, and followed him closely throughout the
campaign. Grant hurried to Chattanooga and found the troops without
shoes or clothing, and all food exhausted. He telegraphed to Burnside to
hold Knoxville and appealed to Admiral Porter at Cairo to send gunboats
to convey transports carrying rations from St. Louis for Sherman's Army,
which was moving up from the Mississippi. Bragg was entrenched on
Missionary Ridge, extending along the crest and across Chattanooga
Valley to Lookout Mountain. The Confederate fortifications were very
strong and their lines reached over the Raccoon Mountain. The war
cameras were taken to the foothills of Lookout Mountain, where an
engineers' brigade of the Army of the Cumberland was encamped. Grant
succumbed to appeals to stand before the camera and the negative is here
reproduced. The haggard expression on his face shows the tremendous
responsibility that rested upon him. On the twenty-third of November, in
1863, long lines of infantry moved forward and the heavy guns opened
fire. The Federal lines flashed across the valley sweeping everything
before them, pushing the Confederate skirmish line from their rifle
pits, to the foothills of Lookout Mountain. On the twenty-fourth, Grant
stood on the top of Orchard Knob, watching Hooker's men rush to the side
of Lookout Mountain, leaping from one rocky ledge to another, scrambling
over huge boulders, and through deep chasms in a rain of solid shot and
shell. They charged almost to the muzzle of the enemy's cannon, gaining
ground foot by foot, until at last they reached the foot of the
Palisades, and were finally lost in the mist that veiled the mountain.
For three hours the battle raged above the clouds. At sunset the mist
disappeared and moonlight fell on old Lookout. The Confederate forces
could be seen occupying the summit. Hooker's men scaled the Palisades.
The Confederates withdrew into the woods and sought the protection of
the night. At sunrise, on the twenty-fifth of November, these Kentucky
soldiers unfurled the Stars and Stripes. A great cheer arose from the
army in the valley.