The Battle of Chattanooga heats up on this day 156 years ago...

It had begun so promisingly for the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Braxton Bragg and his ragtag army of rebels, fresh off their stunning victory at Chickamauga, had all but cut off and besieged the Union Army of the Tennessee inside the city of Chattanooga - a Vicksburg in reverse as it were.

But then President Lincoln, looking to stave off disaster and rob Confederates of momentum, ordered Major General Ulysses S. Grant - fresh off his victory at Vicksburg - to go to Chattanooga and rescue a seemingly dire situation. Grant immediately relieved the Army of the Tennessee's commander - William S. Rosecrans - and replaced him with George Thomas.

Grant was then able to partially lift the siege, bringing valuable food and supplies into the city once again. Now that his army was no longer starving and running low on the necessities, he decided to attack Bragg and his well-dug-in Confederates. The first of these attacks would occur on November 24 at the Battle of Lookout Mountain.



Major General Joseph Hooker and 10,000 Union soldiers scaled the bluffs on that November morning in heavy fog. The 9,000 Confederates occupying the heights had no idea they were coming until the Federals were virtually right on top of them.

After several hours of fighting, Hooker and his men triumphed in the action, sending the Confederates under Carter L. Stevenson reeling from the summit. The Confederate position had been busted wide open.

The next day, November 25, Grant resolved to attack the Confederate center located on Missionary Ridge. What once seemed likely to be the biggest Confederate victory of the war thus far, was mere hours from turning into one of its worst defeats.