with two good veteran corps. Meanwhile the Richmond
Government was more foolish than the Washington was wise; for it let
Davis mismanage the strategy without any reference to Lee. Bragg also
made a capital mistake by sending Longstreet off to Knoxville with
more than a third of his command just before Grant's final advance.
The result was that Bragg found himself with only thirty thousand men
at Chattanooga when Grant closed in with sixty thousand, and that
Longstreet was useless at Knoxville, which was entirely dependent
on Chattanooga. Whoever won decisively at Chattanooga could have
Knoxville too. Davis, as the highest authority, and Bragg, as the
most responsible subordinate, ensured their own defeat.

Chattanooga was the key to the whole strategic area of the upper
Tennessee; for it was the best road, rail, and river junction between
the lower Mississippi and the Atlantic ports of the South. It had
been held for some time by a Federal garrison which had made it
fairly strong. But toward the end of October it was short of supplies;
and Hooker had to fight Longstreet at Wauhatchie in the Lookout
Valley before it could be revictualed. When Hooker, Thomas, and
Sherman were there together under Grant in November it was of course
perfectly safe; and the problem changed from defense to attack. The
question was how to drive Bragg from his commanding positions on
Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. The woods and hills offered
concealment to the attack in some places. But Lookout Mountain
was a splendid observation post, twenty-two hundred feet high and
crested with columns of rock. The Ridge was three miles east, the
Mountain three miles south, of Cameron Hill, which stood just west
of Chattanooga, commanding the bridge of boats that crossed the
Tennessee.

The battle, fought with great determination on both sides, lasted
three days--the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth of
November. Sherman made the flank attack on Missionary Ridge from the
north and Thomas the frontal attack from the west. Hooker attacked
the western flank of Lookout Mountain.

Thomas did the first day's fighting, which was all preliminary
work, by advancing a good mile, taking the Confederate lines on the
lower slopes of the Ridge, and changing their defensive features
to face the Ridge instead of Chattanooga.

At two the next morning Giles Smith's brigade dropped down the
Tennessee in boats and surprised the extreme north pickets pla