The Chattanooga Campaign in November, 1863 collectively included the engagements at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Following successful capture of Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain, General U.S. Grant (Military Division of the Mississippi) ordered Maj. Gen. George Thomas (Army of the Cumberland) on November 24 to assault the center of Gen. Braxton Bragg’s (Army of Tennessee) position on Missionary Ridge while Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman attacked the Confederate right (Tunnel Hill) and Hooker engaged the Confederate line on the left. Sherman was temporarily halted by a Confederate counterattack on November 25 while Hooker gained the heights of Missionary Ridge at Rossville Gap. Thomas’ attack was expected to stop short at Confederate rifle pits below Missionary Ridge, but momentum of the assault carried his force to the crest and overran 9000 Confederate defenders. Bragg’s Army of Tennessee was compelled to retreat breaking their siege of Chattanooga.
Cumberland Gap
After the capture of Knoxville. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside (Dept. of the Ohio) sent James M. Shacklford’s mounted brigade ahead