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nooga), and then held in readiness for such orders as may become necessary. All these troops will be provided with two days' cooked rations, in haversacks, and one hundred rounds of ammunition on the person of each infantry soldier."

To Sherman a copy of these instructions was furnished for his guidance, and he was told: "It is particularly desirable that a force should be got through the railroad between Cleveland and Dalton, and Longstreet thus cut off from communication with the South; but being confronted by a large force here, strongly located, it is not easy to tell how this is to be effected until the result of our first effort is known."

The preliminary movements and furiously contested battles around Chattanooga occupied several days and resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Union forces. The details of this important contest cannot better be told than in the following pithy dispatch from General Meigs, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, who was present during the entire action:

HEADQUARTERS CHATTANOOGA, Nov. 26, 1863.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

SIR: On the 23d inst., at half-past II A. M., General Grant ordered a demonstration against Missionary Ridge, to develop the force holding it. The troops marched out, formed in order, and advanced in line of battle, as if on parade.

The Rebels watched the formation and movement from their picket lines and rifle pits, and from the summits of Missionary Ridge, five hundred feet above us, and thought it was a review and drill, so openly and deliberately, so regular, was it all done.

The line advanced, preceded by skirmishers, and at 2 o'clock P. M. reached our picket lines, and opened a rattling volley upon the Rebel pickets, who replied and ran into their advanced line of riflepits. After them went out our skirmishers and into them, along the

center of the line of 25,000 troops which General Thomas had so quickly displayed, until we opened fire. Prisoners assert that they thought the whole movement was a review and general drill, and that it was too late to send to their camps for re-inforcements, and that they were overwhelmed by force of numbers. It was a surprise in open daylight.

At 3 P. M. the important advanced position of Orchard Knob and the lines right and left were in our possession, and arrangements were ordered for holding them during the night.

The next day at daylight General Sherman had 5,000 men across the Tennessee, and established on its south bank, and commenced the construction of a pontoon bridge about six miles above Chattanooga. The Rebel steamer "Dunbar" was repaired at the right moment, and rendered effective aid in this crossing, carrying over 6,000 men.

By nightfall General Sherman had seized the extremity of Missionary Ridge nearest the river, and was entrenching himself. General Howard, with a brigade, opened communication with him from Chattanooga on the south side of the river. Skirmishing and cannonading continued all day on the left and center. · General Hooker scaled the slopes of Lookout Mountain, and from the valley of Lookout Creek drove the Rebels around the point. He captured some 2,000 prisoners, and established himself high up the mountain side, in full view of Chattanooga. This raised the blockade, and now steamers were ordered from Bridgeport to Chattanooga. They had run only to Kelly's Ferry, whence ten miles of hauling over mountain roads and twice across the Tennessee on pontoon bridges, brought us our supplies.

All night the point of Missionary Ridge on the extreme left, and the side of Lookout Mountain on the extreme right, blazed with the camp fires of loyal troops.

The day had been one of dense mists and rains, and much of General Hooker's battle was fought above the clouds, which concealed him from our view, but from which his musketry was heard.

At nightfall the sky cleared, and the full moon-"the traitor's doom"--shone upon the beautiful scene, until 1 A. M., when twinkling sparks upon the mountain side showed that picket skirmishing was going on. Then it ceased. A brigade sent from Chattanooga crossed the Chattanooga Creek, and opened communication with Hooker.

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General Grant's headquarters during the afternoon of the 23d and the day of the 24th were in Wood's redoubt, except when, in the course of the day, he rode along the advanced line, visiting the headquarters of the several commanders in Chattanooga Valley.

At daylight on the 25th the Stars and Stripes were descried on the peak of Lookout. The Rebels had evacuated the mountain. Hooker moved to descend the mountain, striking Missionary Ridge at the Rossville Gap, to sweep both sides and its summit.

The Rebel troops were seen, as soon as it was light enough, streaming regiments and brigades along the narrow summit of Missionary Ridge, either concentrating on the right to overwhelm Sherman, or marching for the railroad to raise the siege.

They had evacuated the valley of Chattanooga. abandon that of Chickamauga?

Would they

The twenty-pounders and four-and-a-quarter inch rifles of Wood's redoubt opened on Missionary Ridge. Orchard Knob sent its compliments to the Ridge, which, with rifled Parrotts, answered, and the cannonade, thus commenced, continued all day. Shot and shell screamed from Orchard Knob to Missionary Ridge, and from Missionary Ridge to Orchard Knob, and from Wood's redoubt, over the heads of Generals Grant and Thomas and their staffs, who were with us in this favorable position, from whence the whole battle could be seen as in an amphitheatre. The headquarters were under fire all day long.

Cannonading and musketry were heard from General Sherman, and General Howard marched the Eleventh Corps to join him.

General Thomas sent out skirmishers, who drove in the Rebel pickets and chased them into their entrenchments, and at the foot of Missionary Ridge Sherman made an assault against Bragg's right, entrenched on a high knob next to that on which Sherman himself lay fortified. The assault was gallantly made.

Sherman reached the edge of the crest, and held his ground for (it seemed to me) an hour, but was bloodily repulsed by reserves.

A general advance was ordered, and a strong line of skirmishers followed by a deployed line of battle some two miles in length. At the signal of leaden shots from headquarters on Orchard Knob, the line moved rapidly and orderly forward. The Rebel pickets discharged their muskets and ran into their rifle-pits. Our skirmishers followed on their heels.

The line of battle was not far behind, and we saw the gray Rebels

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