Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge: Hooker's and Summertown
At 11 A. M. Woods completed the bridge, and soon after Geary's division and Whittaker's brigade, in line, sweeping the mountain from base to palisade, came abreast. The batteries then opened fire, and Woods and Grose crossed the creek and aligned their troops on Geary's left as it swept down the valley. The troops of the enemy, in the first positions, that escaped the artillery fire, ran into the infantry lines, so that quick overthrow occurred to all the troops that had taken position in the valley and near the western base of the mountain. Many were killed, more were wounded, and the remainder were captured, and then the line moved onward towards the mountain's front.
The booming of the heavy guns, with interludes of light artillery and musketry fire, announced to friend and foe in the distant lines that an action was in progress where battle had not been expected. Quietness reigning throughout the other hills and valleys compassed by the long lines of the contending armies, the contest on the mountain-side, revealed by its noise, but as yet hidden from sight, commanded the profoundest attention and interest of far more than one hundred thousand men. Those not held by duty' or the constraint of orders, in crowds sought the elevated lookouts, and, with glasses and strained vision, turned their gaze to the woods, fog, and battle-smoke which concealed the anomalous contest. As the increasing roar of musketry indicated the sweep of the battle to the east, the anxiety for its revelation on the open ground became intense. Soon through the clefts of the fog could be seen the routed enemy in rapid motion, followed by Hooker's line, with its right under the palisade and its continuity lost to view far down the mountain. Whittaker held the right, under the cliffs, and below were the brigades of Cobham, Ireland, and Creighton; and this line hurled the enemy from position after position, climbing over crags and boulders for attack and pursuit, and reached at noon the point where orders required a halt for readjustment of lines and a more cautious approach towards the Summertown road. But as on the following day, in the assault made by other portions of the Army of the Cumberland, the restraint of orders did not arrest the pursuit of the flying foe, so now these victorious troops swept on. With a plunging fire from above and behind they rolled up the enemy's line, and, lifting it from its intrenchments, made no half until the middle of the open ground was gained. Here the enemy met reinforcements and made a more determined stand. Soon, however, Grose's brigade of Cruft's division, and Osterhaus' command, having gathered up the captured on the lower ground, closed on the left, and then the enemy was driven from all his defences on the open ground, and with broken ranks retreated down the eastern descent of the mountain.
The heavy Parrotts and the Tenth and Eighteenth Ohio batteries, under Captain Naylor, on Moccasin Point, rendered important aid to the assaulting forces, by preventing the concentration of the enemy's troops. But the potent cause of the victory was the fact that brave men reached the flank and rear of the enemy's defences.
The heavy fighting ceased at 2 P. M. General Hooker's troops had exhausted their ammunition, as no trains could reach them. Besides this want of ammunition, as a bar to further fighting, the fog which had overhung the mountain during the day settled down densely over the enemy. But for these obstacles, and the fact that the enemy could now concentrate heavily to prevent the insulation of his troops on the mountain-top, an effort would have been made to seize the Summertown road. Hooker, therefore, waited for ammunition and reinforcements. At 5 P. M. Carlin's brigade of the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps crossed the Chattanooga Creek, near its mouth, and ascended the mountain to Hooker's right. The troops of this brigade carried on their persons ammunition for Hooker's skirmishers, in addition to the ordinary supply for themselves. Servere skirmishing was then maintained until nearly midnight.
On the 24th, General Sherman occupied the two northernmost summits of Missionary Ridge, which had been abandoned by the enemy. Between this point and Bragg's lines was a deep depression, which must be crossed before the Confederate lines could be reached. The battle of the 25th began early in the day, but, though persistent fighting continued till nearly evening, no important progress was made. General Hooker had been directed, early in the day, to move against Bragg's left, across the valley between the two ridges. General Thomas, who had been held to move in co-operation with Sherman, was ordered to make an independent attack upon the enemy's centre. Four divisions were in line, in readiness for this assault, but night was near at hand when the order came.
Between 3 and 4 P. M. six successive cannon-shots from the battery on Orchard Knob gave the signal for the advance. General Grant's order required that the enemy should be dislodged from the rifle-pits and intrenchments at the base of Missionary Ridge. The statement is made in his official report that it was his design that the lines should be readjusted at the base for the assault of the summit; but no such instructions were given to corps or division generals. Neither does it appear from his report whether he meditated an independent assault of the summit from his centre, or one co-operative with Sherman on the left, or Hooker on the right, as the original plan prescribed for the former or as the issues of the day suggested for the latter.