Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Granger's Corps - Sheridan's Division - Wagner's Brigade
As the attack on Missionary Ridge had been postponed for a few days while Sherman's army got into place, General Grant was busy revising the attack plan, intending to put all the armies near Chattanooga into action at the same time as Sherman's advance.
On the 23rd, the Army of the Cumberland in Chattanooga, began with what looked like a military parade, but then moved forward and took some of the Confederate outposts near the base of the ridge. It retained its position through the 24th.
To the west, General Hooker's army on the 23rd moved up Lookout Mountain. There was some intense fighting with significant casualties; this became know as the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Fog and low clouds obscured the view from Chattanooga, and as a result, the battle also came to be known as the "Battle Above the Clouds". On the 24th, Hooker's troops found that the Confederates had evacuated Lookout Mountain, and they pursued them toward Rossville, GA.
Wagner's Brigade, with the 40th Indiana, were positioned near what is now the Ridgedale neighborhood of Chattanooga, north of the current US 41, and half a mile or so south of Grant's Headquarters at Orchard Knob. Wagner's brigade was between those of Harker, to the south, and Hazen, to the north.
On the night of the 24th, Sherman was in place north of the ridge, and the Army of the Cumberland was facing Missionary Ridge from Chattanooga. Both armies would attack the ridge the next morning, November 25th.
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Below is a picture of the general area from the top of Missionary Ridge; Union troops were below in the distance, in Chattanooga - they would need to dislodge the Confederate army on the ridge, several hundred feet above.
- Link: War Operations, see Volume XXXI, Chapter XLIII, Part III, Correspondence, pp. 213-246.
- The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 133-135.
- The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1I, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelby Foote, pp. 834-849.
- The Shipwreck Of Their Hopes, The Battle Of Chattanooga, Peter Cozzens, pp. 112-198.
- Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, pp. 432-442.
- Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 396-402.
- Events: 1863
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