The
Battle of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
Sketch
of Battle of the Mountain,
with
the Point, Adjacent Lands,
Rebel
Batteries and Camps
Carried
By Hooker and His Troops
Having been driven from the Field at Chickamauga, The Union Army took refuge
in Chattanooga. Braxton Bragg's
army quickly occupied the undefended heights south and east of the city and
began limited siege operations. At
the end of October Ulysses S. Grant assumed command in Chattanooga. Union reinforcements eventually secured tenuous supply lines
then made preparations for an offensive. On
the morning of November 24, the Confederate left, anchored on Lookout Mountain,
came under attack. Three divisions
commanded by Joseph Hooker crossed Lookout Creek at the base of the mountain and
drove back Confederate pickets. Heavy
skirmishing took place near Craven's Farm where the defenders, outnumbered four
to one, slowly gave way, moving up the slope to another position.
With reinforcements from the summit, Confederates under Carter Stevenson
held Lookout Mountain until midnight, when they were ordered to join the rest of
Bragg's army on Missionary Ridge.
A map made in November of 1863 by the New York Herald's correspondent, Sylvanus
Cadwallader, accompanied Hooker at Lookout Mountain and sketched this
bird's-eye-view. Missionary Ridge
and the "Rebel camps' sit on the horizon (east). The map shows details of the Jeremiah Fryar, Jr.
It shows the Fryar house just above the railroad and to the east of the
Chattanooga Road going over the end of the mountain.
The map shows a log house where the Fryar slaves lived.
It was across the road from the Fryar place and was above a branch of the
road that led toward Light's Mill (now Reflection Riding). A barn and cleared land are between the railroad and creek.
There are cornfields shown between the railroad and below the creek to
the east of the road. The road stayed close to a bend in the creek, while paths are
shown on either side of "Bald Hill," where the Fryar Cemetery is
located. A rail fence was between
one cornfield and the path at the foot of Bald Hill. The map notes that a bridge over lookout Creek at the Fryar
farm had been destroyed as had been a railroad bridge nearby to the West.
It shows that Rebel pickets were on one side of the creek at the Fryar
farm and Union pickets just across the creek on the North side.
The profile of Lookout Mountain, rising 1,100 feet above the Tennessee River,
looms over the battlefield, which is drawn in perspective. The river appears to swing around the base of Lookout
Mountain from the right, but in reality it originates north of Moccasin Point,
loops around the point, then flows north, away from Lookout Mountain.
On either side of Lookout Creek the Union and Confederate picket lines
are indicated. The majority of
Hooker's forces crossed near the destroyed bridge on the Chattanooga Road and
drove Confederate pickets from their rifle pits and from the railroad
embankment. The most severe
fighting took place near Craven's Farm (the "White House" shown which
was -- Jeremiah Fryar's house), farther up the slope.
The map mistakenly places this White House too close to the railroad and
on the wrong side of the road. A
number of Confederate positions are shown, but no indication of troops appears
in the contested areas above the railroad cut.
Reports
in U.S. War Department, War of the Rebellion: ser. 1, vol. 31, pt. 2.
Submitted
by June Tanner-Cooper