The Chattanooga Campaign

Edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear

University Press Books Award for Public and Secondary Schools

Narrated by Don Coltrane

Available from Audible

Book published by Southern Illinois University Press

When the Confederates emerged as victors in the Chickamauga Campaign, the Union Army of the Cumberland lay under siege in Chattanooga, with Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee on nearby high ground at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. A win at Chattanooga was essential for the Confederates, both to capitalize on the victory at Chickamauga and to keep control of the gateway to the lower South. Should the Federal troops wrest control of that linchpin, they would cement their control of eastern Tennessee and gain access to the Deep South. In the fall 1863 Chattanooga Campaign, the new head of the western Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, sought to break the Confederate siege. His success created the opportunity for the Union to start a campaign to capture Atlanta the following spring.

Woodworth’s introduction sets the stage for ten insightful essays that provide new analysis of this crucial campaign. From the Battle of Wauhatchie to the Battle of Chattanooga, the contributors’ well-researched and vividly written assessments of both Union and Confederate actions offer a balanced discussion of the complex nature of the campaign and its aftermath. Other essays give fascinating examinations of the reactions to the campaign in northern newspapers and by Confederate soldiers from west of the Mississippi River.

The Chattanooga Campaign contains a wealth of detailed information about the military, social, and political aspects of the campaign and contributes significantly to our understanding of the Civil War’s western theater.

Steven E. Woodworth is professor of history at Texas Christian University. He is the author or editor of thirty books, including The Shiloh Campaign, The Chickamauga Campaign, and Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861–1865.

Charles D. Grear is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. He has written five books, including Why Texans Fought in the Civil War and The House Divided: America in the Era of the Civil War.

REVIEWS:

“This excellent book is the most authoritative and invigorating study of the Chattanooga Campaign ever produced. Focused upon strategy and tactics, commanders and soldiers, as well as postwar commemorations, these essays offer a rich panorama of one of the most pivotal and decisive campaigns of the Civil War.”

—T. Michael Parrish, Baylor University

“This handy group of essays on the Chattanooga campaign in the Civil War is a worthy companion to an earlier similar treatment of the battle of Chickamauga. Like its predecessor it is expertly edited to shed light on that key campaign in the heartland of the West in late 1863. Its ten chapters by ten different historians brightly illuminate the multiple aspects of that important campaign. It is meticulously and deeply documented, drawing on virtually every source touching the battle, to give us a revealing consolidated view—a work well done, to be relied on, and very worth reading.”

—John C. Waugh, author of The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox‚ÄîStonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers.

“The Chattanooga Campaign continues the format of the much-esteemed Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series by employing contributions from leading military scholars and presenting a wide-ranging study of such familiar episodes as the command controversy at Orchard Knob between Grant and George H. Thomas, as well as lesser-known battle actions at Wauhatchie and Ringgold Gap. ”

—Christopher S. Stowe, United States Army Command and General Staff College

“This is military history at its finest. Woodworth and Grear have assembled an outstanding group of military scholars who give us a sweeping and engaging overview of one of the West’s most crucial Civil War campaigns. Superbly researched, lucidly written, The Chattanooga Campaign is another outstanding addition to the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series.”

—Stephen D. Engle, author of The American Civil War: The War in the West 1861‚ÄìJuly 1863