The Battle of Chickamauga



 The Battle of Chickamauga was a significant engagement of the American Civil War in northwestern Georgia on September 18-20, 1863. It was the culmination of a Union offensive, known as the Chickamauga Campaign, that aimed to capture the strategic city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, from the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Major General William Rosecrans, had successfully outflanked Bragg and forced him to abandon Chattanooga without a fight. However, Rosecrans overestimated the extent of Bragg's retreat and dispersed his forces in pursuit. Bragg, reinforced by troops from Virginia under Lieutenant General James Longstreet, counterattacked and tried to destroy the isolated Union corps near Chickamauga Creek. The battle was named after the creek, "River of Death" in Cherokee.


The battle raged for two days, launching fierce assaults and counterattacks along a several-mile front. The Confederates gained ground on September 19 but failed to break the Union line. On September 20, a miscommunication in the Union command created a gap in the center of the line, which Longstreet exploited with a massive charge that drove one-third of the Union army from the field. Only the heroic stand of Major General George Thomas, who earned the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga," prevented a complete rout. Thomas formed a defensive line on Snodgrass Hill and held off repeated Confederate attacks until nightfall, allowing the rest of the Union army to retreat to Chattanooga. The Battle of Chickamauga was a costly Confederate victory, with more than 18,000 casualties out of 65,000 troops engaged. The Union army suffered more than 16,000 casualties out of 60,000 soldiers. It was the second bloodiest battle of the war, after Gettysburg, and the most significant Confederate victory in the Western Theater. However, Bragg did not pursue Rosecrans aggressively and allowed him to regroup and fortify Chattanooga with the help of reinforcements from other Union armies. Two months later, the Union army broke the Confederate siege of Chattanooga and drove Bragg's army into Georgia, reversing the outcome of Chickamauga.

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