General Grant Saw the Forest or General Rosecrans Only Saw the Trees

During the Confederate siege of Chattanooga, General Grant saw the forest and General Rosecrans only saw the trees. In the fall of 1863, after his retreat from Chickamauga, General Rosecrans was totally undone, physically, emotionally and mentally. The total Union losses numbered in excess of 16,000 men, killed, wounded or captured. The Federal Forces retired to Chattanooga and were nearly surrounded by the Rebel Army of General Braxton Bragg. According to Rosecrans, his Army was doomed to starvation or surrender. The Union Commander was psychologically incapable of determining any rational solution to his troopers dilemma.

President Lincoln and General-In-Chief Halleck, old brains, telegraphed General Rosecrans,

“Be of good cheer. We have unabated confidence in you and your soldiers and officers. In the main, you must be the judge as to what is to be done. If I was to suggest, I would say save your army by taking strong positions until Burnside joins you.”

Lincoln knew that General Burnside was not the answer to Rosecrans’ plight, both being cut from the same clothe, as aggressive as a bag of hammers, the President remarked, that the besieged General seemed,

“confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.”

Lincoln and Halleck immediately wired General Ulysses S. Grant to move his Army to Chattanooga, relieve the beleaguered Union Forces and drive General Bragg’s Army back into Georgia. Grant traveled, by horse, to the river city, spoke briefly with the afflicted Rosecrans, determining his total incapacity and summoned key staff, in order to inspect the personnel, assess the morale and determine the quality of the defensive perimeter.

General Grant observed the decrepit state of the encampment, the defeated and demoralized demeanor of the troopers. The soldiers had little, if any food, were subsisting on the hundreds of dying and rotting mules, that littered the camp and Grant knew that hungry or not, these Union soldiers suffered mainly from the humiliating defeat of Chickamauga.

Grant was aware that less than 60 mile away, in Bridgeport, Alabama, supplies awaited transport, but the General described the route that they must travel,

“There had been much rain and the roads were almost impassable from mud knee-deep
in places, and from washouts on the mountain-sides. I had been on crutches since
the time of my fall in New Orleans and had to be carried over places where it
was not safe to cross on horseback. The roads were strewn with the debris of
broken wagons and the carcasses of thousands of starved mules and horses.”

General Grant summoned the Chief of Engineers, General “Baldy” Smith, who had a bold  plan to cross the Tennessee River, establish a beachhead at Brown’s Ferry and build a pontoon bridge, to span the river, cutting the distance to the supplies in Alabama by half. Smith’s innovative plan, the cracker line, was successful and food, clothing and medical supplies began flowing into Chattanooga. After 30 days of regular rations and medical attention, General Grant began delivering additional ordnance to the Union Forces, in preparation for a late November assault and eventual rout of General Bragg’s Confederate forces, that surrounded the strategic river city.

General Ulysses S. Grant saw the forest at Chattanooga, when General Rosecrans only saw the trees.

Bummer