Page "Ulysses S. Grant" Paragraph 32

On November 23, 1863 the situation at Chattanooga was urgent.

Grant had organized three armies to attack Bragg on Missionary Ridge and Confederate troops on Lookout Mountain.

On November 24, Maj. Gen. Sherman and four divisions of the Army of the Tennessee assaulted Bragg's right flank.

Thomas and Army of the Cumberland, under order from Grant, overtook Confederate picket trenches at the base of Missionary Ridge.

Maj. Gen. Hooker and the Army of the Potomac took Lookout Mountain and captured 1, 064 prisoners.

On November 25, Sherman continued his attack on Bragg's right flank on the northern section of Missionary Ridge.

In response to Sherman's assault Bragg withdrew Confederate troops on the main ridge to reinforce the Confederate right flank.

Seeing that Bragg was reinforcing his right flank, Grant ordered Thomas to make a general assault on Missionary Ridge.

After a brief delay, the Army of the Cumberland, led by Sheridan and Wood, stormed over and captured the first Confederate rifle entrenchments.

Without further orders, the Army of the Cumberland continued up hill and captured the Confederate's secondary entrenchments on top of Missionary Ridge ; forcing the defeated Confederates into disorganized retreat.

Though Bragg's army had not been captured, the decisive battle opened Georgia and the heartland of the Confederacy to Union invasion by Maj. Gen. Sherman.

Grant's fame increased throughout the country, and he was promoted to Lieutenant General, a position that had previously been given to George Washington and given to Winfield Scott as a brevet promotion.

Grant was given charge of the entire Union Army.

Grant gave the Department of the Mississippi to Maj. Gen. Sherman, and went east to Washington, DC, to make and implement a strategy with President Lincoln to decisively win the Civil War in 1864, when Lincoln was facing re-election.

After settling Julia into a house in Georgetown, he then established his headquarters fifty miles away, near Gen. Meade's Army of the Potomac in Culpeper, Virginia.