Year: 1864

The Great Victory at Chattanooga.


Judge TuTHlLL has kindly handed US the fol.
lowing letter, for publication, giving a graphic
account of the 6 orious battle at Chattanooga,
in which our brave boys so successfully demon
strated the power of tha North in contest with
Southern chivalry." 1t is the more interesting
to US in showing how our own Cedar county
volunteers acted in the fight, and that they well
merit all the honors awarded by impartial his
tory to heroic achievements:


BRIDGEPokT, ALA, Dec. sth, 1868.


DEAR SIR:-You have doubtless read
the newspaper accounts Of the great bat
tie and splendid victory of our troops
over the rebels at Lookout Mountain and
Missionary Ridge; but as you may feel an
interest in knowing what hand our Cedar
county boys had in the fight, l will en-
deavor to give you brief statement Of
that part Of the action in which they,
particiI ated


About midnight Of the 23d November
we received orders to stall in," and qui
etly crossed the Tennessee river, about
four miles above Chattanooga, just below
the mouth Of Chickamauga creek. The
passage of the river was made in pontoon
boats, Of which there were $50, carrying
20 men each. As soon as W landed On
the opposite side we fell to work en-
trcrchipg, and by the time daylight had
appeared, the two divisions of Gen. Nor
gan l.. Smith aud John E Smith had all
crossed and thrown up line Of defenses
a mile and half long, extending from
thes:.river on our ri ght to Chick2mauga
creek on our left. al this was done So
quickly aud silently that the rebel pick
cts at the mouth Of the creek did not
even suspect what was going on, although
they were in plain 81 ght of us


General Smith rode up to them, and
upon being challenged by the sentinel
answered in tones of authority, "Grand
Rounds" The reserve heard the an
nounccment, and without hesitation i'm
mediatel y .JeU IN to receive him, with all
the form and ceremony due to Grant
Hounds, when to their utter astonish-
ment he informed them that he would
give them no countersiyn there, but





he at once did; thus capturing without a
blow, one lieutenant and IS men; one
however escaped and gave the alarm, and
in about an hour afterwards the long roll
was beat in the rebel camp. But they
appeared not to have fully comprehended
our strategy, for we had placed our guard
in the same spot that the rebels had occu-
,al u-6, hni J.
made his appearance, he was received
with much less ceremony than he ex-
pected, and, in fact, was goJJled up with
out any ceremony at all.


About daylight dense fog arose that
prevented the rebels from observing our
movements, and we then advanced our
line of works about half mile, capturing
% men that had been sent out to ascer-
tain what we were doing A pontoon
bridge was now thrown across the river
and completed about noon; at II o'clock
p. N. the line Of battle was formed and
We advanced against the enemy. We
were orderc to form in column, by Di.
visions, and march toward the north
end Of Missionary Ridge. distant about
II miles We advanced through an
open field, and then over a piece of woods
full Of underground, and fnally entered a
swamp where We waded for nearly mile,
knee deep in mud and water, while an
occasional shot in front showed that the
enemy's pckets were falling back We
at last reached the railroad and had a
clear view of the mountain, on the top of
which, much to our surprise, we coIld
see some of our skirmishers. We had
expected big fight to obtain possession,
and were surprised that the summit had
been gained SO soon by portion of our
troops


Our orders wero to advance to the top,
which we did by flank movement with
out further annoyance than few shells
thrown from Tunnel hill, woundlng one
man, and being the only casualty that
day in the 9th Iowa.


la the evening we were all deployed as
skirnishers and stood picket all night.
1t was extremely cold and We suffered
greatly. During the whole of that day
terrific engagement had been going on to
the right of US, but we had no opportu
nifty afforded of taking an active part un-
til noon Of the 25th, when we were called
in from picket and marched through the
woods and gorges to an old field in front
of Tunnel Hill, and about mile and
half from it. Here we were ordered to
lie down, and while SO stationed could
plainly see the enemy massiDg their ar
tillery on the top Of the mountain in front
and to the right of us The rebel posi-.
tion looked formidable indeed, the noun
tain was high, rugged and steep, and so
thickly strewn with immense piles of rock
that it seemed to be an impossibility for
our boys to ascend the almost perpendic.
ular side 10 any kind of order. While
lying there the rebels wheeled their guns
into position and directed them toward
US, but a. we had never formed very