Battle of Chickamauga Free Essay Example, 1000 words

The following day, second day of fighting, the battle began again at around 9:30 in the morning, with coordinated left assaults by the confederate army against the Cumberland army. About an hour into the war, General Rosecrans thought that there was a gap in his line, and as a remedy, he ordered General Thomas Wood to fill the gap. General Wood was convinced that there wasn’t any gap in the Rosecrans’ army, and he was sure that taking such an action would open a wide gap in the Cumberland union army. However, having been accused before for not taking orders from his superiors, General Wood obliged and this created a wide gap in the Cumberland union army. This was a huge blunder that General Rosecrans made and the mistake led to the defeat of the Rosecrans’ union army. Immediately after noticing the wide gap in the Rosecrans’ union army, the confederate army capitalized swiftly on the gap to assault the Rosecrans’ army. The attack was led by General Longstreet, and the attacking division had eight brigades dividend into three lines. We will write a custom essay sample on Battle of Chickamauga or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The united Cumberland army tried to resist the assault, but General Longstreet’s attack was so strong that the Rosecrans’ army was unable to resist it. For this reason, the united Cumberland army were pushed far away in the field. Following this move, two thirds of the Rosecrans’ union army members were in full flight, running away from the mighty confederate army. The confederate army seized the golden opportunity and they pursued the fleeing Rosecrans’ army, they managed to bag a sizeable number of the fleeing Cumberland army. But although a good number of the Cumberland army members run away, out of fear, there were some members of the Cumberland army who withstood the confederate attack throughout the day. The leader of those who resisted the confederate assault was George. H. Thomas. Thomas gathered a number of gallant Cumberland soldiers and they formed an ad hoc force that operated on top of an elevation known as S nodgrass (Cleaves, 47). This ad hoc force was reinforced by Major General Gordon Granger and Brigadier James Steedman. The ad hoc force managed to resist the assaults of the confederate army throughout the afternoon. And at night, the members of the ad hoc force withdraw secretly to Chattanooga, where they spent the night. The following day, Thomas urged the Rosecrans to go back to the war, but the members of the Cumberland army refused to go back to the war, for they were convinced that they could not win the war.