Battle of Chickamauga Page

Welcome to the Battle of Chickamauga page! 

The posts are organized below within the order of battle for both armies.

General Overview and Accounts:

Crossing the Tennessee: The Army of the Cumberland Invades Georgia

Chickamauga Vignettes

The Chances of War: Captured Federal Surgeons After Chickamauga

Little Dreamed Horrors of War: A Civilian's View of Chickamauga

Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

Barbecued Ribs and the Pipe of Peace: The 1889 Blue-Gray Reunion at Chickamauga

Rosecrans Headquarters marker at Chickamauga

ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND

Headquarters, 14th Army Corps

Escorting the Rock of Chickamauga

General Absalom Baird

First Division (Baird), 14th Army Corps

Like a Reed Before a Whirlwind: With Baird's Division at Chickamauga

First Brigade (Scribner), First Division (Baird), 14thArmy Corps

Frank Scribner at Chickamauga (38th Indiana)

Prelude to an Awful Finale: A Buckeye Sergeant at Chickamauga (2nd Ohio Infantry)

Severest Ordeal of My Life: A Buckeye Colonel Remembers Chickamauga (33rd Ohio)

Riding with Scribner: An Orderly's View of Chickamauga (10th Wisconsin)

Second Brigade (Starkweather), First Division (Baird), 14th Army Corps

Perryville All Knocked in the Shade: At Chickamauga with the 1st Wisconsin

Divisional Artillery, First Division (Baird), 14th Army Corps

Overrun at Chickamauga: "Pork & Beans" of the Regular Artillery (Battery H, 5th U.S.)

General James S. Negley

Third Brigade (Sirwell), Second Division (Negley), 14th Army Corps

Captured at Chickamauga with the 21st Ohio Infantry

The Final Minutes on Horseshoe Ridge (21st Ohio)

Buckeye Rapid-Fire: The 21st Ohio and the Colt's Revolving Rifles

Revisiting Snodgrass Hill: Memories of a 21st Ohio Officer

Where Wounds and Death Held High Carnival: The 37th Indiana and Chickamauga

We Wish to Settle This by Fighting: On the Road to Chickamauga with Battery G

General John M. Brannan

First Brigade (Connell), Third Division (Brannan), 14th Army Corps

Jim Stinchcomb in the Business at Chickamauga (17th OVI)

Our Gallant Boys Bleaching in the Sun: A Buckeye Returns to Chickamauga (17th OVI)

Into the Wilderness of Pines: Opening Day on the Left at Chickamauga (31st Ohio)

Second Brigade (Croxton), Third Division (Brannan), 14th Army Corps 

All for our dear country: The 74th Indiana and Chickamauga

Defending the 14th Ohio Flag at Chickamauga

Stout Enough Hearts for the Fray: A Buckeye Describes Chickamauga (14th Ohio)

Third Brigade (Van Derveer), Third Division (Brannan), 14th Army Corps

Under Most Trying Circumstances: With the 35th Ohio at Chickamauga

How Kenesaw Mountain Landis Got His Unusual Name (35th Ohio)

General Joseph J. Reynolds

First Brigade (Wilder), Fourth Division (Reynolds), 14th Army Corps

Colonel Wilder Discusses Chickamauga

Second Brigade (King), Fourth Division (Reynolds), 14th Army Corps

The River of Death with the 75th Indiana

Third Brigade (Turchin), Fourth Division (Reynolds), 14th Army Corps

Fight for God and Humanity: Chaplain Lyle Sends the 11th Ohio into battle at Chickamauga

Arresting a Panic at Chickamauga: A Voice from the 36th Ohio

"If Anybody's Boys Go Out, Mine Go." Turchin's Escape at Chickamauga (92nd Ohio)

General Jefferson C. Davis

Second Brigade (Carlin), First Division (Davis), 20th Army Corps

The Desperate Day Before Us: the 21st Illinois at Chickamauga

From Chickamauga to Libby: The Journal of Major Bedan B. McDonald, 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Third Brigade (Heg), First Division (Davis), 20th Army Corps

Our Hearts are Filled with Sorrow: The Death of Colonel Hans C. Heg

General Richard W. Johnson

First Brigade (Willich), Second Division (Johnson), 20thArmy Corps

Compelled to Submit with what Grace We Could: an Ohio artilleryman captured at Chickamauga (Battery A, 1st OVLA)

Second Brigade (Dodge), Second Division (Johnson), 20th Army Corps

Fearfully Grand: The 29th Indiana Survives Chickamauga

General Phil Sheridan

First Brigade (Lytle), Third Division (Sheridan), 20th Army Corps

A Most Terrific Roar: With the 88th Illinois at Chickamauga

Everything was Confusion: With the 24th Wisconsin at Chickamauga

            Second Brigade (Laiboldt), Third Division (Sheridan), 20th Army Corps

A Battlefield Promise Kept: A Mississippian Returns the Battle Flag of the 2nd Missouri

General Thomas J. Wood

First Brigade (Buell), First Division (Wood), 21stArmy Corps

It is the Fate of War: The 26th Ohio at Chickamauga

In the Center at Chickamauga (58th Indiana)

Third Brigade (Harker), First Division (Wood), 21st Army Corps

The Fatal Gap: A View from Wood's Division at Chickamauga (64th Ohio)

Winged at the Outset: Wilbur Hinman's Experiences at Chickamauga (65th Ohio)

Becoming Tigers: The 125th Ohio and the Struggle of Horseshoe Ridge

General John M. Palmer

Second Brigade (Hazen), Second Division (Palmer), 21st Army Corps

Until Victory is Ours: The Bullet Magnet of the 41st Ohio Survives Chickamauga

Third Brigade (Grose), Second Division (Palmer), 21stArmy Corps


General Horatio P. Van Cleve

First Brigade (Beatty), Third Division (Van Cleve), 21st Army Corps

Harry Townsend's Hat and the Wild Retreat at Chickamauga (9th Kentucky)

Second Brigade (Dick), Third Division (Van Cleve), 21st Army Corps

Mighty Tempest of War: The First Day of Chickamauga with the 86th Indiana

Third Brigade (Barnes), Third Division (Van Cleve), 21st Army Corps

Back to Chickamauga with John Purvis of the 51st Ohio Infantry

General James B. Steedman

First Brigade (Whitaker), First Division (Steedman), Reserve Corps

Saving the Army: The 115th Illinois on Horseshoe Ridge

The Galvanized Yankee of Steubenville, Ohio (40th Ohio)

Atop Snodgrass Hill: The Second Day at Chickamauga with the 89th Ohio

Second Brigade (Mitchell), First Division (Steedman), Reserve Corps

"Wipe Out Perryville!" The 121st Ohio's Redemption at Chickamauga

ARMY OF TENNESSEE

Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk

Headquarters, Polk’s Corps

Not His Fault: Leonidas Polk Explains September 20th 

General Benjamin F. Cheatham

Divisional Artillery, Cheatham’s Division, Polk’s Corps

With Cheatham's Division at Chickamauga (Carnes' Battery)


                            Deas' Brigade, Hindman's Division, Polk’s Corps

A Victory Complete: A Rebel Surgeon at Chickamauga (19th Alabama) 

All the Glory of Whipping Rosy (50th Alabama)

                       Anderson's Brigade, Hindman's Division, Polk’s Corps

A Battlefield Promise Kept: A Mississippian Returns the Battle Flag of the 2nd Missouri (44th Mississippi) 

General Patrick R. Cleburne

Deshler’s Brigade, Cleburne’s Division, Hill’s Corps

Pouring Peas on a Rawhide: A Texan Remembers Chickamauga (25th Texas Cavalry)


General John C. Breckinridge

Helm’s Brigade, Breckinridge’s Division, Hill’s Corps

With the Orphan Brigade at Chickamauga (4th Kentucky)

Stovall’s Brigade, Breckinridge’s Division, Hill’s Corps

A Rebel View of Chickamauga: Benjamin S. Williams of the 47th Georgia


Bate’s Brigade, Stewart’s Division, Buckner’s Corps

This Dreadful Carnage: A Word from the 58th Alabama

Trigg’s Brigade, Preston’s Division, Buckner’s Corps

The Final Minutes on Horseshoe Ridge (54th Virginia)


Walthall’s Brigade, Liddell’s Division, Reserve Corps

A Mississippian Under "Shot Pouch" Walker at Chickamauga (24th Mississippi)


Post-Battle

Joining Rosecrans' Army: The 11th and 12th Corps Travel West in September 1863

The Crescent on the Move: The 154th New York and Its Introduction to the Western Theater

Right Side Up and Ready for Another Brush: With the 18th Ohio Battery After Chickamauga















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Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

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The Cannons are Now Silent: The Field of Death of Tupelo

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The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

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Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

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Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

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Escape of Captain Henry H. Alban of the 21st Ohio Infantry

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Captain Henry H. Alban was among the dozen officers of the 21 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry who were captured on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga. The regiment had held its position atop Snodgrass Hill against repeated Confederate assaults and now battered and without ammunition, with the darkness of evening enveloping the hill, the remainder of that gallant band found themselves at the mercy of the 54 th Virginia. A total of 12 officers and 121 enlisted men surrendered; the regiment’s colors were taken, and the men marched off the field into captivity. Captain Henry Harvey Alban, Co. F, 21st O.V.I. Captain Alban along with the rest went through a series of Confederate prison camps before arriving at Columbia, South Carolina in October 1864. Determined to make an escape, he watched for his chance and one night made his leap for freedom, successfully eluding the local camp guard and setting out along the railroad to head for the mountains of eastern Tennessee and
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Knapsack Compression: Wilbur Hinman recalls the first step of becoming a veteran

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L ooking back on his experiences during the war, Captain Wilbur Hinman of the 65 th Ohio (perhaps best known as the author of Si Klegg and His Pard ) recalled that the first road along which his regiment marched was strewn “with debris. A pair of six-mule wagonloads might have been gathered of notions that had been flung aside by a thousand suffering “tenderfeet.” “The average young patriot started for the war with a wheelbarrow load of clothing, a bed quilt or two, books, photograph albums, toilet articles, and gimcracks of every sort,” he wrote. “Neither he nor the good homefolks had the slightest conception of the capacity of a knapsack, nor did they for a moment imagine that before the close of his first day upon the road every pound he carried would seem a hundred.” To the true mark of a veteran soldier was one who “learned to dispense with every unnecessary ounce of weight, and just in the ratio that he did this he increased his efficiency as a soldier. It was of the highest
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Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

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T he ordnance returns of the Army of the Cumberland at the end of September 1863 show the results of a transformational year in weaponry. Since taking command of the army at the end of October 1862, General William S. Rosecrans had repeatedly pestered the War Department to supply his regiments with better firearms both to improve the command’s efficiency as well as expand its striking power. The results speak for themselves: for the infantrymen at the end of September 1863, 90% of them now carried Class I long arms (36,058 out of 39,959), 8.3% carried Class II arms, and a mere 1.5% carried Class III weapons. Most of the foreign-made weapons (except Enfields) were gone, and by and large the army had settled on a single common .58 caliber ammunition, although a few .54 caliber and .69 caliber weapons remained within the ranks. The English-made Enfield rifle musket was by far the most common arm, carried by 56% of the men while the second-most common arm was the .58 caliber M1861 Spring
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