Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, road trip experts - Noah and Noodles - explore fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they unravel the - often shocking - story behind each neglected story or location.
If you love travel, exploration and unique locations - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
The Battle Above the Clouds - Turmoil in Tennessee
Noodles and I summit Lookout Mountain to explore the monumental conflict that occurred along its slopes.
Why is the subsequently named "Battle Above the Clouds" overlooked?
How is it significant in FULLY understanding the events of the American Civil War?
Let's find out!
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40575782?searchText=the+battle+of+chattanooga&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dthe%2Bbattle%2Bof%2Bchattanooga%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Abc390e4a72296881b8f8341aa523d433&seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40575782.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3Ab920b762dd06e7c71041cfb1c91c6ec1&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&initiator=&acceptTC=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt2tt90p.13?searchText=important+battles+of+the+civil+war&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dimportant%2Bbattles%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bcivil%2Bwar%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A5a9978e079bb262d18be4f72bad3178f&seq=35
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/lincoln-promotes-grant-as-top-civil-war-general-march-10-1864-235790
https://www.history.com/shows/grant/interactives/ulysses-s-grant-battle-map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMK79steT6A
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/grant-at-lookout-mountain.htm
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-24/battle-of-lookout-mountain
https://www.battlesforchattanooga.com/history
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-battles-chattanooga
https://npshistory.com/publications/civil_war_series/9/sec7.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpeqJictmNQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoLrcWoGEnY
https://www.history.com/shows/grant/interactives/ulysses-s-grant-battle-map
https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/vick/significance.html
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Welcome to the Van Chattanooga, tennessee, a town recently named America's first national park city. Consider our earlier deep dive into how and why. But as great as the trails and the parks of Chattanooga are, the rich echoes of history found throughout the city also require some attention. Echoes of history found throughout the city also require some attention, particularly the many sites associated with America's bloody and consequential civil war. Today, my dog Noodles and I visit such a site. We summit Lookout Mountain and explore the conflict that occurred up and down its slopes. We hike the trails, see the sights and dive into why the subsequently named Battle Above the Clouds, which occurred on the mountain, is overlooked. We also ask ourselves why the battles that occurred in and around Chattanooga are significant and maybe essential in understanding the larger picture of the Civil War. Finally, we'll attempt to convince you why Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga itself should be a welcome addition to your travel bucket list. Sound good, all right. Safe travels. Cruising down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. Street, I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodles, what do you see?
Speaker 1:Backroad Odyssey, you will yourself upwards. Each step, more labored than the last, dense fog renders your eyes useless. Still you climb. The growing sounds of conflict define your path forward. Your destination is the summit of Lookout Mountain, a peak southwest of the recently starved-out city of Chattanooga, tennessee. Weak from dwindling rations, weary from the woes of war, you, along with the Union Army who had recently been trapped within the city, tell yourselves with each step that to secure Chattoga is to inch closer to the end of this terrible conflict. Both you and the Confederate forces above you know that control over Chattanooga's railways is essential in either invading or defending the yet untouched deep south of the Confederacy. Your pace quickens as you and your weary division pierce the sky. It's just past 6.20 am, the sun is rising. As we hike one of the many trails at the base of Lookout Mountain, just south of Chattanooga, I thought it'd be fitting to start at the bottom and end at the summit, where this event actually happened.
Speaker 1:And in the show we've talked about Gettysburg, we've talked about other grandiose, homeric events of the Civil War, but here in Chattanooga, the various battles that happened in and around the city are sometimes overlooked. They're seen as not significant, relevant or, dare I say, interesting. To that I say challenge accepted. Let's challenge this idea. In my view, any war, any conflict, history in general, is a puzzle. Some pieces might be larger, more complex than others, but when you lose those small pieces you miss the entire context, you miss completing the whole picture. In Chattanooga, the battle above the clouds are smaller pieces today, but no less essential or no less interesting. So let's get into it. Context, then. What is our context leading up to the battle above the clouds, the battles for Chattanooga in late November 1863.
Speaker 1:The third year of the war halts Confederate feelings of invulnerability, justified feelings. Really, the South had until now superior military leadership, higher morale and strings of critical victories. This feeling is really challenged in the summer of 1863, when the Union wins two decisive battles. In July, the Battle of Gettysburg repels Lee's bold invasion into Pennsylvania in what would become the last major Confederate offensive in the North, what would become the last major Confederate offensive in the North? And almost simultaneously, the Vicksburg Campaign under General Ulysses S Grant asserts Union dominance over the Mississippi River, the nation's highway. This effectively cuts the Confederacy in half. Sugar, cotton and resources sourced from west of the river Texas, arkansas, missouri are severed almost completely. Each victory at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg lays the foundation for two key events to happen. First, it increases General Grant's reputation as someone who wins battles despite the costs. Before this point in the war, union generals had largely been timid, reluctant to attack, but Grant was not. The second thing that happens is a shift in Union focus.
Speaker 1:After long years on the defensive the North, with the Western Confederacy isolated and Northern invasions repelled they look for a foothold on which to dismantle Confederate strength in the deep South, an area that until now had been relatively untouched by Union forces. Where, you ask, would this foothold, this launching point, be? It is midday, 1.35 or so. We're at Coolidge Park Again, sitting down at the banks of the Tennessee River, overlooking downtown. Here are some questions I have right now.
Speaker 1:Why would Union and Confederate forces see Chattanooga as strategically important at this point in the war? There are a lot of other towns in the South, some closer to the then border states, some more populous, and here's why. And here's why, for one, it was kind of a critical railroad hub and, as the war progressed, control over the distribution lines that lead to and fro Chattanooga would be essential in either defending or tearing apart the supply lines of the Deep South. And Chattanooga as a town is also a location that's south enough to be an effective base from which to launch operations into and throughout the Deep South. It offers access to the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, which offers access into Georgia and to the Carolinas. Eventually, this Chattanooga is where General Sherman launches and supplies his infamous march to the sea through that route. But that's much down the road.
Speaker 1:We're approaching right now the fall of 1863. Gettysburg just repelled Lee, and Vicksburg, under General Grant, launched him into the command of several armies in the West. Right now they're separate, but all these armies under the control of Grant now have their eyes on Chattanooga. But here's the twist. Here is the twist, my friends. The Confederates know the city's importance too, and they won't give up this position without a fight.
Speaker 1:The desire to control Chattanooga leads to the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Upon seeing the advancing Union troops, not under Grant but the more timid General Rosecrans, confederate Commander General Bragg withdraws from Chattanooga. But rather than retreating out of fear Bragg is going to be heavily reinforced and Rosecrans, confident in the Army of the Cumberlands' ability to push Bragg and the Confederates south and secure Chattanooga for good, chooses to pursue Bragg south near the town of Chickamauga. Maybe overconfident, rosecrans spreads his forces thin in pursuit of the Confederates. Days of confused fighting ensue. Days of confused fighting ensue. Dust and smoke envelop the thick woods in which they fight. And on September 20th, a gap opens in Union defensive lines and the Confederates choose to occupy the heights around the city, sealing off all but one supply line. The one supply line they left undefended was nearly impassable through the mountains. So for all intents and purposes, the army of the Cumberland would be starved out by Breg. It was a siege, it was a barricade. So there, the army of the Cumberland waits, imprisoned in the town they just captured.
Speaker 1:It's late afternoon. We're walking around the Southside Historic District here in Chattanooga and I can't help thinking. Walking around here, these troops, the Army of the Cumberland, well-trapped, were increasingly starved and their rations were crazy. It was like 56,000, 57,000 people, and each of them had something like a small hard bread and a quarter pound of pork or something like that. It couldn't last and it was getting less by the day. So, 56,000 men, all of them malnourished and exhausted, in a town where they could every single day look up upon the horizon and see the reason for their suffering. The surrounding mountains became, I can only imagine, a symbol for Confederate power and control, and so for these men to later have the opportunity to take back control, to scale that mountain, that symbol of suffering. That had to have made the matter much more significant and personal. Well, they undertook that.
Speaker 1:But why does this become a siege, a starve out? Couldn't the Confederates have capitalized on the Union defeat and retreat? One of the biggest what-ifs of the war is the following question why didn't Bragg take advantage of the Confederate win and pursue the retreating Union forces swiftly and brutally, given the importance of Chattanooga? It's a fair question. And I think, to start, the Confederacy actually suffered more casualties than Union forces, some 18,000 to the Union's 16,000 casualties. Bragg was then hesitant to risk further losses by immediately pursuing a retreating enemy, even though he still had something like 6,000 more men at his disposal. The army was also low on ammunition and the exhausted troops would have to follow union forces through difficult terrain. But all of these reasons are typical. It's what happens to winning and losing sides of any war.
Speaker 1:So did Bragg, no stranger to war, believe that strategically it would be better to force a siege of Chattanooga, starve them out, while maintaining the better, higher position around the city? Maybe, but here's my hunch. Everyone, north and South, at this moment 1863, has their eyes on 1864 and the next election, on 1864 and the next election. If President Lincoln is ousted, if policy towards peace changes, some compromise is reached, maybe Bragg was biding his time. Ultimately, though, with hindsight, historians, history buffs, anyone who studies this period during the war, see Bragg's failure to pursue weak and retreating forces as a missed opportunity. He failed to capitalize on a tactical win and consequently allowed Union forces to regroup and eventually recapture the city, only this time with additional armies under General Grant, who would, in time, coordinate the liberation of the besieged city.
Speaker 1:We are in the van about to drive south to Lookout Mountain, so let's get into it. Before you can coordinate an attack, you have to free up supply lines, you have to have people not be starving, and grant knows this. Immediately he takes a ferry landing controlled by confeder Confederate forces and establishes a new supply line into the city, relieving the army of the Cumberland and bypassing pretty much everything that the Confederates are doing in stopping supply coming into the city. So, with the army of the Cumberland now able to rest and be fed and its general Rosecrans relieved of duty, replaced by Henry Thomas and forces under Sherman and Hooker, coming down to Chattanooga. Grant, with all of these forces, look to the heights around the city and plans to finally take Chattanooga and place another peg in the ladder leading towards the end of this terrible, bloody conflict. Right noodles All right Off to Lookout Mountain In what would become a keystone of Grant's military thinking. Three separate forces assault in coordination the Confederate position. General Sherman would attack the Confederate north, general Thomas the center and General Hooker would take Lookout Mountain to the south. Three cohesive units working in tandem would scale the heights around Chattanooga and retake the city.
Speaker 1:It's November 24th 1863. The intense fog allows Hooker and his men to advance towards the fog-covered peak of Lookout Mountain with relative ease. Confederate cannons are useless, the slopes too steep to aim properly. Aiming is impossible in the dense blanket of white that surrounds everybody. The Confederates then seem to have overestimated the advantages of the high ground of the mountain. The subsequently named Battle Above the Clouds sees Union troops scale the something like 2,000-foot mountain at the peripheral of Confederate lines. The outnumbered Confederates face down the approaching onslaught of Union troops slowly climbing their way upwards. Ultimately, 1,200 Confederates and about 500 Union casualties take place are reported in the fog of Lookout Mount. By late afternoon, general Bragg abandons the position, ordering the retreat of all the Southerners around Lookout Mountain in the hopes of reinforcing his center at Missionary Ridge. A Union flag is placed upon the peak, signaling redemption to the once starved and malnourished troops who had daily looked up at the summit.
Speaker 1:We made it. We are at the summit, in what can only be described as serendipity a little bit. There's a deep, deep fog blanketing over where we're at right now, at Point Park, the exact conditions present at the battle. Above the clouds. I can only imagine it's a great view of Chattanooga, but I can't see anything. Cannons just point outwards towards this white void. And here's the great dilemma for the Confederates at this moment they're left defending a position meant to halt supplies to a city that now has supplies. The heights give them a strategic advantage when they can see, which they cannot, and the slopes make cannons and firearms almost useless. The fear, the anticipation you must have felt as a Confederate soldier sitting there 2,000 feet above the ground. You can't see anything, but you know they're coming, they're inching their way towards you. I'll say this though the conflict here, along with the Union victory on this side of the mountain, isn't as strategically important as what happens elsewhere in Chattanooga, but I'd say the symbolism of finally retaking this looming presence and the slight, odyssean, homeric image of a battle on top of a mountain in the clouds and placing that Union flag. That's an enduring thought. The following day, union forces under Grant launch a devastating attack against Missionary Ridge, the Confederate center, and break Confederate lines around the city. Bragg retreats Chattanooga. Then this apex of supply lines and ultimately the gateway to the Deep South belongs from here on out to the deep south, belongs from here on out to the Union.
Speaker 1:It's sunset, the weather's cleared up a bit. I'm on Sunset Rock, on the summit still of Lookout Mountain. I had no way of knowing how high I was, uh, before now, but it it truly, it truly is, is stunning. Up here you can see everything. Um, I don't know Just how beautiful places like this, unassuming places like this, become the sites of battles, conflicts, events that shape nations. Just how places like this become that will forever be a mystery to me. That's one of the things for me that makes life fascinating. But I'll say this right now Chattanooga, tennessee definitely has a lot of them.
Speaker 1:Chattanooga, the battles around it, lookout Mountain, should be mentioned alongside historical giants like Gettysburg and Antietam. And here's why First, without Chattanooga you don't have Sherman's march to the sea, which cripples the Confederacy's practical ability to wage war. Second, and I think more importantly, this is the battle, more, I'd argue, than most others that saves the Union. The Union victory at Chattanooga puts wind in the sails of Lincoln's campaign approaching the 1864 election and solidifies General Grant as the possible savior of the Union. It's after Chattanooga where Grant is brought east and appointed by Lincoln as the general in charge of the entirety of the Union war effort, entirety of the Union war effort. He'll then, when brought east, simultaneously, direct campaigns throughout the country in tandem with each other, much like at Chattanooga. An aggressive, coordinated effort that would eventually bring about the end of the war, the sunset of the Confederacy.
Speaker 1:It's Noah here. Hope you enjoyed the episode, hope you learned something. I appreciate every minute you spend with us. So Chattanooga, great place to check out. I'll post a link to all the hikes that I took, all the places that I went to. Sunset Rock is an absolute must. Apart from that, if you like history, if you like the Civil War in particular, I did a series, a three-part series, where I follow someone from the Confederacy and someone from the Union on their way to Gettysburg. So scroll back in your feed to check that out. Otherwise, one way that you could help Noodles and I continue to put the research we'd like to to improve the production quality of the show each and every week is to rate and review wherever you're listening. Now, genuinely, that effort really helps us, so I appreciate that. I appreciate you. With all of that said, be good to each other. Where to next?
