A Civil War Battle Above the Clouds | History Traveler Episode 70

[Music] the year 1863 it's kind of a rough one for the Confederate forces they had suffered losses at Vicksburg and at Gettysburg and in the deep south they had secured a victory over Union forces at the Battle of Chickamauga but were locked in a siege in the late fall in the vital railroad junction of Chattanooga Tennessee well that's where I am today where I'm standing is in the middle of what is now a cemetery that gives you quite the commanding view of the battlefield so behind me here is Missionary Ridge which is where the the battle is really going to kind of come to a close but probably one of the more interesting battles took place right here at Lookout Mountain which is also known as the battle above the clouds [Music] so again from where I'm standing this is approximately where General Grant would have been whenever he was observing the Battle of Lookout Mountain or as I said also known as the battle above the clouds and from here on that day November 24th this whole mountain would have been shrouded by a cloud so the people down below including Grant wouldn't have known exactly who was winning they could hear gunshot fire and they could hear cannon fire but there was no way of knowing how his forces were doing at that particular moment so today we're gonna go up on Lookout Mountain and see what we can see it's not going to be a comprehensive look at the battle by any means but we're gonna go up there and just see what we can find [Music] all right yeah a little bit chilly up here we're about halfway up Lookout Mountain right now and it's a pretty steep incline but part way up as you can see behind me kind of plateaus out a little bit and this is where the Confederates kind of had their position and one of the markers that the Union had was this place right here this is the Craven house on the Craven farm so the Confederates would have been lined up right along here we're gonna go down the trail here and see some old rifle pits here and a little bit but on the 24th the Union troops under the command of Joseph Hooker would have come up these slopes under a cover of fog that's one thing that led to the Union success was the fact that everything was shrouded in fog the Confederates couldn't look down and see what was happening and allowed the Union troops to basically get in there in their hip pocket so anyway we're going to take a look around some of the different things here at the Craven farm now at this particular spot on the Craven farm this is where the Confederates had a battery of cannon set up and they actually didn't participate in the battle they didn't fire a shot just because there was a risk of firing into their own men and here we have a monument to some New York regiments that took part in capturing this little plateau here [Music] I do want to point out something before I move on so the Craven house was abandoned at the time of the battle by the Craven family I think they went down to Georgia to kind of escape the violence and the fighting and it served as the headquarters for the general staff of the Confederates well something to note is that this is not that original house the original house got destroyed whenever Robert Craven returned he found a basement chimney and I think there was a stone dairy so this ended up being rebuilt after the war at some point but didn't quite make it all right we're gonna go ahead and move on now [Music] I'll tell you what walking alongside this mountain you really have a great deal of respect for what the Union troops did to take this position because man this is some steep country and for them to have done it I mean it was November but to have done it in wool uniforms packed down with all their gear I have a civil war rifle and man those things are heavy so gives you a little bit of appreciation for what those guys accomplished in this battle all right looks like we are approaching a Confederate gun position here yeah I got a little sign set up so you can see let me get a little bit better angle you can see this Stonewall right through here that was set up as a defensive position for the Confederates and as you can see behind us this is set up kind of on a bit of a flat a little bit of a plateau around the lip of this Ridge now the Confederates would have cleared out all of these trees in front in order to provide an open field of fire so that they could see and shoot at the Union troops who would eventually inevitably be advancing up the hill what they couldn't and didn't plan for was the fact that there was going to be a heavy fog that morning that would be blocking their view another feature of Lookout Mountain that makes this really an ideal defensive position is all of these rocky outcroppings you can see some more up through there and get through a little bit of this scrub oak so this is an area that would be a dream to defend but a nightmare to attack okay so I'm heading back the direction that I came I've mentioned the the fog and and how that really aided the Union troops but there was something else that helped them as well the day before Union troops had overrun the Confederate position at orchard knob and as a result Braxton Bragg ended up pulling a lot of Confederates off of this line to go and defend what was perceived to be a threat to the middle I believe of Missionary Ridge so on the day of the battle of Lookout Mountain this line would have really been thinned out so the combination of fewer Confederate defenders and the element of surprise due to the heavy fog led to the success of hookers troops and grant and command here at Lookout Mountain now you would think that the the climax of the battle would be at the very top of the mountain but it really wasn't it was right here right here along this lip that goes all the way through and past Cravens farm but we're gonna go ahead and see if we can go to the top anyway at the time that I'm filming this we're in the middle I'm scooter there we're at the middle of the the covert pandemic and everything that's been shut down including some of these different places and battlefields that you can have access to but we're gonna see if we can all do about a mile and a half two mile walk and get access to it from the front side [Music] nothing important here just wanted to take a moment to point out that that is a big old rock going along the trail here to lookout point and probably about oh just over a mile maybe a mile and a quarter along I was looking at this big rock outcropping and noticed some steps take a look and see just what exactly they're going to it's like a little cistern or something's there's a pipe coming out there interesting I think that the Civilian Conservation Corps dug this trail back in the 30s so I'm wondering if this is something that that they would have done yeah interesting if anybody knows tell me all right we're gonna go ahead and make our way on up all right nearing the top of lookout point and it's a little windy up here but just found this it's a big old huge plaque I'll bet you that thing is eight ten foot tall put into the side of the cliff face and up at the top let's see if I can zoom in a little bit it says 20 29th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Colonel William Rickards junior commanding cobra Meg aide Leary's division Slocum's 12th Corps hookers detachment from the Army of the Potomac and then you go here and you can see soldiers looking out over lookout point it says battle above the clouds and then I guess tell us a little bit about the battle right there pretty cool all right I think that I passed some steps up here so we are gonna make our way to the top right and here maybe 15 yards from that plaque that I was just at here's another big one showing these Union troops scaling the cliffs and then unfurling the US flag for both armies to see down below showing that they had taken the heights Confederates that are already withdrawn so this was a bloodless ascent here man that is cool all right getting ready to make our final ascent up to lookout point [Music] all right well we've made it to the summit of Lookout Mountain and man oh man look at the view from up here holy smokes I would say that the Confederates certainly had a commanding view of Chattanooga from up here Wow now of course that is the Tennessee River below us that we are looking at and one thing that I didn't mention see if I can point it out with my finger right here there was a place called Browns Ferry that was held by the Confederates that the Union opened up in October of 1863 that allowed supplies to come up the Tennessee River and get to these besieged Union troops ended up call this the cracker line because the hardtack crackers that they were able to bring up that was their I guess rations at the time you could say and then over here sons come out it's got a little bright on us but over here on this end well you can see Missionary Ridge [Music] now as I've already mentioned once Union troops got up here to the summit of Lookout Mountain the the Confederates had already withdrawn and they unfurled their flag had a bit I guess you could say like an E would Jima moment up here where everybody down below could could see that Lookout Mountain had fallen to the Union troops and also on that same day was the attack on Missionary Ridge by generals Sherman and Thomas and that basically wrapped up the Battle of Chattanooga which opened up the deep south and gave Sherman a launch pad for his march on Atlanta and eventually the march to the sea but anyway that was the battle above the clouds now I'll admit I didn't do just a comprehensive view of the battle so you can look up some stuff for yourself and then and then come to this place it is definitely worth it very very cool place worth the hike up here today and yeah learned a lot as always [Music] [Music]

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 93,551

Rating: 4.9638085 out of 5

Keywords: history, history traveler, history underground, travel, civil war, battle of franklin, confederates, john bell hood, civil war battle, union army, tennessee, battle damage, war, chattanooga, battle of lookout mountain, lookout mountain, battle above the clouds, grant, ulysses s grant

Id: r4jrBfnoKFk

Length: 16min 53sec (1013 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020