(Organized under the provisions of Chapter 298, Laws of 1905, as amended by Chapter 378, Laws of 1907 and Chapter 445, Laws of 1909) FRANCIS E. McGOVERN     Governor of Wisconsin CHARLES E. ESTABROOK     Representing Department of Wisconsin, Grand Army of the Republic REUBEN G. THWAITES     Superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin CARL RUSSELL FISH     Professor of American History in the University of Wisconsin MATTHEW S. DUDGEON     Secretary of the Wisconsin Library Commiss

After the battle of Gettysburg in the East, and the siege of Vicksburg in the West, attention was riveted during the later summer and autumn of 1863 on the campaign around Chattanooga. Seated on the heights along the southern border of Tennessee, that city commanded highways running through the very heart of the Confederacy. The result at Gettysburg had demonstrated that no Southern army could invade the North; the Union victory at Vicksburg determined that the Mississippi should run unhindered

After the battle of Stone’s River and while lying at Murfreesboro, the Army of the Cumberland was reorganized. As previously stated, Rosecrans joined it as the successor of Buell, at Bowling Green, in October, 1862. Stone’s River was the army’s first battle under Rosecrans. In that, the army was called the Fourteenth Corps, Department of the Cumberland; and it was divided into three divisions—the centre, right, and left wings. General George H. Thomas commanded the centre, General Alexander McD.

The Confederate Army which confronted the Army of the Cumberland on June 24, 1863, was officially called the Army of the Tennessee. It was divided into four corps—two of infantry and two of cavalry. General Leonidas Polk commanded one infantry corps, and General William J. Hardee the other. The cavalry corps were commanded by General Joseph Wheeler, and General N. B. Forrest. In addition to the artillery, attached to the regular corps, there was also a reserve artillery. In General Bragg’s retur

The Confederate Army, commanded by General Braxton Bragg, lay in front of Tullahoma, [3] where Bragg had his headquarters. There was a large entrenched camp at the junction of the Nashville & Chattanooga railroad. This camp and the McMinnville branch was each a secondary depot for commissary stores, while the base of supplies was at Chattanooga. Its front was covered by the defiles of the Duck River, a deep narrow stream edged by a rough range of hills, which divides the “Barrens” from t

The Confederate line was in admirable formation on the morning of the 20th, at a distance of 400 to 1,000 yards east of the Lafayette road. From its right to its left it may be described as follows: General Leonidas Polk commanded the right wing which was formed as follows: Forrest’s cavalry on the extreme right, 3,500 strong, a large part of it dismounted; and next to him Breckenridge’s division. The cavalry and two infantry brigades of Breckenridge’s extended beyond Baird’s left; next in line

About 11 o’clock the successive attacks of the Confederate divisions from the left to the right had reached Longstreet’s wing; they were continued with a charge by Stewart upon Reynolds’s position; it involved Hazen or Palmer, who had been transferred to the right of Reynolds and to the left of Brannan. This was the beginning of the general assault on the Union right, which came so near being disastrous to General Rosecrans’s army. This attack of Stewart’s took place at the time when Adams and S

There were five infantry regiments from Wisconsin in the battle of Chickamauga, viz.: the First, Tenth, Fifteenth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-fourth. The First and Twenty-first were parts of the Second Brigade, commanded by General John C. Starkweather—formerly Colonel of the First Wisconsin Infantry—of the First Division, commanded by General Absalom Baird, of the Fourteenth Corps, commanded by General George H. Thomas. They were actively engaged near the extreme left on both days of the battle.

At 4 p. m. on November 24, 1863, one of the most spectacular battles of the war commenced. General Hooker’s force consisted of the following: Osterhaus’s division of the Fifteenth Corps, Cruft’s (formerly Palmer’s) of the Fourth; Geary’s of the Twelfth—with the exception of such regiments from the last two divisions as were required to protect the communications with Bridgeport and Kelly’s Ferry; battery K of the First Ohio, and battery I of the First New York of the Eleventh Corps, having suffi

Wisconsin’s part in the battle of Missionary Ridge was important and honorable. The First and Twenty-first Infantry were in Starkweather’s brigade of Johnson’s division. This brigade had lost heavily at Chickamauga; it was assigned to remain in Chattanooga in order to hold the works, while the army was assaulting the ridge. This duty was cheerfully and thoroughly done, although it deprived the brigade of the glory of charging up the ridge. The Tenth Infantry remained on detached duty holding a f