The Shipwreck of Their Hopes

The Battles for Chattanooga

Peter Cozzens

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 1994
• Print ISBN:
  9780252065958
  9780252019227
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252098499
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Civil War enthusiasts will welcome this concluding volume of Peter Cozzens's highly praised trilogy on the Civil War in the West.

The battle around Chattanooga in the late fall of 1863 were among the most decisive of the Civil War, opening the Deep South to the Union and setting the stage for the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea. After Chattanooga, the principal Confederate army in the West fought without spirit or hope of victory. Cozzens's comprehensive account details movements of individual regiments, even as it reveals the larger impact of the campaign on the outcome of the war.

In The Shipwreck of Their Hopes, Cozzens draws on his acclaimed storytelling skills and exhaustive research efforts to fully chronicle one of the South's most humiliating defeats. As in his earlier books, he brings to life the officers and enlisted men who fought the war.

INDEX

Italicized page numbers at the end of entries in this index refer to the Appendix.

Acton, Maj. Thomas, 183

Alexander, Edward Porter, 30, 32–34, 37, 70–71, 80, 205–6

Alexander, Col. Jesse I., brigade of, 148, 157, 243, 407

Alexander's Hill (Ewing's Hill), 205–7, 216, 238

Allen, Sgt. George, 308

Anderson, John, 155, 157

Anderson, Brig. Gen. Patton: division (Hindman's) under his temporary command, 25, 140, 270–71, 327, 409; position of, in Missionary Ridge defense, 119, 142, 196, 249, 251, 253, 256, 258; criticisms by, of battle preparations, 127, 151, 254–55; irrational orders issued by, 136–37, 322; battle actions of, 157, 289–90, 321–23, 330; in retreat, 330–31, 343–44

Anderson road, 17, 20–22

Antietam, 362

Army of Northern Virginia, 33, 103

Army of Tennessee: command reshuffling in, 23–28, 397; low morale in, 28, 31, 198, 397; desertions from, 28–29, 34, 119–20; hunger in, 29–30, 118, 164, 272; splitting of, between Chattanooga front and East Tennessee, 103–6, 125–26, 137–38, 140, 390–91; low point of, 343; total casualties suffered by, 389; after Chattanooga, 391, 397–98; 408–15. See also names of officers and units

Army of the Cumberland, 108–9, 129, 162, 178, 199, 272, 282, 350, 390, 392; reinforcement of, after Chickamauga, 2, 18; weakness of troops in, from hunger, 8–11, 22, 73, 128, 272; Thomas appointed to command of, 4, 7; headquarters of, 45; welcome given by, to Hooker's and Sherman's forces, 73, 123; Grant's attitude toward, 107, 128, 135, 201, 203, 248; size of, in Missionary Ridge battle, 244; 399–405. See also names of officer...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• One / Changes of Vast Moment
• Two / Starvation Camp
• Three / Everyone here Curses Bragg
• Four / Audacity Might Yet Bring us Through
• Five / A Medal of Honor or Two Ears of Corn
• Six / Our Lagging Efforts
• Seven / The Chance of Success may be Calculated at Zero
• Eight / A Golden Thread through the Tangled Web
• Nine / The Chair of Honor?
• Ten / A very Gallant Thing
• Eleven / The Advantage was Greatly on Our Side Now
• Twelve / The Most Curious Battle of the War
• Thirteen / Go in and Give ’Em Hell
• Fourteen / The Shipwreck of their Hopes
• Fifteen / Time is Everything
• Sixteen / This was Business
• Seventeen / An Unusual Solemnity Pervades Our Ranks
• Eighteen / We are all Officers Today
• Nineteen / Almost up, Sir
• Twenty / Chickamauga, Damn You!
• Twenty-One / We've Got ’Em in a Pen
• Twenty-Two / Save yourself! The Yankees are on You!
• Twenty-Three / We are Fighting the World
• Twenty-Four / Whipped, Mortified, and Chagrined
• Twenty-Five / They are Crowding Us
• Twenty-Six / A Sad Affair
• Twenty-Seven / The Fruits are Bitter
• Appendix / The Opposing Forces in the Chattanooga Campaign
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author