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Conclusion of Battle

The Army of the Cumberland: the 4th Corps under General Gordon Granger Storming Missionary Ridge. From Harper's Weekly, v. 7, 1863.

Watching Thomas’s troops overrun the rifle pits and keep moving, Grant realized the soldiers were no longer following his battle plan. As soon as Thomas’s troops assaulted the base of the ridge, the Confederates troops began to retreat to the summit. Because of miscommunications from headquarters, many of Thomas’s divisions believed that they were to take the ridge. As the Confederates retreated, Thomas’s troops followed. Disobeying Grant’s orders to take the rifle pits and hold their position, Thomas’s troops were either going to secure the ridge for the Union or suffer a terrible defeat.

National Colors of the 31st O.V.I. Museum catalog number H 65273.

What could have been one of the worst defeats in the war for the Union turned into one of its proudest victories. One by one, the divisions of Thomas’ command assaulted the ridge. Unaware that their movement was intended to divert attention from the main thrust by Sherman and Hooker’s troops, Thomas’ troops carried the battle. When they opened a huge gap in the middle of the Confederates’ line and began overrunning Confederates’ positions, the ridge was won. At the end of the day, the 31st Ohio marched triumphantly off Missionary Ridge. The flag that Walker so heroically saved had eighty-nine bullet holes in it and ten holes in the staff.

The seemingly impregnable Confederate position on Missionary Ridge was now in Union hands. The next spring, Chattanooga would serve as the staging area for Sherman’s march into Georgia. After his disastrous defeat on Missionary Ridge, Braxton Bragg resigned his position as commander of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee. He would never serve again.

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