Making a point about Horseshoe Ridge

                We are closing in on the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War battle of Chickamauga and your loyal blogger believes a point needs to be made about the final hours of that engagement.

          This writer is comfortable with the fact that nothing can be done now to alter the situation mentioned below. A great deal of time and money, both of which could be well-spent on other problems, would be needed to study and then rectify the wrong your loyal blogger feels was done.

          The National Parks Service is stretched far too thin these days to devote time to this idea and there is no suggestion here that a philanthropic individual or organization write a big check.

          Still, recognition is in order. Well-studied and accurate recognition of the movements and accomplishments of a group of Confederate soldiers at the end of the battle is deserved and it is hoped here that recognition is given during the observation of the anniversary next month.

          Your loyal blogger has written a 41,000-plus word treatment of the fighting referred to here. Hopefully those words will one day become a published book. Until then, this blog will have to do.

          On Sept. 20, 1863, Confederate Brigadier General Archibald Gracie’s brigade was ordered to attack the well-defended Federal bastion atop Horseshoe Ridge. It was the second day of the fighting, a messy bloodfest that ended in a Confederate victory on the field. The Federals maintained their hold of the nearby city of Chattanooga, so the battle actually accomplished little.

          Gracie’s brigade included the 43^rd Alabama Infantry Regiment, the 63^rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment and Hilliard’s Legion, another Alabama unit. The brigade attacked the Ridge at about 4:30 p.m. and in about half an hour managed to drive the Federal defenders away from the brow of the Ridge.

          The Confederates had been attacking the Ridge all afternoon but it was Gracie’s command that finally got the job done, albeit at terrible cost.

          During Gracie’s attack, the Tennessee regiment wandered slightly off course,

Position marker for the 63rd
Tennessee on the side of Horseshoe
Ridge at Chickamauga.

found a Federal artillery line and backed away after taking loses. The Tennesseans were done for the day, so it was the two Alabama outfits whose attack got the job of pushing the Federals away from the berm of the Ridge done.

          The Legion and the 43^rd held their hard-won position for better than an hour, trading shots with the Union defenders who had found another spot on the hill top to shoot from. The Alabamians eventually started running out of bullets, which was reported to Gracie. Told that relief was arriving, Gracie gave the order for his men to pull back, which many of them did. Some men from the Legion and some from the 43^rd still had ammunition and they stayed in place.

          A group of men from the Legion (the number is believed to be between 50 and 100) were not involved in the charge up the side of the Ridge. These men had been detained where Gracie’s men spent the night of the 19^th and day of the 20^th for the purpose of building trenches and breastworks in case the Federals worked their way around and attacked the rear of the Confederate army. Apparently, when this detail learned that their comrades were now involved in the fighting, these members of the Legion hurried toward the fighting on the Ridge, joining a Florida regiment along the way.

          As impromptu members of the Florida regiment, these Legion men participated in the flanking of the remaining Federal troops on Horseshoe Ridge after darkness had fallen. This maneuver resulted in the capture of most of those Federal fighters and ended the battle.

          And yet…

          There is a position marker at the spot where the Tennessee regiment stopped after going the wrong way. There are markers at other spots along the sides of the Ridge where North Carolina and South Carolina regiments later claimed to have

Some of the many monuments to Federal units on the top of Hill 1
of Horseshoe Ridge.

reached during the fighting. There are LOTS of markers and monuments atop the Ridge where the Federal defenders fought so bravely while holding their ground against continuous Confederate attacks.

          But there is no position marker for either the 43^rd Alabama or Hilliard’s Legion, the men who actually pushed the Federals away.

          The state memorial for the South Carolinians is located at the base of the hills of the Ridge. The state memorial for Alabama soldiers is about a mile away from where Gracie’s men gained fame.

          There is a plaque dedicated to Gracie’s brigade about 100 yards short of the edge of the Ridge and the plaque is inaccurate. The plaque says Gracie’s men were driven off the Ridge by returning Federal soldiers.

The plaque on the side of Horseshoe Ridge which inaccurately
tells visitors that Gracie's men were driven from the brow of the Ridge
after chasing the Federal defenders away. 

          History would have been better served had the original decision makers honored Gracie and his men for their accomplishment. There ought to be a statue of Gracie and position markers for the Legion and the 43^rd on the berm of the Ridge.

          It is too late now to change the setting of the Chickamauga/Chattanooga

A more distant image to give the reader a better feel
for where the plaque sits on the side of the Ridge.

National Military Park. Change costs money and, given the current political climate, it is unlikely anything honoring a Confederate military operation would ever gather the needed support anyway.

          Gracie was a native of New Jersey. His son, also named Archibald, became famous in his own way. The younger Gracie wrote a book about the battle and then later survived the sinking of the Titanic, writing a book about that as well.

 

          Thanks for reading.