3:74, #568: Chickamauga

Yesterday I caught up with my lack of attention for three years on the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest one day in American history in general as well as the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War. Today marks the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia in 1863, the bloodiest two day battle of the American Civil War.

If you want to find out the 'usual' approach to this particular battle, there are several excellent histories of the battle, including the Official Reports at [http://www.civilwarhome.com/chickama.htm] as well as books by Steven E. Woodworth, Six Armies in Tennessee, The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns and Freeman Cleaves' Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas. The Wiki article I just read suggests Peter Cozzens' book This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga is excellent, though I've not read it. If you want to find out the unusual approach, keep reading.

It turns out that just at the moment the Confederates were about to take advantage of the gap in the Union line that Rosecrans mistakenly created, yellow jackets started stinging the Rebs and their officer's horses, making chaos the order of the hour and continuing their advance impossible. Gee, I guess the Lord used yellow jackets in Georgia much in the way He used hornets in Canaan when he drove the Canaanites out on behalf of Israel. Oh, my source is Bromfield L. Ridley, Battles and Sketches of the Army of Tennessee. He put it, "Added to the horror of the galling fire, the generals and staffs encountered a number of yellow jackets' nests and the kicking of the horses and their ungovernable actions came close to breaking up one of the lines. Blue jackets in front of us, yellow jackets upon us, and death missiles around and about us--oh, the fury of the battle, the fierceness of the struggle over Carnes' battery!!" (pg. 220)

One other important 'out of the way fact': General John Bell Hood lost his left leg to a minie ball at Chickamauga just two months after he lost the use of an arm at Gettysburg. As a result of these injuries, he was know to use laudanum to help manage his pain throughout the rest of the War; which many historians feel clouded his judgment in several following battles and helped destroy the Army of Tennessee in the battles of Franklin and Nashville after Hood took over command July 17, 1864.

The last oddball info piece: General A. P. Stewart who led the charge at Chickamauga, Bromfield Ridley who was part of his staff there, and John Bell Hood were all evangelical Christians who played integral roles in the conflict when God Caused the Civil War.
Notice how I got a plug in for my book again?!! ;p