Chickamauga 145

This is the 145th Anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga, commemorated by Blue & Gray with the fifth and final installment of William Glenn Robertson’s detailed and informative treatment of this complex and far-ranging campaign.

Dr. Robertson is Deputy Director of the Combat Studies Institute, U. S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. For more than a quarter-century he has been leading young Army officers across the battlefield teaching them the hard lessons learned by their predecessors in the Civil War armies. The Driving Tour in this issue is a version of the Chickamauga Staff Ride that the Army uses to study the battle.

This issue picks up the action on September 20, 1863, when Confederate General Braxton Bragg hopes to sweep the Federal army under William S. Rosecrans from the field with a grand attack at “day dawn.” The attack doesn’t come off as planned, but the battle ends with no Union officer above division command on the field, and a handful of “lost regiments” left holding the bag on Snodgrass Hill.

Many of you have written during the course of the Chickamauga series, which began in the Fall of 2006 with the first installment titled “The Fall of Chattanooga,” that the presentations in Blue & Gray were the first time you had gained a true understanding of the very complex events that comprised the campaign. I could not agree more, and take great pride that Dr. Robertson chose us to publish his work.

On an unpleasant note, as we go to press with this issue the sad news of the passing of Deborah Fitts was received. She was an ardent preservationist and longtime writer for The Civil War News. Deborah, who was married to historian Clark B. “Bud” Hall, the savior of Brandy Station, lost a long and hard-fought battle with cancer on July 17. As someone who wrote of his own wife’s death from cancer in the last issue, I’ve talked with Bud and we both agree that, by far, women are the stronger and tougher of the two sexes. Deborah will be missed by the Civil War community.

editor