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Battle of Missionary Ridge
New York Times Article - December 3, 1863

The following article is transcribe from The New York Times, dated December 3, 1863:

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THE BATTLE OF MISSIONARY RIDGE.

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WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Dec. 2. The storming of the ridge in the great battle before Chattanooga on the 26th, is thus described by an officer in a report to the War Department: "The storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the greatest miracles in military history. No man who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front, can believe that 18,000 men were moved upon its broken and crumbling face, unless it was his fortune to witness the deed. It seems as awful as a visible interposition of God. Neither Gen. GRANT nor Gen. THOMAS intended it. Their orders were to carry the rifle-pits along the base of the ridge and cut off their occupants; but when this was accomplished, the unaccountable spirit of the troops bore them bodily up the impracticable steeps over the bristling rifle-pits on the crest, and the thirty cannon enfilading every gully. The order to storm appears to have been given simultaneously by Gens. SHERIDAN and WOOD, because the men were not to be held back, hopeless as the attempt appeared to military prudence; beside the Generals caught the inspiration from the men, and were ready themselves to undertake impossibilities."

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