It does not belong to this narrative to describe
the terrific contest in which these two combatants furiously locked
horns on November 24 and 25. It was Hooker's brave soldiers who
performed the conspicuous feat which was conclusive of victory. Having,
by command, stormed the first line of rifle-pits on the ascent, upon the
Confederate left, they suddenly took the control into their own hands;
without orders they dashed forward, clambered upward in a sudden and
resistless access of fighting fury, and in an hour, emerging above the
mists which shrouded the mid-mountain from the anxious view of General
Grant, they planted the stars and stripes on top of Lookout Mountain.
They had fought and won what was poetically christened "the battle above
the clouds." Sherman, with seven divisions, had meanwhile been making
desperate and bloody assaults upon Missionary Ridge, and had gained the
first hilltop; but the next one seemed impregnable. It was, however, not
necessary for him to renew the costly assault; for Hooker's victory,
which was quickly followed by a handsome advance by Sheridan, on
Sherman's right, so turned the Confederate position as to make it
untenable.
The Northerners were exasperated to find, among the Confederate troops
who surrendered as captives in these two battles, prisoners of war taken
at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, who had been paroled and never exchanged.
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