This Grand Spectacle : The Battle of Chattanooga

During the summer of 1863, Federal Forces scored major victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, turning the tide of war in favor of the Union.

In southeastern Tennessee, U.S. troops focused their attention on the river and railroad center of Chattanooga, the gateway to the Confederate heartland.

They took the town with little resistance, and complete victory in the region seemed imminent.

The Confederate under Braxton Bragg struck back. At Chickamauga, in northern Georgia, veterans of both the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Northern Virginia combined to mangle the Union army, driving the shaken survivors back to their newly captured base at Chattanooga.

The victorious Confederates settled into siege lines for the kill.

A desperate Abraham Lincoln turned to the hero of Vicksburg, General U.S.

Grant, to lead the campaign to save the trapped Union troops.

A vivid account of how the union snatched victory from the jaws of disaster.

An excellent companion volume to A Deep Steady Thunder: The Battle of Chickamauga by the same author, and General James Longstreet in the West: A Monumental Failure by Judith Hallock, both Civil War Campaigns and Commanders titles.

Steven Woodworth holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is assistant professor of history at Texas Christian University.

He is the award winning author of Jefferson Davis and His Generals, Davis and Lee at War, and Six Armies in Tennessee.