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Show G. A. It. AT CHATTANOOGA. Tho annual encampment of the Grand Army of tho Republic opens in Chattanooga Chat-tanooga today. Tho site and time wcro choson undoubtedly in view of tho coming fiftieth anniversary of tho buttle but-tle of Chickama.uga, September 10th and 20th, that battlefield being within easy roach of Chattanooga, and it will undoubtedly un-doubtedly bo the compelling focus of interest of tho Grand Army men who attend this encampment. Fifty years ago today tho campaign of Chickamauga was. on. General Rose-crans, Rose-crans, in command of tho Arm' of the Cumberland, numbering a little less than 00,000 men, had by brilliant campaign strategy maneuvered tho enemy en-emy out of Chattanooga, and up the Chickamauga valley, and he supposed Bragg to be in precipitate retreat with his Confedorato army. Rosocrans had up to tho time of entering tho Chickamauga Chicka-mauga valloy performed a series of brilliant bril-liant strategic movements, which justly won him the admiration of military critics. Ho moved from Stevenson, Alabama, across the Tonnosseo river, over tho Sand mountains into Lookout valley, then across tho southorn extension ex-tension of Missionary Ridge into tho valley of tho Chickamauga. llis information in-formation as to the hurried retreat of Bragg's Confederate forces was so positive, pos-itive, so repoatod, and so entirely credible cred-ible that he trusted implicitly to that information, and issued orders to the corps commanders of the Army of the Cumberland' to "join in the pursuit." Accordingly, McCook, in command of the right wing, pushed on towards Romo, Georgia; . Crittenden occupied Chattanooga, and grand old Thomas, in command of the ccntor. debouched into tho Chickamauga vallcr in tho neighborhood of rjaFa3otto. and so was supposedly preparod to cut oil' Bragg's communication with tho railroad. rail-road. At the time of his retreat from Chattanooga, Chat-tanooga, Bragg had about -10,00 men, but he was speedily reinforced bv Buck-ner's Buck-ner's corps of some 12,500 men from Knoxville, by Johnston from Mississippi Missis-sippi with another .10,000, and by Long-street's Long-street's corps from Virginia numbering number-ing about S,000 men. who reached the scone for the fight. So that Bragg took into the battle line at Chickamauga Chicka-mauga a force of 70,475, against some 50,000 Union troops under Rosocrans; the latter troops being hastily assembled assem-bled after their scattering pursuant to tho falsity q' tho information as to Bragg's precipitate Tetreat had been fully sensed by Rosocrans. 'Tf tho accuracy of Rosecrans's information had been as jreat at that time as tho brilliance of his campaign strategy, there would have boen no doubt of his success in the great battlo which ensued; for he could have had the reinforcement of Bnrnside'e corps from TCnoxvilJe, which a short time bofore had . taken that place, capturing some 2000 Confederates who had been left in occupancy of the city. Ho could also havo had as man' men as ho chose to call for from tho Army of the Potomac, and also from Grant's army, which had been idle since the previous July, and which came later and retrieved tho loss by the battle of Chattanooga two months later. But Rosecrans was fully confident, not only of his ability to "whip Bragg's army, but that he already had that army demoralized and in retreat, so he made no call for reinforcements. Tho battlo occurred September I Dth and 20th, and was a great disaster to the Union forces so far as the battle itself was concerned; but tho Union forces, through tho magnificent fighting fight-ing ability of General Thomas and his tonacious grip of tho situation, hold possession of Chattanooga, the objective point of tho campaign. It is well, indeed, for the Grand Army of tho Republic to hold its encampment en-campment at the scene of these great operations. Chickamauga is usually referred re-ferred to as "the great battlo of the West," and so it was. It was a tremendous tre-mendous fight, and the explanations, reports, and accounts of it havo been of a widely variant character, involving involv-ing disputes similar to thoso that followed fol-lowed tho battlo of Gettysburg, and, like thoso, arc still being pursued. By reason of the proximity of the Chickamauga battlefield to tho sccno of tho present Grand Army of the Republic Re-public encampment, tho veterans can net a better idea of that battle than they possibly could obtain by any mere description. In fact, most of tho descriptions havo been inaccurate, especially es-pecially tho descriptions of tho afternoon after-noon of the second day of the fight. General Boynton 's diagram of tho position po-sition of the troops that woro left in the angle at Kclley 's field to hold back tho oncoming rush of tho Confcdorat.es, is tho most accurate that we havo seen. A more recent, diagram of that portion of the field is shown in the account of Mr. Grncic, which in the main is an admirable account for fairness and studious stu-dious effort, to net at the truth; but is sadly 'at fault in placing a far larger Union force at that point than actually was there. Still, Mr, Gracie adds very much to "The Truth Ahout Chickaniauga," which is the title of his book, which is written in a commendable com-mendable spirit of fairness, though naturally nat-urally biased from tho fnct that his father was a Confederate general in that battle. As to the presont. encampment of the Grand Army, wo trust that the boya will all have both pleasure and profit in this oncumpmcnt, and that the study of that, battlefield will enlarge en-large their views as to tho tremendous struggle that was being prepared for fiflv Tyoars ago at this time. Thus, t lie present encampment will bo a his toric .one, of tho same 'general char-actor char-actor as the great jubilee at Gettysburg Gettys-burg the first three days of the past July. .Immense numbers of Union vot-i vot-i orans will attend this oucampmcnt. There will also bo, by special arrangement arrange-ment and invitation, large numbers of Confederate survivors of that battle, and tho rennion thcro will be hardly less memorable, hardly less worthy of historical recognition, than was the ro-union ro-union at Gettysburg. |