In mid-September 1863, the fighting moved close to Alabama when Union and Confederate forces met south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Chickamauga Creek. Led by Braxton Bragg, Confederate troops attempted to push Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland back toward Chattanooga. On September 19, the two armies clashed in a battle that surpassed Shiloh as the bloodiest in the west. During the battle, confusion in the Union ranks allowed the Confederate army to carry the day, and the Rebels drove the Northern soldiers back to Chattanooga. Despite the Rebels’ victory, however, by November, the northern Army of the Cumberland, reinforced by Gen. William T. Sherman and his army, had occupied Chattanooga and was preparing to move through the heart of the Deep South.
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Becoming Alabama:
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