Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[427] mountains crowding close, as if to watch the scene where the destinies of mountains and states were both to be decided. From some of the highest points in this vicinity the territory of seven different states can be distinctly seen. Here, also, the Tennessee river breaks through from the east, hemmed in at times on every hand, but making the mountains give it room, and, forcing its way in a hundred windings, until, at last, it eludes or overcomes every barrier, and finds a passage to more western fields.

At one of the most abrupt of all its angles, the hills recede so as to leave an open but uneven space, not more than five or six miles square, bounded on the north by the Tennessee, begirt on every side with rugged peaks, and guarded on the west by a grim and almost perpendicular height, that rises directly from the water's edge more than two thousand feet. This point was once the boundary and the barrier of the Indian country. The southern limit of the field is known as Missionary ridge, called so by the Indians, who allowed the missionaries to pass no further; a gorge in the mountains, opening south, is still named Rossville gap, after the famous Cherokee chief, John Ross; while the lofty crest that looks out over the rugged valley was called Chattanooga—the Eagle's Nest. The whole region was a mighty bulwark, covering one of the most important avenues for access to the South, between the Mississippi and the Atlantic coast.

Away, at the centre of the continent, these precipitous heights, this lonely valley, and this tortuous stream seemed the very spot where the eagles might build their nests, and the aborigines pitch their camps, secure from the intruding step of the white