In the immediate Chattanooga area, Lookout Mountain seems to be the commanding terrain feature. In the fall of 1863, however, two dozen Union cannon on the southern end of Stringer’s Ridge on Moccasin Bend gave lie to the seeming dominance of ole Lookout.
Defeated at Chickamauga on Sept. 20, 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland retreated to Chattanooga and fortified itself to hold the recently won “Gateway to the Deep South” while awaiting reinforcements.
Holding the “gateway” city, though, meant abandonment of Lookout Mountain and particularly the mountain’s northern point where the best routes to the army’s railhead at Bridgeport, Ala., ran.
When Confederate forces occupied the northern end of Lookout on Sept. 24, they severed those routes and reduced the Federals to reliance on circuitous and difficult paths over Walden’s Ridge.
While Confederates gained Lookout Mountain, cut the enemy’s supply route and moved into Lookout Valley to “besiege” Chattanooga, the region’s unique geography played into the Federal’s hands.