Explore "Our Standard-Bearer" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In one month from the time of his arrival at Chattanooga, Grant had swept the rebels from the positions they occupied -- had achieved a success which the enemy had believed was impossible. A woman, whose home was on the plateau of Missionary Ridge, said to one of our officers, after the battle had been fought, "Before you all came up here, I asked General Bragg, 'What are you going to do with me? ' He replied, 'Lord, madam, the Yankees will never dare to come up here. ' But it was not fifteen minutes before you were all around here."
I have not the slightest doubt that Bragg was as confident of his safety up to the moment his line was broken as he was of his own existence. Relying on the immense natural advantages of his position, which had been fortified to the extent of human skill, he believed it was as impossible to move his army as it was to move the mountain itself. And it was not a merely blind confidence; for if a man ever had occasion to congratulate himself upon the security of his troops, Bragg had.