This week in the Civil War: Nov. 24, 1863

The Battle Above the Clouds

This week 150 years ago in the Civil War, Union troops scaled Lookout Mountain southwest of federally held Chattanooga, Tenn., and ousted Confederates dug in with artillery on the heights. The attack by nearly 12,000 Union soldiers drove the Confederates off the mountaintop overlooking Chattanooga, effectively ending a siege of Union forces holding the city below. Fog covered the Union forces as they went up the 1,700-foot mountainside, aiding their offensive in what later would became known as "The Battle Above the Clouds." By late in the day on Nov. 24, 1863, Confederates under pressure of the Union offensive abandoned their artillery posts atop the summit and withdrew. A day later, Union forces would definitively break the Confederate siege lines ringing Chattanooga with another withering offensive, this one aimed at another height called Missionary Ridge.