Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/696

 654 but on January 2d he was himself repulsed in an attack on the Federal left. He retreated to Tullahoma, where Johnston was empowered to relieve him of command if that commander thought best, but the result of a visit by Johnston was the retention of Bragg in command. In the latter part of June, 1863, he withdrew to Chattanooga, and thence in September, on account of the Federal forces appearing to the south, fell back into Georgia, where near the Tennessee line the great battle of Chickamauga was fought by the Confederate army under his command September 19th and 20th. It resulted in the complete rout of Rosecrans, the command of George H. Thomas alone holding its ground during the battle. Subsequently he besieged the beaten Federals at Chattanooga and sent Longstreet against Knoxville. When the beleaguered Federals were on the point of starvation they were heavily reinforced by Grant, and the Confederates were forced to retire from Missionary Ridge. On February 24, 1864, he was assigned to duty at Richmond, under direction of the President, charged with the conduct of the military operations of the armies of the Confederate States. In November following he was given command of the department of North Carolina, and in January, 1865, he commanded the army at Wilmington, and the troops of his department in the final operations against Sherman including the battle of Bentonville. After the surrender at Appomattox he accompanied President Davis through South Carolina and into Georgia, and after peace was restored, having lost all his property, he became engaged as a civil engineer at New Orleans, and superintended harbor improvements at Mobile. He died at Galveston, Texas, September 27, 1876. He was an officer of remarkable industry and conscientiousness, and unspotted character. He never praised others nor allowed himself to be flattered. His devotion to duty led him to neglect those amenities of social life which are valuable even in war, and he