Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863

Mountains Touched with Fire chronicles the 1863 siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the pivotal episodes of the Civil War. Facing potential defeat, Union generals Ulysses Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Thomas, and Phil Sheridan commanded the battle for the besieged city. The narrative centers on a dramatic moment when federal troops launched a charge up a six-hundred-foot-high mountain ridge overlooking Chattanooga, attacking under heavy fire from Confederate forces holding the ridge. Wiley Sword's account combines detailed narrative with dozens of previously unpublished photographs, maps, and excerpts from private journals and letters. The book examines the siege and its reversal from multiple perspectives, integrating battle action with political context and historical analysis. The aftermath of this battle determined the fate of the South.