of the Army of the Cumberland under Gen-
eral William S. Rosecrans.
Porter received permanent promotion to
captain on March 3, 1863. By now, after
three years in uniform and two years of
war, he had become accustomed to army
routine. He realized the war would go on
for a long time and had become “a wide-
spread and mammoth war of nations.” As
the Army of the Cumberland advanced
south, the young man lamented the cost of
war, separation from family, and soaring
food prices. Around Murfreesboro in April
1863, amid a war of attrition, he reflected:
“We have entered upon the second year of
the war, and will have many a long cam-
paign before it ends.”By the end of June 1863, the army had
advanced on Tullahoma, Tenn., passed the
Elk River on July 3, and crossed the Ten-
nessee River on September 2. Porter under-
stood Rosecrans’ plan to outmaneuver and
take Confederate General Braxton Bragg
from the rear. But he realized that success
in Tennessee would not end the war. By
August 25, 1863 Porter believed Bragg was
on the run, and he was buoyed by local
demonstrations of Union support. But real-
ity of a different sort soon slapped Porter
and the whole Army of the Cumberland.
Rosecrans miscalculated. After pushing
Bragg’s Confederates into Georgia through
the summer of 1863, he assumed Rebel
forces were still on the run. Bragg, how-ever, regrouped in September and turned to
fight at Chickamauga, 12 miles south of
the Union base at Chattanooga. In a letter
following the battle, Porter noted its impor-
tance. The brevity of the letter betrayed his
fatigue and the battle’s physical and emo-
tional impact on the Federals. “We have
been fighting the great battle of Chicka-
mauga, as it will probably be called, for the
last two days. Yesterday [September 19],
we repulsed the enemy at all points against
fearful odds, but today [the 20th] have
been driven back twelve miles [to Chat-
tanooga].” Porter concluded: “This is the
bloodiest battle of the war. We have lost
probably 15,000 men.”
A few days later he described the engage-“Nothing could exceed the bravery of our troops.
Their endurance and courage saved our army and Chattanooga.”
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