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CHAPTER XII.
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CHATTANOOGA, CHICKAMAUGA, LOOKOUT1 MOUNTAIN. LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG SPEECH.
In the West the war was now in two parts. The Un-ion troops had won their first point, which was to hold the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er. But there had to be a long, fierce fight ere they could gain cen-tral Ten-nes-see and north Geor-gi-a. The foe2 led by Bragg, and the Un-ion troops by Ro-se-crans fought their best but it was not till the warm months, and the fall of 1863 that Ro-se-crans, at last, made Bragg fall back, bit by bit, un-til Chat-ta-noo-ga was in the hands of the Un-ion for-ces. Then more of the foe went to help Bragg, and the great fight of Chick-a-mau-ga came on Sept. 19 and 20, 1863.
The first day the Un-ion ar-my won; but the next day the right half of Ro-se-crans’ ar-my was bro-ken and fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga. George H. Thom-as, a brave man and a hard fight-er, by great skill held the left wing a-gainst charge af-ter charge that the foe made up-on it, and gave Ro-se-crans time to take such steps
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 as would make safe the Un-ion men who had fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Grant then had all the troops west of the moun-tains in his charge. He gave Ro-se-crans’ place to Thom-as, who was called “The Rock of Chick-a-mau-ga.” Grant him-self, with Thom-as next, then took com-mand of the be-sieged for-ces at Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Some of Bragg’s men had been sent off to make a strike at Burn-side in East Ten-nes-see, so Grant saw that he had a good chance to make a move on the rear of Bragg’s ar-my.
The line of the foe was twelve miles long, ’twixt Mis-sion-a-ry Ridge3 on the east and Look-out Moun-tain on the south. The last is a height which makes a sharp rise of 2,000 feet.
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Grant’s plan was to have his troops climb the two heights and storm the works that had been built on them. If he could take them, he would then com-mand the val-ley in which Bragg’s troops lay, and could force him to give up the siege. He gave Hoo-ker the task of mak-ing a strike at Look-out Moun-tain and Sher-man had his work to do at the Ridge.
 
AT MISSIONARY4 RIDGE.
There was a dense5 mist on the morn-ing of Nov. 23. Sher-man went to work and got up-on the north end of the Ridge, while Hoo-ker did his part on Look-out Moun-tain. Hoo-ker’s troops fought their way right up to the top and when there flung to the breeze the stars and stripes.
Grant stood on Or-chard Knob and gave the or-der for 20,000 men to take a line of earth works which lay at the base of the Ridge. This they did and Grant then saw that the time was ripe for a great move. He gave the word for a charge to be made a-long the whole line of bat-tle.
 
A CHARGE ALL ALONG THE LINE.
The day drew near its close. The shad-ow of Look-out Moun-tain fell far a-cross the plain. The last rays of the sun, ere it sank from sight, shone bright on the arms of the troops as on they came.
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Fierce was the fire which struck them, but on they went up the steep height, climb, climb as best they could, with the flags wav-ing be-yond them.
When the sun went down, with it went the hopes of the foe, for they fled and their own guns were turned up-on them.
Af-ter the bat-tle of Chat-ta-noo-ga, East Ten-nes-see was in the hands of Un-ion troops. The troops of the South that had held the field there, re-tired to guard Geor-gi-a, Al-a-bam-a, and North and South Car-o-li-na.
The State of Penn-syl-va-ni-a bought a part of the Get-tys-burg bat-tle-field for a place of bur-i-al for the
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 Un-ion sol-diers who there had fought their last fight. On Nov. 19, 1863, that rest-ing place for the dead was to be “con-se-cra-ted.” Ed-ward Ev-e-rett, of Mas-sa-chu-setts, was to give the o-ra-tion, or chief speech of the day.
Some one told Pres-i-dent Lin-coln, that he, too, might be asked to speak. He said he would “put some stray thoughts to-geth-er,” and so, while in the cars on his way from the White House to the bat-tle-field, he took a pen-cil from his pock-et, and on bits of pa-per wrote the best speech of his life and one of the great-est speech-es of the world.
Each word was of use. There were 267 words in all and they came straight from Lin-coln’s heart. Here they are:
“Four score and sev-en years a-go our fa-thers brought forth6 on this con-ti-nent a new na-tion, con-ceived in lib-er-ty, and ded-i-ca-ted to the prop-o-si-tion that all men are cre-a-ted e-qual. Now we are en-gaged in a great civ-il war, test-ing wheth-er that na-tion or an-y na-tion so con-ceived and so ded-i-ca-ted can long en-dure. We are met on a great bat-tle-field of that war. We have come to ded-i-cate a por-tion of that
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 field as a fin-al rest-ing place for those who here gave their lives that that na-tion might live. It is al-to-geth-er fit-ting and pro-per that we should do this. But, in a lar-ger sense, we can-not ded-i-cate—we can-not con-se-crate—we can-not hal-low this ground. The brave men, liv-ing and dead, who strug-gled here, have con-se-cra-ted it far a-bove our poor pow-er to add or de-tract.
“The world will lit-tle note, nor long re-mem-ber, what we say here; but it can nev-er for-get what they did here. It is for us, the liv-ing, rath-er to be ded-i-ca-ted here to the great task re-main-ing be-fore us—that, from these hon-ored dead, we take in-creased de-vo-tion to that cause for which they gave the last full meas-ure of de-vo-tion; that we here high-ly re-solve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this na-tion, un-der God, shall have a new birth of free-dom, and that gov-ern-ment of the peo-ple, by the peo-ple, for the peo-ple shall not per-ish from the earth.”


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1 lookout w0sxT     
n.注意,前途,瞭望台
参考例句:
  • You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
  • It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来,公司的前景可就不妙了。
2 foe ygczK     
n.敌人,仇敌
参考例句:
  • He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
  • A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌,友是友,必须分清界限。
3 ridge KDvyh     
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭
参考例句:
  • We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
  • The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。
4 missionary ID8xX     
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士
参考例句:
  • She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
  • I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。
5 dense aONzX     
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的
参考例句:
  • The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
6 forth Hzdz2     
adv.向前;向外,往外
参考例句:
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。


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