The Axis And Prize Of The Battle

Map Showing Campaign For Chattanooga

Missionary Ridge

The Campaign For Chattanooga:

West of that [Lafayette] road the field rises more rapidly into the spurs of Missionary Ridge. At the Snodgrass House and vicinity the elevations range from 200 to 250 feet above the river. The field from the river westward rises in a succession of low and chiefly wooded ridges. Missionary Ridge has an elevation above the plain of from 286 to 500 feet. Lookout and Raccoon or Sand Mountain have a general elevation of 2,300 feet above the sea, and from 1,500 to 1,700 feet above the Tennessee River.  The main road to Chattanooga in the line of the opposing armies' movements was the State or Lafayette road, which crosses the Chickamauga at Lee & Gordon's mill and passes through Missionary Ridge at Rossville Gap. This was the axis and prize of the battle, since it largely controlled the advance to the city.

See blog post Securing Lookout Valley.