Forces under Major General Joseph Hooker assaulted Lookout Mountain outside Chattanooga, TN #OTD in 1863. The assault helped break the two-month siege of the city by confederate forces under Braxton Bragg. #CivilWar 
Hooker, an 1837 graduate of @WestPoint_USMA, had resigned from command of the Army of the Potomac five months earlier after losing the Battle of Chancellorsville. Retained as a Corps commander, he led two Corps that had been sent west to reinforce General @USGrantNPS’s forces.
Hooker’s lead division was commanded by Brig. Gen. John Geary. A former Territorial Governor of Kansas, Geary had lost his son, Edward, a month earlier when he died in his arms at the Battle of Wauhatchie.
The Union attack had not been intended as full-on assault of the mountain, but rather as a diversion intended to draw confederate troops away from Missionary Ridge. Hooker, however, decided to exploit Grant’s order to take the point “if practicable”.
Under cover of massed artillery, Geary led Hooker’s forces forward, sweeping across Lookout Creek and driving the outnumbered confederate forces out of the valley below the mountain.
Additional Union troops ascended the mountain, forcing the confederates to abandon the position that afternoon. The Union now held a dominant position on the confederate flank as they prepared to assault Missionary Ridge the next day.
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