Chattanooga or Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge from Moccasin Point

From a signal station above the Tennessee River, Bradford Ripley Wood watched Union troops fighting around Chattanooga in 1863. His account grew from a paper delivered to the U.S. Veteran Signal Corps Association in 1907. Combining personal recollection with material he identifies as official records, Wood describes Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge through the terrain, roads and observation posts that shaped the fighting.

The daily work of signaling supplies some of the most concrete details. Wood recalls trying to read an opposing flag message, sending reports by torchlight and putting out an accidental fire near his station. Dated messages record troop movements and artillery activity. Later, his telescope brings the ascent of Missionary Ridge into close view. For readers studying Civil War communications, this short history connects battlefield observation with the practical task of getting information to army headquarters.