Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the 410th episode of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

As y'all will recall, with the last episode, we looked at how Long Street Attack had rolled

forward and punched right through the hole in the federal line on the southern part of

the battlefield.

Long Street's success on that part of the battlefield was a stunning development and

was certainly a disaster for the Yankees.

However, for Braxton Bragg's plan to destroy the federal army to work, he it needed Leonis

Polk's wing of the rebel army to crush the enemy left that morning so that the Yankees

could be pushed south away from Chattanooga.

As we know though, Polk, there on the northern part of the battlefield, failed in that mission.

So that meant that no matter how stunning the success of Long Street's wing, the federal

army would still be able to retreat to Chattanooga.

And so on that Sunday afternoon, although neither Bragg nor Long Street probably realized

it at that moment, the struggle had been transformed from a fight to destroy the Yankees

army into an effort to see how much it could be damaged before it escaped the battlefield.

In other words, with Long Street's spectacular breakthrough, there was no longer any question

the Confederates would win the battle.

But the failure of Polk's wing earlier in the day meant the rebels had lost the chance

...