After General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee was driven from strong defensive positions along Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, the defeated army practically lost all cohesion as a fighting force. Many soldiers turned and ran in the face of the Federal assault to avoid being flanked and captured. However, Major General Patrick R. Cleburne’s division, the last to retreat after successfully defending its sector along Missionary Ridge, left in good order and, by default, became the army’s rear guard unit.
The defeated Bragg, taking the last option open to him, ordered Cleburne to make a stand against Major General Joseph Hooker’s 15,000-man corps, which was then pursuing the retreating Confederate and their slow-moving wagon supply train. On November 27, Cleburne, with 4100 men and two artillery batteries, set up a well-positioned ambush on the unsuspecting Federal forces from the top of Taylor’s Ridge and across the gap on White Oak Ridge. As Hooker’s vanguard marched through Ringgold toward the narrow gap, Cleburne’s men let loose a destructive crossfire from rifles and artillery, first stunning and then repulsing the federal column. For the next four hours, Hooker attempted to break the Confederate line at many points but was effectively repulsed every time.
Cleburne reported 222 killed, wounded, and missing following the fighting of November 27. Hooker’s casualties, at 501 killed, wounded, and missing, were considerably higher, with more men lost at Ringgold than in his celebrated Battle Above the Clouds on Lookout Mountain.
The Battle of Ringgold Gap assured Cleburne’s status as a hero of the Confederacy. He earned the sobriquet “The Stonewall of Our Armies” from the Atlanta Intelligencer. The Confederate Congress passed a resolution of thanks on February 9, 1864, citing his act of saving Bragg’s army from destruction.
The site of the Battle of Ringgold Gap can be viewed from the rear of the Ringgold Depot, where both slopes of the gap are visible. Attempts by preservation groups to purchase the battlefield and surrounding area have been unsuccessful, though a National Register of Historic Places listing is pending.