CHICKAMAUGA CREEK, a small tributary of the Tennessee river, which it joins near Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.A. It gives its name to the great battle of Chickamauga in the American Civil War, fought on the 19-20th of September 1863, between the Federal army of the Cumberland under Major-General W. S. Rosecrans and the Confederate army under General Braxton Bragg. For the general operations of Rosecrans’ army in 1863 see American Civil War. A successful war of manœuvre had brought the army of the Cumberland from Murfreesboro to Decherd, Tenn., and Bragg’s army lay on the Tennessee at and above Chattanooga. Rosecrans was expected by the enemy to manœuvre so as to gain touch with the Union forces in the upper Tennessee valley, but he formed an entirely different plan of operations. One part of the army demonstrated in front of Chattanooga, and the main body secretly crossed the river about Stevenson and Bridgeport (September 4th). The country was mountainous, the roads few and poor, and the Federals had to take full supplies of food, forage and ammunition with them, but Rosecrans was an able commander, his troops were in good hands, and he accepted the risks involved. These were intensified by the want of good maps, and, in the event, at one moment the army was placed in a position of great danger. A corps under A. McD. McCook moved south-eastward across the ridges to Alpine, another under Thomas marched via Trenton on McLemore’s Cove. The presence of Federal masses in Lookout Valley caused Bragg to abandon Chattanooga at once, and the object of the manœuvre was thus accomplished; but owing to the want of good maps the Union army was at the same time exposed to great danger. The head of Thomas’s column was engaged at Dug Gap, on the 11th, against the flank guard of Bragg’s army, and at the time McCook was far away to the south, and Crittenden’s corps, which had occupied Chattanooga on the 9th, was also at a distance. Thomas was isolated, but Rosecrans, like every other commander under whom he served, placed unbounded confidence in his tenacity, and if Bragg was wrong in neglecting to attack him on the 14th, subsequent events went far to disarm criticism. By the 18th of September Rosecrans had at last collected his army on Chickamauga Creek covering Chattanooga. But Bragg had now received heavy reinforcements, and lay, concentrated for battle, on the other side of the Creek.
The terrain of the battle of Chickamauga (19th-20th of September) had little influence on its course. Both armies lay in the plain, the two lines roughly parallel. Bragg’s intention was to force his attack home on Rosecrans’ left wing, thus cutting him off from Chattanooga and throwing him back into the mountain country whence he had come. On the 19th a serious action took place between the Confederate right and Rosecrans’ left under Thomas. On the 20th the real battle began. The Confederates, in accordance with Bragg’s plans, pressed hard upon Thomas, to whom Rosecrans sent reinforcements. One of the divisions detached from the centre for this purpose was by inadvertence taken out of the first line, and before the gap could be filled the Confederate central attack, led by Longstreet and Hood, the fighting generals of Lee’s army, and carried out by veteran troops from the Virginian battlefields, cut the Federal army in two. McCook’s army corps, isolated on the Federal right, was speedily routed, and the centre shared its fate. Rosecrans himself was swept off the field in the rout of half of his army. But Thomas was unshaken. He re-formed the left wing in a semicircle, and aided by a few fresh brigades from Rossville, resisted for six hours the efforts of the whole Confederate army. Rosecrans in the meantime was rallying the fugitives far to the rear near Chattanooga itself. The fury of Bragg’s assault spent itself uselessly on the heroic divisions under Thomas, who remained on the field till night and then withdrew in good order to Rossville. Here he remained on the 21st, imposing respect upon the victors. On the 22nd Rosecrans had re-established order, and Thomas fell back quietly to Chattanooga, whither Bragg slowly pursued. For the subsequent events of the campaign see Chattanooga. The losses in the battle bear witness to a severity in the fighting unusual even in the American Civil War. Of 70,000 Confederates engaged at least 18,000 were killed and wounded, and the Federals lost 16,000 out of about 57,000. The battlefield has been converted into a national park, and was used during the Spanish American War (1898) as a place of mobilization for the U.S. volunteers.
CHICKASAWS, a tribe of North American Indians of Muskhogean stock, now settled in the western part of Oklahoma. Their former range was northern Mississippi and portions of Tennessee. According to their own tradition and the evidence of philology, they are closely connected with the Creeks and Choctaws; and they believe that they emigrated with these tribes from the west, crossed the Mississippi, and settled in the district that now forms the north-east part of the state of that name. Here they were visited by De Soto in 1540. From the first they were hostile to the French colonists. With the English, on the other hand, their relations were more satisfactory. In 1786 they made a treaty with the United States; and in 1793 they assisted the whites in their operations against the Creeks. In the early years of the 19th century part of their territory was ceded for certain annuities, and a portion of the tribe migrated to Arkansas; and in 1832–1834, the remainder, amounting to about 3600, surrendered to the United States the 6,442,400 acres of which they were still possessed, and entered into a treaty with the Choctaws for incorporation with that tribe. In 1855, however, they effected a separation of this union, with which they had soon grown dissatisfied, and by payment to the Choctaws of $150,000 obtained a complete right to their present territory. In the Civil War they joined the Confederates and suffered in consequence; but their rights were restored by the treaty of 1865. In 1866 they surrendered 7,000,000 acres; and in 1873 they adopted their former slaves. They had an independent government consisting of a governor, a senate, and a house of representatives; but tribal government virtually ceased in 1906. The Chickasaws of pure or mixed blood numbered 4826 in 1900, and with the fully admitted “citizens,” i.e. the freed slaves and adopted whites, the whole nation amounted to some 10,000.
See Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907).
CHICKASHA, a city and the county-seat of Grady county, Oklahoma, U.S.A., near the Washita river, about 45 m. S.S.W. of Oklahoma city. Pop. (1900) 3209; (1907) 7862, including 1043 negroes; (1910) 10,320. Chickasha is served by the St Louis & San Francisco, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Oklahoma Central railways. It is the trade centre of a very fertile section of the Washita Valley, whose principal products are Indian corn, cotton, fruits and vegetables and live-stock. The city has various manufactures, including flour, cotton-seed oil, lumber, furniture and farm implements. Chickasha was founded in 1892 and was chartered as a city in 1899.
CHICKEN-POX (Syn. varicella, a Low Latin diminutive of variola), a specific contagious disease characterized by an eruption of vesicles in the skin. The disease usually occurs in epidemics, and is one of childhood, the patients being generally
