The Union army's efforts to capture the strategic rail center of Chattanooga met with success here at Ross's Landing. Following a series of dramatic marches and feints, elements of Gen. William S. Rosecrans's army appeared on Stringer's Ridge across the river to the left front on August 23, 1863. Union shells whizzed into the city and the Confederate fortifications on the high ground to the left rear and on the bluffs to the right. The shelling, coordinated with shows of force in Hamilton Valley, was intended to convince Confederate commanders that the Federals intended to cross the Tennessee River north of Chattanooga.
