The 55th Ohio, with the rest of Colonel Orland Smith's brigade, moved from Lookout Valley to Chattanooga, Tennessee on the 22nd of November 1863. The 55th had 300 men present for duty. On the 23rd, during the battle of Chattanooga, the 11th Corps moved to the left of Fort Wood. Smith deployed his brigade in "column of divisions" and drove against the rebels deployed along the Chattanooga and Atlanta railroad. Col. Gambee of the 55th later reported they "...charged at the double-quick, under a heavy fire from front and flank, and did not halt until commanded to do so". Smith, realizing that he had outpaced the rest of the Union advance, pulled his troops back to the railroad embankment and dug in. The 55th Ohio lost one man killed and two wounded in this engagement. There they stayed until the 25th when the brigade was moved to the north end of Missionary Ridge to support General Sherman in his attack. Sherman's troops virtually routed Confederate General Braxton Bragg's troops in this spectacular battle that would be known as "The Battle Above The Clouds".On the 27th, the 55th's brigade, in pursuit of Bragg, marched to Graysville. During the march, the 55th's scouts captured a rebel 1st Lt. and five privates. By the 29th, the entire 11th Corps was ordered east to Knoxville to relieve General Burnside and the 9th Corps was under "siege" by rebel troops under General James Longstreet. Because of the haste in the march, the Union troops marched without tents and blankets. Col. Smith stated that the troops kept warm because of the abundance of firewood along the way. The next day the 55th, in the "extreme advance" drove a small rebel force through the town of Charleston, Tenn. whereupon the enemy fled. Two companies of the 55th Ohio crossed the Hiwassee River and captured five railroad cars, bridge tools, rations and ammunition. The rations were distributed to two divisions of the 11th Corps.
Sources:
Trials and Triumphs: A Record of the Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Hartwell Osborne, 1904, A.C. Clurg & Co., Chicago.
All Brave And True by Dan Munson, 1987.