Before Grant arrived at Chattanooga, the Army of the Cumberland was starving.

In September 1863, the Confederate Army of Cumberland was defeated by Confederate General Braxton Bragg at the battle of Chickamauga. The Cumberland army fled to nearby Chattanooga. Bragg followed Rosecrans and took positions on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, intercepting and blocking Confederate supply lines. The lack of supplies quickly began to take its toll on Union troops. Many of their horses and mules began to die of starvation. A soldier's rations were four hard pieces of bread and a quarter pound of pork every three days. Therefore, here is one of the facts about the battle of Chattanooga.

The Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal Union armies in the Western Theater during the American Civil War. It was originally known as the Army of Ohio. Rosecrans was the first commander of the Army of the Cumberland when it was formed on October 24, 1862. During the battle of Chattanooga, Grant cautiously used the Army of Cumberland in the central engagement, fearing their morale would be too low after the defeat at Chickamauga. The Army of Cumberland was given the small task of capturing the rifle pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge. The coming of heavy October rains and the promise of winter looming reduced the Army of the Cumberland to starvation rations. Wheeler's raid was the funeral pyre of Rosecrans in top command. Three Federal divisions were left without supplies, and the ammunition reserves of the entire army were rendered dangerously low. By mid-October, the Army of the Cumberland was on the brink of starvation.