Both sides suffered significant losses as a result of the combat

One of the interesting facts about the Battle of Chickamauga is that both sides suffered significant losses as a result of the combat. At Chickamauga, the Confederates outnumbered the Federals by a margin of 65,000 to 62,000 troops. They also bore the brunt of the casualties. Though a Confederate success, it accomplished nothing more than to reassure the Southern people that all was not lost in Tennessee due to the weak generalship of Braxton Bragg. Union casualties were 16,170 (1,657 dead, 9,756 wounded, and 4,757 captured or missing), and Confederate losses were 18,454 (2,312 killed, 14,674 wounded, and 1,468 captured or missing). They were the most casualties of any battle in the Western Theater during the war, and, after Gettysburg, the second-most in the war overall.

Confederate generals Benjamin Hardin Helm (husband of Abraham Lincoln's sister-in-law), James Deshler, Preston Smith, and Union general William H. Lytle were among those killed. Confederate general John Bell Hood, who had already lost the use of his left arm due to a gunshot received at Gettysburg, was seriously wounded by a bullet in his leg, necessitating amputation. Although the Confederates were nominally victorious, driving Rosecrans from the field, Bragg had failed to achieve his goals of defeating Rosecrans or restoring Confederate control of East Tennessee, and the Confederate Army sustained casualties that they could not afford.