On the 17th General Thomas's corps was in the vicinity of Pond Spring, Negley on the left, and so nearest to a junction with Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's, Baird next to the right, and Brannan next. Reynolds was thrown to the front. The left of McCook had closed on Thomas at Fond Spring.
During the day Bragg, strongly threatening Crittenden at Lee & Gordon's with two divisions, held him fast, and started the rest of his army down the Chickamauga to cross and sweep in on Crittenden's left and rear, expecting to find him still constituting the left of the Union army, and to double this left back on Thomas and McCook.
Bushrod Johnson had crossed at Reed's Bridge, driven Wilder nearly to the State road at Vineyard's, and bivouacked a mile and a half from Crittenden's left. Walker had also crossed at Lambert's Ford with three divisions and Forrest's cavalry division, and halted for the night about a mile in the rear of Hood. For the most part Bragg's army had the full night for rest.
On the other hand, the Union columns were alive with motion. That night was to cover the inversion of an army. About 4 o'clock Thomas started his whole corps from Pond Spring toward Crittenden, McCook following him. This was doubtless interpreted by Bragg as a closing in on Crittenden. But it was far more than that.
As soon as night shut the columns in they were pressed rapidly to the left. Negley, as he drew near to Crittenden, was moved to the Chickamauga in front of Crawfish Springs. This prevented a night attempt to cut the column by occupying the roads intersecting at that point. Meantime Thomas, with his other three divisions, pushed on. It was a long, weary night. Heavy trains of supplies and ammunition occupied the road. The troops moved mostly through the adjacent fields, both for celerity of marching and as guards to the trains. Heavy flanking forces streamed along parallel to the road, and well out toward the river. There were constant interruptions to continuous movement, causing frequent halts of the infantry. The night was cool, and, as the commands stopped, the men warmed themselves by starting fires in the fences. The result was that toward midnight the trains were everywhere driving between two continuous lines of fires, and the men on either side, or in the road, had constant facilities for warming themselves. It was a tedious and most fatiguing night, but at daylight the vitally important task was done. Thomas's head of column, Baird in advance, reached the Kelly farm at daylight, with Brannan well closed up and Reynolds a short distance in the rear. Brannan was on the State or Lafayette road, near the intersection of the road leading into it from Reed's bridge. McCook had reached a point to the right and rear of Crittenden, near Crawfish Springs. And so at sunrise the Union right, instead of resting far up the Chickamauga from Crittenden's position, as Bragg expected to find it, had become the left of Rosecrans' army and Crittenden was the right. More than this, Rosecrans had established his lines two miles beyond Bragg's right, and between it and Chattanooga. The victory of concentration had been followed by the equally important success of inverting the army and thus thrusting its columns between the enemy and the objective of the campaign. These second stages of the movement deserve to take rank with the matchless strategy with which it was inaugurated.
But the battle for the firm and final possession of Chattanooga was still to come. It opened suddenly for both sides, and for Bragg in a wholly unexpected quarter. The weary Union troops had scarcely time to cook their coffee after the night march, and some of them no time at all, before the storm broke and the army was summoned to the battle which Thomas had opened.
H. V. B.