The story is crowded with brilliant and successful operations of detached corps against greatly superior forces and of minor strategy, which blend harmoniously with the more striking features of the great campaign. It covers a period of intense anxiety for General Rosecrans and his subordinate commanders, of most skillful action, and continued danger to destruction in detail. It culminated in the delivery of a battle, which, though still widely misunderstood, unquestionably ranks for the stubbornness and effectiveness of its fighting and the importance of its results with the most notable battles of the war.
A previous letter left the Army of the Cumberland where its strategy had thrown it across three mountain ranges and the Tennessee River, and brought it without loss to the rear of Chattanooga, at the foot of the eastern base of the Lookout Mountain. This had compelled Bragg to withdraw toward Lafayette. The left of the Union army, under General Crittenden, had passed around the north end of Lookout, marched through Chattanooga after Bragg, and occupied Rossville Gap. General McCook, forty-two miles to the right, had descended to Alpine, while the center, under General Thomas, was at Steven's Gap, directly opposite Bragg's center, at Lafayette.
Finding that the enemy had withdrawn behind Pigeon Mountain, General Rosecrans having been assured from Washington that no re-enforcements had been sent from Lee's army, determined to push Bragg vigorously at all points for the purpose of gaining every advantage which a retreat presented, and of inflicting all the damage possible. Beyond question, this put his army in serious peril, since Bragg had only retired to meet re-enforcements promised and actually arriving from all quarters, and was even then concentrated and ready to strike. McCook, on the right, pushed in from Alpine and Summerville with Stanley's cavalry to within seven miles of Lafayette without finding any signs of retreat. He therefore wisely kept his trains and main force near the mountain.
Negley, of Thomas, marched out from Steven's Gap beyond the Chickamauga and his skirmishers deployed in front of Dug Gap. This advanced position he held during the 10th, and early next morning was supported in it by Baird's division. Here Bragg attempted his initiative, and developed his preparations for advance. Two corps of infantry, Hill's and Walker's, a division from Polk's command, and a division of cavalry, were in the gaps of Pigeon Mountains, or the woods behind them, under orders to advance on Negley. By a fortunate delay their combinations for attack were not completed until Baird had arrived. The bold front displayed by both of these officers still further held back those overwhelming forces of Bragg. When the latter were ready to move, the skill, sharp fighting, and able maneuvering under fire enabled these Union officers to bring their troops back to the shelter of the mountain with comparatively little loss. It was a thrilling and difficult situation, and the day a most anxious one for Generals Rosecrans and Thomas.
The disappointment was great to Bragg when he learned that his heavy converging columns from Catlett's Gap on his right, Dug Gap in the center, and Blue Bird Gap on his left had met on the ground held by Negley and Baird, only to find them retiring with such show of strength and with such well ordered lines as enabled them to elude even serious attack. Both these officers deserve far greater credit than they have ever received for their courage, coolness, and ability. At night they were supported by the arrival of Brannan and Reynolds from the west side of the mountain, and the position of Thomas at Steven's Gap was secure.
Rosecrans' anxiety and Bragg's attention were instantly turned to the Union left. The discovery on the 11th that the rebel rear guard under Cheatham had not moved south of Lee & Gordon's showed Rosecrans that whatever Bragg's intention may have been, he was then concentrating for battle. As General Rosecrans himself declares in his official report, the concentration of the Army of the Cumberland became a matter of life and death.
Crittenden, from the 9th to the 12th, had carried on most vigorous operations. Palmer and Van Cleve had advanced to Ringgold. Wood was close at hand. Hazen, Minty, and Wilder, fresh from their part in the brilliant feint north of the river, had joined Crittenden, and some lively minor battles were the result. The discovery that the rebel rear guard was still at Lee & Gordon's suddenly stopped these operations, and on the 12th, under an order to concentrate with the utmost celerity north of the Chickamauga, Crittenden established himself along that river near and above Lee & Gordon's.
On the 13th Bragg had ordered an attack upon him by Polk with two corps and the promise of the support of a third, hoping to overthrow this wing, in continuance of his plan of defeating the Union corps in detail, before the center or right could afford relief. In the face of such threatening, with McCook over fifty miles away, and Thomas unable to move from the center till McCook should be within supporting distance, Rosecrans undertook the concentration of his army.
At this point, that justice may be done, it is well to contrast the attitude which the governments at Washington and Richmond had assumed toward this movement on the rebel center.