General Rosecrans claimed to have evidence that Bragg was moving towards Rome, and had therefore ordered Crittenden to hold Chattanooga with one brigade, call all the troops of Hazen’s command across from the north side of the river, an follow the enemy’s retreat vigorously.
On September 11, Crittenden was ordered to advance as far as Ringgold, but not farther, and to make a reconnoisance as far as Lee and Gordon’s Mill.[13] Crittenden’s report as well as other evidence convinced General Rosecrans that Bragg had only gone as far as Lafayette—twenty-five miles south of Chattanooga—and then halted. General Crittenden’s whole corps was therefore sent to Lee and Gordon’s Mill, where he found Bragg’s rear guard. He was ordered to communicate with General Thomas, who by that time had reached the eastern foot of Lookout Mountain in McLemore’s Cove, at the eastern base of Stevens’s gap. Wilder’s mounted brigade followed and covered the Twenty-first Corps in its movements to Lee and Gordon’s Mill, and had a severe fight with the enemy at Leet’s tan yard, five miles to the southeast. Although Bragg made his headquarters at Lafayette in his retreat from Chattanooga, his rear guard did not get beyond Lee and Gordon’s Mill.
On September 10 Negley’s division of the Fourteenth Corps marched—after having crossed the ridge—from the foot of Stevens’s Gap, across McLemore’s Cove, towards Dug Gap in the Pigeon Mountains and then directly towards Lafayette. Dug Gap is six miles west of Lafayette. Negley found this gap heavily obstructed, but Baird’s division came to his support on the morning of September 11. They became convinced by some sharp skirmishing, which occurred on the 11th, that the enemy’s forces were advancing; and therefore fell back from Davis’s cross roads to a good position near the foot of Stevens’s Gap. These two officers are entitled to great credit for their coolness and skill in withdrawing their divisions from a very perilous trap. The forces of the enemy would have been overwhelming in their immediate front, if the Confederates had been more expeditious and made the attack on the afternoon of September 10 or on the morning of the 11th. Hindman, Buckner, and Cleburne, with several divisions were there, but failed to cooperate in an attack at the right time. The obstructions placed in the gap by the Confederates favored Negley and Baird.
On September 12 Reynolds’s and Brannan’s divisions following over the mountain closed up to Negley and Baird. Bragg’s army was at Lafayette, near Dug Gap, in force. Having official information that Longstreet was coming from Virginia with large reinforcements, and having already received troops from Mississippi and the eastern part of Tennessee, Bragg halted in his retreat. He was preparing to give battle to the Union forces at the first good opportunity.
Two divisions of Joseph E. Johnston’s troops from Mississippi and Buckner’s Corps from Tennessee—where Burnside’s forces were—had joined Bragg before he moved north from Lafayette to Chickamauga, where he was joined by three divisions of Longstreet’s Corps from Virginia on the 18th, if not earlier. At the same time Halleck, chief of the army at Washington, D. C., telegraphed Rosecrans September 11, 1863, as follows: “It is reported here by deserters that a part of Bragg’s army is reinforcing Lee. It is important that the truth of this should be ascertained as early as possible.”[14]
The fact stands out in bold relief, that the Confederate Government at Richmond hastened reinforcements to General Bragg; while the Washington Government sent none to Rosecrans, although Burnside was in the eastern part of Tennessee with 16,000 troops, and was at that time at leisure. Because the force, lately in his front, had reinforced Bragg at Lafayette, Burnside did not obey Halleck’s order to join Rosecrans; on the contrary, he drove Buckner’s force, which united with Bragg; thus Burnside enabled Buckner’s men to take part against the Union Army in the battle of Chickamauga.
Bragg in his official report, says: “During the 9th it was ascertained that a column, estimated at from 4,000 to 8,000 had crossed Lookout Mountain into the cove by way of Cooper’s and Stevens’s gaps. Thrown off his guard by our rapid movement, apparently in retreat, when in reality we had concentrated opposite his center, and deceived by the information, by deserters and others sent into his lines, the enemy pressed on his columns to intercept us, and thus exposed himself in detail.”[15] He says further that he ordered Hindman, Cleburne, and Buckner to join and attack the forces—Negley and Baird—at Davis’s cross roads, near Dug Gap; but because Dug Gap was obstructed by felled timber, which required twenty-four hours to remove, and because Buckner, when he joined Hindman, wanted to change the plans, Negley and Baird had been allowed to move back in a position not wise to follow. Bragg drew Buckner, Hindman, and Cleburne back to Lafayette and prepared to move in order to attack Crittenden at Lee and Gordon’s Mill. Polk’s and Walker’s corps were moved immediately in that direction.
The only Wisconsin troops in the affair at Dug Gap on September 10 and 11 were the First, Tenth, and Twenty-first Infantry. Lieutenant Robert J. Nickles of the First Wisconsin Infantry, aide to General J. C. Starkweather, commanding the brigade, was killed when reconnoitering alone the enemy’s skirmishers. This was the only casualty to the Wisconsin troops.
On September 12, General Leonidas Polk was ordered to attack Crittenden the next day, at Lee and Gordon’s Mill. Polk would not attack however, without reinforcements. Bragg spent the next five days getting his army in position along the west Chickamauga Creek, and on its east side from the north end of Pigeon Mountains to Reed’s Bridge. Brigadier-General B. R. Johnson, who had been holding Ringgold on the east side of the Chickamauga with one brigade, moved on the 18th to Reed’s Bridge on the west Chickamauga; this caused his force to become the extreme right of Bragg’s line. While Forrest’s and Pegram’s cavalry covered the extreme right at Reed’s Bridge, Walker’s Corps formed on the left of B. R. Johnson’s, opposite Alexander’s Bridge; Buckner’s was next to Thedford’s Ford; Polk’s opposite Lee and Gordon’s Mill, and Hill’s Corps was on the extreme left, near Glass’s Mill. Wheeler’s Cavalry protected the left flank, and was ordered to annoy the troops in McLemore’s Cove so much that Bragg’s movement would not be discovered. With B. R. Johnson’s movement from Ringgold came two brigades—just arrived from Mississippi—and three of Longstreet’s from Virginia. The other two brigades from Virginia came on the 19th in time to take active part, the Confederate Army being in position on the east side of west Chickamauga Creek; and Crittenden’s Corps near Lee and Gordon’s Mill on the west side. Bragg was finally ready for attack; and on the night of the 17th issued his order of battle, namely, that each body of troops should cross the creek at the nearest practicable bridge or ford, turn to the left, and sweep up the Chickamauga towards Lee and Gordon’s Mill. This would bring the troops upon the left flank of Crittenden’s forces. Leonidas Polk was to attack in front, across the stream, while Hill was ordered to prevent the Union forces in McLemore’s Cove from reinforcing Crittenden. It will be seen how Bragg’s plan of attack failed completely. The Chickamauga Creek or River rises at the head of McLemore’s Cove, and runs northeast, emptying into the Tennessee River about five miles above Chattanooga. Therefore, to retreat to Chattanooga, or to cut off the Union Army from it, the Confederate Army had to cross on the west side of Chickamauga. The road from Lafayette to Chattanooga—on which the Confederates marched—runs on the east side of and parallel with Pigeon Mountains and the river, and crosses the river at Lee and Gordon’s Mill. The road on which the Union troops at Stevens’s gap marched, runs down the cove on the west side of the river and Pigeon Mountains, past Crawfish Springs, near which it branches to McFarland’s Gap and to Kelly’s farm on the Lafayette road, three miles north of Lee and Gordon’s; this distance is about sixteen miles. The Pigeon Mountains dwindle away into the level country some miles south of Lee and Gordon’s.
The order of battle issued by Bragg on September 17, was not immediately executed, on account of some resistance made by Wilder’s mounted infantry and Minty’s cavalry at Reed’s and Alexander’s bridges.