Thomas had orders from Rosecrans to draw back to Rossville; Granger wanted him to ignore the orders and hold the field; but Thomas would not accede to such a request, and began the movement at half past five. His line was solid and confident, but had very little ammunition, and no rations. He was largely outnumbered and outflanked at both right and left; by falling back to Rossville he would gain the fugitive troops, whom he had been unable to induce to march back to this position; he would also gain a stronger defensive line, which would better cover the approaches to the city. He intended to start the movement so early in the evening that he could get the troops in the proper roads and directions before night, when darkness would protect them from danger of attack during the march. Boynton says: “It was in no sense a military retreat,” it was done “because Chattanooga, and not the Chickamauga woods, was the objective of the campaign.” Still, it may also be said, that the Confederate Army was the objective, and that its destruction was of more importance than the occupation of the city. It is quite certain that General Thomas would gladly have remained on the field, if he had been confident that he could have destroyed Bragg’s army the next day. He did not know at that time that it was badly used up as later events proved and the movement backwards in the face of a very vigilant foe, who was constantly advancing in almost full force, would have been dangerous.

The dispositions made by General George H. Thomas—before and after he discovered the break in the Union right—were of the highest military character; his plan of withdrawal to Rossville was equally scientific. In his report he says, that after the arrival of Granger’s forces and their effective attack on the enemy’s troops on the right of Brannan, every assault of the enemy until nightfall was repulsed in the most gallant style by the whole line. This was the result of his skillful placing of troops, his constant watchfulness with regard to the movements of the enemy, and the excellent counter movements by the Union forces. But the real cause of the preservation of the army was the masterful formation of the five divisions remaining under General Thomas’s command on the morning of the 20th; they were formed in compact, double lines, protected by log breastworks and had three or four brigades in reserve; these lines required no re-adjustment and were not penetrated. His watchfulness of the troops—of which many formed under his own direction on Snodgrass Hill after the break on the right—enabled him to point out instantly where they should go, when Granger and Steedman appeared. Let it be remembered that he was at that time unaware of the extent of the disaster on the right. In his report he states, “General Garfield, chief of staff of General Rosecrans, reached this position about 4 p. m., in company with Lieutenant-Colonel Thruston, of McCook’s staff, and Captains Gaw and Barker, of my staff, who had been sent to the rear to bring back the ammunition, if possible. General Garfield gave me the first reliable information that the right and centre of our army had been driven, and of its condition at that time. I soon after received a dispatch from General Rosecrans, directing me to assume command of all the forces, and, with Crittenden and McCook, take a strong position, and assume a threatening attitude at Rossville, sending the unorganized forces to Chattanooga for reorganization, stating that he would examine the ground at Chattanooga, and then join me; also that he had sent out rations and ammunition to me at Rossville.”[27]

General Thomas, of course, knew before Garfield reached him that disaster of some kind had occurred on the right; but he did not know its extent, neither did he know of the departure of the many troops and high officers from the field. When he received this dispatch from General Rosecrans he determined to fall back and immediately formulated his plans. To enable the troops in line to hold the positions they occupied until the proper time to fall back, he sent two aides to distribute some ammunition—ten rounds to the man—which Granger had brought with him. As soon as this was done he sent Captain Willard, an aide, to direct the division commanders to be prepared to withdraw their commands as soon as they received orders. At 5:30 p. m. Captain Barker carried the order to Reynolds to commence the movement. Thomas does not indicate in his report why he wanted Reynolds to commence the movement, but it has been shown that his division was the one best located for the work. A brigade of Confederate troops of Liddell’s division occupied at that time the woods on the west of the Lafayette road, between the Union right on Snodgrass Hill and the left around the Kelly field. It was in the rear of both Union wings. Reynolds’s position was at the head of these woods, and his troops could fire into the Confederate lines without danger to the backs of the Union soldiers. Under Thomas’s direction, Turchin’s brigade moved down the Lafayette road, and filed to the left; when his rear had cleared the road and faced to the right on the march, he threw his brigade upon the Confederate forces and drove them in utter defeat entirely beyond Baird’s left. This was the fifth charge made during the day in the same direction along this road, in and adjacent to the Kelly field. General Thomas posted Reynolds’s two brigades, Turchin’s and Robinson’s—formerly King’s—together with Johnson’s reserve brigade and General Willich’s on the ridge road west of the Lafayette road, near the Mullis farm, in order to cover McFarland’s Gap. Thomas’s report describes best what followed: “These dispositions being made, I sent orders to Generals Wood, Brannan, and Granger to withdraw from their positions. Johnson’s and Baird’s division were attacked at the moment of retiring, but, by being prepared, retired without confusion or any serious losses. General Palmer was attacked while retiring. * * * I then proceeded to Rossville, accompanied by Generals Garfield and Gordon Granger, and immediately prepared to place the troops in position at that point.”[28]

During Baird’s withdrawal he was heavily attacked by the enemy, and lost a great many who were taken prisoners; some of these remained too long behind the breastworks, others took a wrong direction in falling back. The troops which had retreated to Rossville Gap during the day were reorganized by their officers prior to the falling back of the main army. Negley’s division was placed directly across the gap, and the next morning Baird’s was placed behind it; the other divisions on the right and left (on the crest of the ridge) were stationed with Minty’s cavalry in front of the gap, about one mile and a half on the Ringgold road. General R. B. Mitchell’s cavalry was on the Union right covering McFarland’s Gap, and extending his right to the Chattanooga Creek. McCook’s Corps was in line about a mile behind him.

On September 21, General N. B. Forrest advanced at Rossville some Confederate cavalry close enough to throw a shell or two into a Union wagon train and Minty’s advance Union cavalry on the Ringgold road had a little skirmish. But the Confederate Army was not advancing; apparently it did not intend to attack the position at this point. In fact, General Bragg did not know of the retirement of the Union Army until the 21st, and he did not order an advance. The Confederate Army lay still on the field during the 21st, and most of the 22nd. Therefore General Thomas advised General Rosecrans to concentrate the troops at Chattanooga, and this was done on the night of September 21, in a most admirable manner under Thomas’s direction. Brannan’s division—in order to cover and protect the movement—was posted half way between Rossville and Chattanooga. Nearly all the infantry and artillery were in or around the city by 7 a. m. of the 22nd. The different organizations were marched directly to positions previously assigned them.

Baird’s division (now Rousseau’s), with Minty’s cavalry still in rear of it, brought up the rear, and did not arrive in the entrenchments around the city until late in the evening of the 22nd. General Rousseau, who was absent from early in August, joined the army again at Rossville on September 21, and assumed command of his old division. General Baird was later assigned to another division at Chattanooga.

In the forenoon of the 22nd, Cheatham’s Confederate division marched to the neighborhood of Chickamauga station, and took a road leading thence to the top of Missionary Ridge; it was followed by the rest of Polk’s Corps on the 23rd. On the same day, Hill’s and Longstreet’s corps followed on different roads and slowly formed their line on top of the ridge. Longstreet’s and Hill’s was thrown across the valley to the foot of Lookout; their left was on the top of Lookout Mountain and their right on the northeast nose of Missionary Ridge, abutting on the Tennessee River, but the main line did not reach to the river. Their camps were principally located in the Chickamauga Valley on the east side of the ridge, where they were protected from observation by the Union forces.

WISCONSIN TROOPS AT CHICKAMAUGA

There were five infantry regiments from Wisconsin in the battle of Chickamauga, viz.: the First, Tenth, Fifteenth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-fourth. The First and Twenty-first were parts of the Second Brigade, commanded by General John C. Starkweather—formerly Colonel of the First Wisconsin Infantry—of the First Division, commanded by General Absalom Baird, of the Fourteenth Corps, commanded by General George H. Thomas. They were actively engaged near the extreme left on both days of the battle. When Baird’s division on the morning of the 19th advanced from Kelly’s house on the Lafayette road, Starkweather’s brigade was in reserve behind the other two brigades of the division. His brigade was formed in two lines, the first composed of the First Wisconsin on the right and the Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania on the left, with the Fourth Indiana Battery between the two wings. The Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry and Twenty-fourth Illinois Infantry formed the rear line. Lieutenant-Colonel George B. Bingham commanded the First, and Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison C. Hobart the Twenty-first. Having advanced about a mile through the woods, driving the enemy’s skirmishers, Starkweather moved to Thomas’s left by the order of the General, in order to relieve Croxton’s brigade of Brannan’s division, reported to be out of ammunition. General Starkweather seems to have no sooner taken position here than the enemy attacked in such overwhelming numbers as to force him back. He retreated to a ridge in the rear of his left; leaving his battery temporarily in the possession of the enemy. Very soon the enemy was struck on his flank and rear by General Johnson’s division of McCook’s Corps and forced back; the battery was then recovered.

In reforming the lines late in the afternoon, Starkweather’s brigade was placed on the left of Johnson’s division; it took part in the night attack by the Confederate General Cleburne, and was under fire during the whole of the battle of the 19th. On the morning of the 20th it formed the right of Baird’s position in the woods east of the Kelly field, and was in one of the most exposed positions; this brought it again on the left of Johnson’s division. The Fourth Indiana Battery had two guns in the centre of the brigade and two upon the left. General Starkweather in his official report says: “This position was held and retained during the whole day under repeated attacks from the enemy in heavy columns supported with batteries, repulsing and driving the enemy back from time to time; driving the enemy also back from the extreme left with the artillery. * * * While holding this position the ammunition of my first line was expended, and most of the second line, together with all the ammunition of the battery, except three rounds of canister.”[29] He retired with the rest of Baird’s division in the evening of the 20th to Rossville, thence to Chattanooga on the 22nd. In the retirement, Lieutenant-Colonel Hobart, eight other commissioned officers, and 67 men of the Twenty-first Wisconsin were captured by the enemy. The loss of the First Wisconsin was 188 killed, wounded, and missing; the latter being 77. The officers killed were Captains Abner O. Heald, and William S. Mitchell; Lieutenants James S. Richardson, and Charles A. Searles. Of the Twenty-first the loss was 121, of these 76 were missing. The First seems to have gone into the battle with 391, and the Twenty-first with 369 men.