Chickamauga Campaign Heritage Trail

When it became obvious that the Federal Army of the Cumberland was about to cut the supply lines from Atlanta, the Confederate Army was forced to withdraw from Chattanooga without a fight. The primary line of retreat was south through Rossville Gap on the LaFayette Road. "The movement [out of Chattanooga] began on the night of September 7," General D.H. Hill wrote, "my corps taking the lead on the LaFayette Road. The mass of the Yankee army was supposed to be at Trenton, in Will's Valley; but as our cavalry soon lost the almost impregnable position of Lookout Mountain, but with few casualties on either side, the Yankees began to pour down into McClemore's Cove. I was accordingly ordered by the commanding general to picket the gaps in Pigeon Mountain. This duty was entrusted to General Cleburne, while Breckinridge was left at LaFayette in charge of trains for the army."



"Our troops were put in motion on September 7 and 8," General Braxton Bragg stated, "and took position from Lee and Gordon's Mills to LaFayette, on the road leading south from Chattanooga and fronting the east slope of Lookout Mountain. The forces on the Hiwassee and at Chickamauga Station took the route to ringgold. A small cavalry force was left in observation at Chattanooga and a brigade of infantry, strongly supported by cavalry, was left at Ringgold to hold the railroad and protect it from raids."



"Bragg then fell back to LaFayette, Georgia," Colonel John T. Wilder observed, "To interpose in Rosecrans' front, leaving two cavalry brigades, one in Chattanooga and the other at Friar's Island ford, seven miles above Chattanooga, where I had kept a regiment and two guns threatening to cross all the time we were shelling... On September 9th we forced a passage of the river at Friar's Island, and the Ninety-Second Illinois, of my brigade, which had been sent to Shellmound came over the point of Lookout Mountain and entered Chattanooga."



"As soon as our movement was known to the enemy," General Bragg wrote, "his corps nearest Chattanooga [General Crittenden's 21st Army Corps], and which had been threatening Buckner's rear, was thrown into that place, and shortly thereafter commenced to move on our rear by the two roads to LaFayette and Ringgold."



Rosecrans' Chief of Staff, General James A. Garfield, updated General McCook on the situation. "A dispatched received from General Wagner, dated September 8, 8:30 p.m., stating that the rebels evacuated Chattanooga yesterday and he will occupy it in the morning. General Crittenden started this morning to occupy the place and commence the pursuit. Our forces opposite that place have been ordered to cross the river immediately and join General Crittenden."



After reaching Chattanooga, officers were sent to the point of Lookout Mountain for observation, and soon after a station communicating with department headquarters, through this station on Lookout Mountain, was established at Rossville. Communication from department headquarters to Headquarters Fourteenth Army Corps was established up Lookout Valley as rapidly as possible.

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