The Confederate belief that the attack would come from the north was
reinforced when General Rosecrans sent Colonel John T. Wilder whit his
mounted infantry up the Sequatchie Valley and over Walden's Ridge to generate
a disturbance along the north side of the river between Chattanooga and
the mount of the Hiwassee River. While the Confederates were distracted
in this manner, Rosecrans moved his main army to cross the Tennessee River
on a wide front well below Chattanooga.. Two divisions of McCook's 20th
Army Corps crossed at Caperton's Ferry below Bridgeport, Alabama. The
other division of the 20th Corps and two divisions of the 14th Army Corps
crossed at Bridgeport. One of the remaining divisions of the 14th Corps
crossed at Battle Creek and the other at Love's Ferry in Marion County
Tennessee. All of Crittenden's 21st Army Corps crossed at Love's Ferry.
The entire army then moved by different routes into Georgia. When Bragg
learned that he was about to be flanked and cut off from Atlanta by this
movement, he left Chattanooga and retreated south toward LaFayette in
Walker County Georgia.
General McCook's 20th Corps rapidly crossed Sand Mountain and Lookout
Mountain, reaching the Alpine community in Chatooga County Georgia. Thomas'
14th Corps came through Dade County and started up Lookout Mountain at
Johnson's Crook. Crittenden brought his 21st Corps into Dade County and
took the road north to occupy Chattanooga. General Granger brought the
Reserve Corps to Chattanooga. The first division from the 14th Corps to
cross Lookout Mountain, commanded by General James Negley, was turned
back to the base of the mountain by the Confederate attack in the Battle
of Davis Crossroads on September 1011, 1863. McCook was ordered to
Negley's assistance, and, being unable to get through on the eastern side
of the mountain, crossed back over Lookout and came up Johnson's Crook.
Colonel Wilder led a raid into Catoosa County, but was turned back by
Confederate cavalry. Crittenden brought the 21st Army Corps south the
vicinity of the Lee and Gordon's Mills in Walker County. Unknown to Rosecrans,
Bragg received massive reinforcements. General Simon B. Buckner brought
his corps down from Knoxville. General John C. Breckinridge brought his
men up from Mississippi and General James Longstreet brought two divisions
down from Virginia. Breckinridge and Longstreet came by train, arriving
at Catoosa Station below Ringgold.
A major objective of General Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee
during the Chickamauga campaign was to block the Federal Army from Chattanooga.
Similarly, General William Rosecrans' Federal Army of the Cumberland made
ever effort to keep this line open. The Federal lifeline was dependant
on control of at least one of two roads. One of these was the LaFayette
Road, passing through Rossville Gap and roughly following the route of
the modern Highway 27. The other was the Dry Valley Road, called by one
observer "more an expanded trail than a true wagon road," that
crossed West Chickamauga Creek at Owen's Ford, then ran northward through
the foothills of Missionary Ridge, and eventually passed through the Ridge
at McFarland's Gap before continuing through Rossville and ultimately
on to Chattanooga. Denial of access to the "long and narrow defile"
at McFarland's Gap on September 20 could have resulted in the complete
destruction of the Federal Army.
The Chickamauga Campaign Trail will follow the troop movements through
these four north-west Georgia counties.