Volume XXIV Issue #3 • An Excerpt From:

The Chickamauga Campaign:
The Armies Collide

By William Glenn Robertson

Click Here to view a free sample map from this article
Note: All Blue & Gray feature articles are annotated.

Bragg's Infantry corps commanders (left to right) Leonidas Polk, D.H. HIll, Simon B. Buckner,
and William H.T. Walker..

Rosecrans sent no orders to Crittenden because that officer was already under instructions of the previous afternoon to concentrate the XXI Corps around Lee and Gordon’s Mills. Crittenden planned to use three roads to bring Palmer’s and Horatio Van Cleve’s divisions and Wilder’s brigade back from their positions beyond Ringgold, Ga., to a junction with Wood’s two lonely brigades at the Mills. At 1:00 a.m. Crittenden issued instructions to the three affected commanders. Van Cleve was to gather everyone’s trains and head west from Ringgold toward the La Fayette-Rossville Road via Peeler’s Mill and Reed’s Bridge over Chickamauga Creek. Palmer was to give Van Cleve time to get underway, then take a road trending toward the southwest. Upon entering the valley of Pea Vine Creek, Palmer would pause near the home of a man named Gilbert and block any Confederate horsemen seeking to approach the trains from the south. Wilder was to return to Ringgold from Tunnel Hill, Ga., report to Crittenden, then take the direct road from Ringgold to La Fayette. Such a move would cover Palmer’s front while he remained at Gilbert’s and his left flank when he turned west and resumed his march to Lee and Gordon’s Mills. After daylight the movement commenced without initial difficulty. Palmer began by covering Van Cleve on the edge of Ringgold while the latter gathered the trains and began the slow march west. Then, with William B. Hazen’s brigade in the lead, Palmer advanced to Gilbert’s, arriving shortly after 9:00 a.m. There he paused, according to his orders to block Pea Vine Valley. Crittenden himself arrived nearby around 10:45 a.m. and authorized Palmer to push Hazen’s brigade ahead toward Lee and Gordon’s Mills. As Crittenden reported to Rosecrans several times, all indications continued to be that the Confederates were still en route to Rome and there was no cause for concern.4

At Lee and Gordon’s Mills, Thomas Wood nervously waited for orders. At 6:00 a.m., with a heavy fog covering the valley of Chickamauga Creek, he wrote Rosecrans that he needed instructions from someone. Earlier written orders had directed him to head east to link with Crittenden, but the courier had verbally directed him to continue his advance southward. Either way, the bridge over the Chickamauga had been burned by the retreating Confederates and would need heavy reconstruction. Until the fog lifted he could do nothing. Just as the fog began to dissipate around 8:00 a.m., a squad of mounted infantrymen appeared with a message from Crittenden ordering him to remain in place at the Mills and await the arrival of the corps. While waiting, Wood sent four companies of Charles G. Harker’s brigade across the creek, where they stumbled into a much larger Confederate cavalry force backed by artillery. When Harker and the remainder of his brigade came up to support the reconnaissance party, the Confederates withdrew from view. By 1:00 p.m. Hazen’s brigade arrived at the Mills, having brushed away other Confederate horsemen. Some time thereafter, Crittenden himself reached Wood’s position. At 4:00 p.m. he sent a message to Palmer, ordering that officer to resume his march to the Mills as well. Before moving, Palmer was to make a reconnaissance up Pea Vine Creek with Charles Cruft’s brigade. In less than an hour, cannon shots were heard to the southward, causing Crittenden to send Hazen’s brigade on a reconnaissance as well. Neither brigade encountered much opposition from the handful of Confederate cavalrymen watching them, and they soon rejoined their parent command. At dusk Palmer’s division bivouacked across the Chickamauga from Lee and Gordon’s Mills. In a message to General Rosecrans, Crittenden continued to insist that the Confederate army was in full retreat and would not stand short of Rome. The only caveat to his rosy view of the situation was that he had not yet heard from John T. Wilder and his brigade.5

This concludes the excerpt. Click the link below to purchase the complete issue. Don't Forget! Each issue of Blue & Gray includes a detailed Driving Tour of the featured site!