The Civil War Battlefield Guide

northernmost unit Bragg ordered most of hisarmy to seize crossings over Chickamauga Creekdownstream of the Federals then drive Rose-cransrsquos army south into McLemorersquos Cove andaway from Chattanooga

By the evening of September 18 CS BrigadierGeneral Bushrod Johnsonrsquos provisional divisionhad captured Reedrsquos Bridge crossed Chicka-mauga Creek and advanced south toward the LaFayette Road The corps of CS Major GeneralsWilliam H T Walker and Simon B Buckner hadalso gained the west bank of Chickamauga Creekand had bivouacked for the night in the woodseast of the La Fayette Road None of the Confed-erate units was aware of Thomasrsquos XIV Corps asit marched northward through the night and tookposition on the La Fayette Road at the Kelly farmThe only night contact occurred when a bri-gade of US Major General Gordon Grangerrsquos re-serve corps attempting to destroy Reedrsquos Bridgebumped into rear-echelon elements of JohnsonrsquosDivision at a road junction near Jayrsquos Mill

Believing that they had trapped a single Con-federate brigade west of the creek Grangerrsquos menwithdrew to rejoin the reserve corps early on themorning of September 19 Thomas sent US Briga-dier General John Brannanrsquos division east intothe forest to destroy that brigade In the forestwest of Jayrsquos Mill Brannanrsquos men met a Confed-erate cavalry brigade covering Braggrsquos right rearand the battle was joined For the remainder ofthe day both Rosecrans and Bragg could do littlemore than feed reinforcements into the fight inorder to stabilize the situation Their efforts werehindered by the nature of the battlefield whichconsisted of a thick forest occasionally broken by a few small farms The woods limited maxi-mum visibility to 150 yards far less than riflerange and made it almost impossible to controllinear battle formations Similarly the terrainprovided few fields of fire for the armiesrsquo artillery-men Neither commander had wanted a battle inthe thickets between Chickamauga Creek and theLa Fayette Road but the collision near Jayrsquos Millensured that the battle would be fought there

Bragg brought forward Walkerrsquos reserve corpsto drive Brannanrsquos men back In turn Thomas re-

inforced Brannan with more of the XIV CorpsWhen Walker was supported by part of CS Lieu-tenant General Leonidas Polkrsquos Corps Rosecranssent divisions from both McCook and Crittendento assist Thomas Next a division of BucknerrsquosCorps joined the fight In a spirited effort it shat-tered one of Crittendenrsquos divisions gained the La Fayette Road and threatened to split the Fed-eral army Federal reinforcements finally forcedBucknerrsquos men to withdraw eastward into the for-est CS Major General John Bell Hoodrsquos forcesmounted the final threat of the day at the Viniardfarm but were finally fought to a bloody standstillby elements of all three Federal corps Whendarkness closed the fighting the Federals stillheld the La Fayette Road but Thomasrsquos men hadbeen forced back to a defensive position aroundthe Kelly farm

During the night Rosecrans strengthened hislines with log breastworks and prepared for a co-ordinated defense the following day MeanwhileBragg planned a coordinated attack beginningon the Confederate right and rolling southwardwhich would again attempt to outflank the Fed-eral army and drive it away from ChattanoogaThe arrival during the night of CS LieutenantGeneral James Longstreet permitted Bragg to re-organize his five infantry corps into two wingswith Longstreet commanding the left wing of six divisions and Polk the right wing of five di-visions CS Lieutenant General Daniel HarveyHillrsquos Corps was to begin the attack at sunrise onSeptember 20 but because of poor staff work andlack of initiative Hill did not learn of his criticalmission until the day was well advanced

When the Confederate attack finally beganfour hours late one of Hillrsquos divisions actuallypassed beyond Thomasrsquos flank and several hun-dred yards into the Federal rear before beingejected by Federal reinforcements Elsewheretroops of the Confederate right wing futilely as-saulted Thomasrsquos unyielding defenses One ofLongstreetrsquos divisions attacking soon after Hillrsquosmen also made no impression on the Federalline Just to the south along the Brotherton RoadHoodrsquos three divisions in column were withheldby Longstreet until just after 1100 am when

230 Chickamauga Campaign AugustndashSeptember 1863