Chapter 7:
- Campaign in Middle Tennessee -- Bragg Retires to Chattanooga -- battle of Chickamauga— part of Tennesseeans in the great victory— oppression of the people.
After a delay of six months, General Rosecrans placed his army in motion in June, 1863. His equipments and appointments were as thorough and complete as the unlimited resources of his government could make them; his force was ample, his supplies abundant; but his experience at Murfreesboro had made him and his corps commanders timid and hesitating in their advance. General Bragg determined to offer battle in front of Shelbyville, and ordered Lieutenant-General Polk to move his army corps to Guy's gap on the Murfreesboro road, and assail the enemy before Liberty gap; but learning that the left of Major-General Stewart's division, stationed between Fairfield and Hoover's gap, had been turned, he decided to withdraw the army of Tennessee to Tullahoma. This flank attack was made by the Federal corps commanded by Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas, and was met by Bushrod Johnson's, Clayton's and Bate's brigades, of Stewart's division, and Liddell's and Wood's brigades, of Cleburne's division, Hardee's corps. General Bragg, under date of July 3d, referred to these engagements as ‘a series of skirmishes,’ but they were continuous from the 24th to the 27th of June, and Johnson's brigade sustained a loss of 36, and Bate's a loss of 145, killed and wounded, out of 650 engaged. Among the killed was the gallant Maj. Fred Claybrooke, Twentieth
