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| The leader of the right wing General Alexander McD. McCook at Chickamauga. While Thomas, preceded by Negley, was pressing forward to McLemore's Cove, McCook advanced the right wing of the army to the southward within twenty miles of Lafayette, where Bragg had his headquarters. Crittenden, meanwhile, with the left wing, was advancing from Chattanooga on the north. It was the opportunity to strike one of these widely separated corps that Bragg missed. At midnight on September 13th McCook received the order to hurry back and make junction with Thomas. Then began a race of life and death over fifty-seven miles of excruciating marching, back across Lookout Mountain and northward through Lookout Valley to Stevens' Gap, where he arrived on the 17th. After a brief rest the right wing marched through half the night to its designated position on the battle-field, and by the morning of the 18th Rosecrans' army was at last concentrated. General McCook (of a family that sent a father and five sons into the war) had distinguished himself at Shiloh and Corinth, and with the First Corps of the Army of the Ohio had borne the brunt of the battle at Perryville. At Stone's River he commanded the right wing of the army, which suffered such severe disaster. Again at Chickamauga the right wing, after sending reinforcements to Thomas at the left, was driven back in rout. |
