Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[263] In the morning of the 22d, Buckner had put on the road in that direction two of his brigades under the command of Bushrod Johnson; he was preparing to follow them on the morrow with the third. In fine, some troops had been detached and sent toward Gordon's Mills and McLemore's Cove to watch the outlet of Stevens' Gap, which Sherman had appeared to menace from Trenton.

Grant, who could not believe that his adversary was imprudent enough to divide his forces, came to the conclusion that the Confederate general was going to escape, perhaps even reach East Tennessee with all his army and wreak his vengeance on Burnside for this compulsory retreat. It was necessary to act without delay. On the morning of the 23d, Thomas received orders to move out of Chattanooga without waiting for Sherman, deploy his army beyond the fortifications, and feel the enemy. If the latter were in force, Thomas should confine his movements to a simple reconnoissance; if, on the contrary, they were in retreat, then the Army of the Cumberland should advance rapidly, take Missionary Ridge, and across the left side there should be thrown the bridge intended for Sherman, which he would find already established on his arrival. Thus one day might be gained for the pursuit.

At last the Union army was going to get out of the ramparts behind which it had been so long pressed by the conquerors of Chickamauga. As these works have not been subjected to any attack, a detailed description of them seems to be useless here. We shall confine ourselves to the statement that they had been much enlarged since the ill-omened day when they sheltered for the first time the soldiers of Rosecrans. Under the active and intelligent direction of General W. F. Smith these soldiers had quickly understood that in fortifying Chattanooga they were rendering the defence of it easy by a garrison relatively small in numbers, and were thus securing to the army the means of resuming offensive operations on the first opportunity. Their discouragement had given place to a great ardor: they had endured without murmuring, in the first place, hunger, then the inclemency of a rainy autumn. The fortifications, though they did not form a continuous circle, opposed to the enemy an insurmountable barrier without the works of a regular siege. On the south the place was covered by three successive