Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[125] took the general direction of the railway; the divisions of Reynolds and Brannan moving from University on the mountain top, by way of Battle Creek, to its mouth, and those of Negley and Baird by Tantallon and Crow Creek. McCook's moved to the right of the railway, Johnson's division by way of Salem and Larkin's Ford, to Bellefonte; and Crittenden's, designed to feel the enemy and menace Chattanooga with a direct attack, moved well eastward in three columns, commanded respectively by Generals Wood, Van Cleve, and Palmer, with Minty's cavalry on the extreme left, marching by way of Sparta to drive Confederate horsemen from the vicinity of Kingston, strike Buckner's force in the rear, and to cover Van Cleve's column, as it passed at the head of the Sequatchie Valley. From that valley Crittenden sent two brigades of mounted men, under Minty and Wilder, and two of infantry, under Hazen and Wagner, over Walden's Ridge, to proceed to points on the Tennessee, near and above Chattanooga, and make the feigned attack. General Hazen¹ was in chief command of these four brigades in the Tennessee Valley, with instructions to watch all the crossings of the river for seventy miles above Chattanooga, and to give Bragg the impression that the whole If Rosecrans's army was about to cross near that town. Hazen's command had four batteries of artillery.

In the course of four or five days the mountain ranges were crossed, and the Army of the Cumberland, stretching along the line of the Tennessee River for more than a hundred miles of its course, was preparing to cross that stream at different points, for the purpose of closing around Chattanooga, to crush or starve the Confederate army there. Pontoon-boat, raft, and trestle bridges were constructed at Shellmound, the mouth of Battle Creek, Bridgeport, Caperton's Ferry, and Bellefonte. So early as the 20th,

August, 1863.

Hazen reconnoitered Harrison's, above Chattanooga, and then took post at Poe's cross-roads, fifteen miles from the latter place; and on the following day, Wilder's cannon thundering from the eminences opposite Chattanooga, and the voice of his shells screaming over the Confederate camp, startled Bragg with a sense of imminent danger. At the same time Hazen was making “show marches,” displaying camp-fires at different points, and causing the fifteen regiments of his command to appear like the advance of an immense army. This menace was soon followed by information that Thomas and McCook were preparing to cross below, and that the remainder of Crittenden's corps was swarming on the borders of the river, at the foot of Walden's Ridge, below Chattanooga.

Thomas passed over with his corps at different places, from Caperton's up to Shellmound, and crossed the mountain not far from the latter place, near which is the famous Nickajack Cave, where the Confederates had extensive saltpeter works. On the 8th of September he had concentrated his forces near Trenton, in the valley of the Lookout Creek, at the western foot of Lookout Mountain, and seized Frick's and Stevens's Gaps, the only practicable passes into the broad valley east of Lookout, and stretching toward Chattanooga, called McLemore's Clove. McCook also crossed, advanced to Valley Head, and took possession of Winston's Gap on the 6th, and a large portion of Crittenden's corps passed over and took post the same