[
150]
where a decisive conflict was impending.
Let us return to a consideration of events there.
It was evident that the Army of the Cumberland could not long exist a prisoner in
Chattanooga, its supplies depending on such precarious avenues of reception as the mountain roads, and the transportation animals so rapidly diminishing.
General Thomas had nobly responded to
Grant's electrograph from
Louisville,
“Hold
Chattanooga at all hazards,” saying, “I will hold the town until we starve;” yet it was not prudent to risk such disaster by inaction, for already
Bragg's cavalry had been raiding over the region north of the
Tennessee River, destroying supplies, and threatening a total obstruction of all communications between
Chattanooga and
Middle Tennessee.
On the 30th of September, a greater portion of
Bragg's horsemen (the brigades of
Wharton,
Martin,
Davidson, and
Anderson), about four thousand strong, under
Wheeler, his chief of cavalry, crossed the
Tennessee, between
Chattanooga and
Bridgeport, pushed up the
Sequatchie Valley, fell upon a National supply-train
of nearly one thousand wagons on its way to
Chattanooga, near
Anderson's cross-roads, and burned it before two regiments of cavalry, under
Colonel Edward M. McCook, which had been sent from
Bridgeport in pursuit, could overtake them.
Wheeler's destructive work was just finished when
McCook came up and attacked him. The struggle lasted until night, when
Wheeler, who had been worsted in the fight, moved off in the darkness over the mountains, and fell upon another supply-train of wagons and railway cars at
McMinnville.
These were captured, together with six hundred men; and then a large quantity of supplies were destroyed.
There, after the mischief was done, he was overtaken by
General George Crook,
with two thousand cavalry, and his rear-guard, as he fled toward Murfreesboroa, was charged with great spirit by the Second Kentucky Regiment of
Crook's cavalry, under
Colonel Long.
Wheeler's force greatly outnumbered Long.
They dismounted, and fought till dark, when they sprang upon their horses and pushed for Murfreesboroa, hoping to seize and hold that important point in
Rosecrans's communications.
It was too strongly guarded to be quickly taken, and as
Wheeler had a relentless pursuer, he pushed on southward to
Warren and
Shelbyville, burning bridges behind him, damaging the railway, capturing trains and destroying stores, and crossing
Duck River pressed on to
Farmington.
There
Crook struck him again, cut his force in two, captured four of his guns and a thousand small-arms, took two hundred of his men, beside his wounded, prisoners, and drove him in confusion in the direction of
Pulaski, on the railway running north from
Decatur.
Wheeler's shattered columns reached
Pulaski that night, and made their way as speedily as possible into
Northern Alabama.
He crossed the
Tennessee near the mouth of
Elk River, losing two guns and seventy men in the passage, and made his way back to
Bragg's lines, after a loss of about two thousand men. He had captured nearly as many as that, and destroyed National property to the amount of, probably, three million dollars in value.
When
Roddy, who had crossed the
Tennessee at the mouth of
Gunter's Creek, and moved menacingly toward
Decherd, heard of
Wheeler's troubles, and his flight back to the army, he retreated, also, without doing much mischief.
