Operations of the Two Armies in Virginia

There had been comparative quiet in Western Virginia since the autumn of 1861; but in the summer and fall of 1863, that quiet was broken by an extensive raid over that region by National cavalry led by General W. W. Averill, who, before the close of the year, nearly purged West Virginia of armed Confederates, and seriously interrupted railway communication between the army of Lee in Virginia and Bragg in Tennessee. We left the last-named officer and Rosecrans confronting each other in Tennessee, after the battle of Murfreesboro'; Bragg below the Duck River and Rosecrans at the scene of the battle. The two armies held that relative position from January to June, 1863; while the cavalry forces of each were active in minor operations. Confederate cavalry, four thousand strong, led by Generals Wharton and Forrest, attempted to capture Fort Donelson early in February, but failed. A little later General Van Dorn, with a considerable force of cavalry, was near Franklin, below Nashville, threatening Rosecrans's supplies at the latter place. In March, General Sheridan drove Van Dorn south of the Duck River; and in the same month Morgan was operating with considerable effect eastward of Murfreesboro'. Van Dorn re-appeared near Franklin, early in April, with about nine thousand Confederates; and on the 10th he attacked the Nationals there, who were commanded by General Gordon Granger. Van Dorn intended, if he won, to push on and seize Nashville; but he was repulsed, and retired to Spring Hill with a loss of about three hundred men.

In the meantime Rosecrans had sent out expeditions in various ways, the most remarkable of which was led by Colonel A. D. Streight, who left Nashville in steamers, debarked his troops at Fort Donelson, marched over to the Tennessee River, and moved up that stream to the borders of Mississippi and Alabama, getting horses by the way for the purpose of mounting his men. The latter service was nearly completed at Tuscumbia; and from that point Streight, with his troopers, swept in a curve bending eastward, through Alabama into Georgia, in the rear of Bragg's army. Their chief objects were Rome, where the Confederates had extensive iron-works, and Atlanta, the centre of an important system of railroads. They were pursued by the cavalry of Forrest and Roddy, and these parties skirmished and raced until Streight was within a few miles of Rome, when his exhausted horses and his ammunition failed him. Many of the poor beasts died; and when, on the 3d of May (1863), the raiders were struck by their pursuers, the former were compelled to surrender. The captives were sent to Richmond and confined in the loathsome Libby Prison, from which Streight and one hundred of his officers escaped by burrowing under the foundations of that edifice.

The Army of the Cumberland, in three divisions, commanded respectively by Generals Thomas, McCook and Crittenden, began its march from Murfreesboro' to Chattanooga, in northern Georgia, late in June. Bragg was then strongly intrenched on the line of the Duck River, but was pushed back to Tullahoma; and when he saw Rosecrans seize the mountain passes on his front, and seriously menace his flank, he turned and fled without giving a blow, his antagonist pressing hard upon his rear. Having the advantage of railway communication, the retreating army very easily kept ahead of their pursuers, and passing rapidly over the Cumberland Mountains toward the Tennessee River, they crossed that stream at Bridgeport, destroying the bridge behind them, and made a rapid march to Chattanooga.

The expulsion of Bragg's army from Tennessee alarmed and disheartened the Confederates, and they felt that everything depended on their holding Chattanooga, the key to East Tennessee and northern Georgia. Toward that point the Army of the Cumberland moved slowly; and late in August it had crossed the mountains, and was stretched along the Tennessee River, from above Chattanooga, many a league westward. On the 21st of August, National artillery placed on the eminence opposite Chattanooga, awakened the mountain echoes with their thunder, and sent screaming shells over the Confederate camp. Bragg was startled by a sense of immediate danger; and when, soon afterward, Generals Thomas and McCook crossed the Tennessee, with their corps, and took possession of the passes of Lookout Mountain on Bragg's flank, and Crittenden took post at Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley, nearer the river, the Confederates abandoned Chattanooga, passed through the gaps of Missionary Ridge and encamped on the Chickamauga Creek near Lafayette, in northern Georgia, there to meet expected National forces when pressing through the gaps of Lookout Mountain and threatening their communications with Dalton and Resaca. From the lofty summit of Lookout Mountain, Crittenden had observed the retreat of Bragg from the Tennessee River, and he immediately led his forces into the Chattanooga Valley and encamped at Ross's Gap in Missionary Ridge, within three miles of the town.