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

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[183] of his artillery he attacks Stanley's brigade, which is strongly posted above the road. Armstrong follows this move and menaces John Beatty's brigade, which belongs, like the preceding, to Negley's division, and is drawn up on the crest to the right of Armstrong. But Pegram cannot break Stanley's lines; Armstrong is quickly forced back by a charge from Beatty; and both together, after having lost many killed and wounded, fall to the rear to await the rest of the army.

On the left, Wheeler contents himself with sending, early in the morning, two regiments to pick up arms and stragglers beyond the line of outposts. It is only at nine o'clock that Longstreet orders him to go and look for the hostile army; but Bragg, still fearing a return with offensive demonstrations on the part of the enemy, allows Wheeler to detail only five hundred men to Colonel Anderson, who is entrusted with the reconnoissance of McFarland's Gap. Soon, however, Bragg learns that Mitchell, wishing to cover the right of the Federal army, has advanced his cavalry on the Stevens' Gap road. He immediately allows himself to be carried along to that side with the rest of his corps, makes a sharp attack upon the cavalry at the foot of the pass, and drives it back to Chattanooga Creek, after having picked up two thousand prisoners, eighteen flags, and many wagons. Notwithstanding this success, he had done better if he had moved with his three thousand cavalry on McFarland's Gap, whence, descending toward Chattanooga, he might have united with Forrest, and perhaps compelled the Federal army precipitately to abandon Rossville.

Anderson, like Forrest, has perceived the confused masses of the enemy drawn en échelon in the Chattanooga Valley, and, like Forrest, he has urgently asked his superior officers to hurl the infantry in pursuit of the enemy. Bragg makes light of Anderson's and Forrest's advice. When at last, toward midday, he gives the order to move, he does not direct the army to advance toward Rossville, but toward Red House Bridge, whither he himself repairs to concentrate his troops near the confluence of the two branches of the Chickamauga Creek and the station of the same name. At a decisive moment he thus takes the army away from the enemy. He doubtless wishes to encamp close to water for the benefit of his soldiers, who have not been able to quench their