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

As early as eleven o'clock in the forenoon Thomas gives the order of attack. Reynolds advances directly against the centre and the right of the enemy at Beech Grove. The Confederates occupy, with their infantry and artillery, a commanding position protected by a deep gulley. They open an oblique fire on the Federals, who, not daring to approach them in front, endeavor to turn their flank. But Brannan and Rousseau, clearing Garrison Creek higher up, have deployed their lines on the Manchester route. Their first two brigades, under Walker and Coolidge, vigorously attack the Confederates, who are forced to fall back on Fairfield, whence they reach Tullahoma, where the remainder of Bragg's army, covered by his artillery and cavalry, has already arrived without being troubled by the Unionists. Thomas halts Rousseau and Brannan at a short distance from Fairfield, with their right resting on Garrison Creek, while Reynolds moves on Manchester. The latter is still preceded by Wilder's mounted infantry, which, riding in advance during the engagement at Beech Grove, has taken possession of the important defile at Matt's Hollow without firing a gun. The route to Manchester is then open to the army: it is going to concentrate along this thoroughfare some time on the 27th. Wilder has occupied it since eight o'clock in the morning: the rest of Reynolds' division is not long in joining him; Rosecrans soon arrives with his headquarters. Negley, who brought up the rear of the Fourteenth corps in the line of march, and Rousseau and Brannan, who were posted at Fairfield in the morning, all reach Manchester in the night. Crittenden set out as early as the 26th, but the rain has rendered muddy the bad road which will take him, through the Barrens, as far as Manchester. McCook, not in motion on the 26th, receives in the evening orders also to move on Manchester, and, there being no direct route leading to Beech Grove, he is obliged to retrace his steps across Liberty Gap to resume the road at the entrance to Hoover's Gap. It will require two days for the Twentieth and the Twenty-first corps to execute these movements.