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

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[78] eight in the morning, he charged Buckner with his entire corps to reinforce Hindman; to do which he had only to follow the latter's tracks. But some hours elapsed ere he set out, and it was late in the afternoon when he reached Morgan's farm. During this time, as it has already been stated, Negley, not suspecting the danger which menaced him on the left, had advanced as far as Davis' Cross-roads, and his outposts were exchanging at Dug Gap musket-shots with Hill's skirmishers. Fortunately for Negley, he had not entered into that defile, Thomas having urged him to be prudent notwithstanding Rosecrans' pressing injunctions. Nevertheless, Hindman and Buckner had only to advance to take him by the flank and inflict upon him an irreparable loss before Baird, who was crossing the mountain, could come to his assistance. But the bold front presented by the Federals arrested the enemy. Hindman, who was on the first line, believing that he was confronted by large forces, hesitated, asked for fresh instructions from his superiors in authority, and finally postponed the attack to the next day. However, Bragg did not have to complain of this delay: on the 11th of the month he was going to have twice the opportunity to deal his adversary a decisive blow. Instead of one division only, the Federals had two in McLemore's Cove. Baird, summoned on the 10th in the evening by Negley, had started out at three o'clock in the morning, and despite the difficulties encountered on the road, he reached at eight o'clock the banks of the Chickamauga. But these two divisions, separated from the rest of the Fourteenth corps by the whole breadth of Lookout Mountain, might in a few hours have upon them one-half of the Confederate army, and the haste with which Baird had responded to Negley's appeal was running the risk of having accomplished nothing but aggravating the importance of their common defeat.

The policy was to let Negley enter Dug Gap, and then to make behind him, on Davis' Cross-roads, the principal effort in the attack. However, Bragg could do still better, for the left of the enemy, like the centre, was exposing itself imprudently to isolation and the attack of the Confederates. Indeed, the outposts established by Forrest on his arrival, so as to cover the two branches of the Chickamauga, had promptly advised him of the crossing