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Rossville Gap ROSSVILLE GAP CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN HERITAGE TRAIL A major objective of General Braxton Thomas. Defending the gap was General PPegram's e g r a m ' s Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee James Negley's division and Colonel Daniel command. On the during the Chickamauga Campaign was to McCook's Brigade. Behind Negley's men LaFayette Road block the Federal Army from Chattanooga. were the other three divisions of the another force of Fourteenth Corps massed in and around several hundred Rossville. To the north of Negley's position, SSouthern o u t h e r n deployed along the crest of Missionary horsemen led by Ridge, were two divisions of the twenty-first Generals Nathan Corps and one division of the Reserve Corps. BedfoBedfordrd Forrest Stretching in a line due west of Rossville was aand n d FFrank r a n k the Twentieth Corps. Picketing the Armstrong drove Ringgold and LaFayette Roads to the south MMinty's i n t y ' s mmen e n of Rossville Gap were elements of Union northward. At some poipointnt south of Rossville Later in the afternoon General Forrest General Robert H.G. Minty's cavalry Gap, Forrest and Armstrong rode onto the brought up his horse artillery to shell the brigade. crest of Missionary Ridge. From this Federal positions along the ridge. Union vantage point General Forrest could see batteries, massed on a knoll within Rossville Around 9 A.M. on the 21st, Minty's men “Chattanoo“Chattanoogaga and everything around.” Gap and along the crest of Missionary Ridge along the Ringgold Road encountered UpoUponn returning to his command along the north of the Gap, responded to the Confederate cavalrymen from General John LaFayette Road, ForresForrestt wrote his much- Confederate guns. The Southern artillery discussed order to General Leonidas Polk, fire managed to drive Edward King's U.S. (later forwarded to General Braxton Bragg), Regulars back into the Gap in a state of in which the cavalryman suggested that the confusion, but otherwise caused little Confederates “press forward as rapidly as damage to the entrenched Federals. possible.” Similarly, General William Rosecrans' Beginning around 8:00 P.M. on the 21st, Federal Army of the Cumberland made In hopes of flanking the Federals out of Union Army commander William Rosecrans every effort to keep this line open. Rossville Gap, General Forrest dismounted started pulling his army back toward several units from Colonel George Dibrell's Chattanooga. This withdrawal from Because the Gap at Rossville provided brigade and sent them up Missionary Ridge, Rossville continued unopposed throughout easy passage through the barrier of one quarter mile south of Rossville Gap, the night. By the predawn hours of Missionary Ridge, it took on a great around 10:00 A.M. In a fight lasting September 22nd, the final Federal Pickets in significance during the campaigns of approximately thirty minutes, the Southern Rossville had fallen back toward Chickamauga and Chattanooga in the fall of cavalrymen repeatedly charged a Union line Chattanooga. 1863. held by General John Beatty's brigade. When the Confederates eventually retreated Dawn on September 21st found the down the slopes, they left behind several Please visit our website at: Federals in Rossville arrayed in line of battle men killed and wounded, some of them http://www.ChickamaugaCampaign.org under the command of General George H. within thirty feet of the Federal position..
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