Negley’s Division Escapes the Beartrap at Davis’ Crossroads

    Sergeant Launcelot L. Scott served a three-year term of service with the 18th Ohio and saw action in some of the toughest battles of the Civil War, but the tightest spot he was ever in was at the little-remembered engagement at Davis’ Crossroads in the days leading up to the battle of Chickamauga.

 

    As relayed in his article from the National Tribune, General James S. Negley’s division of the 14th Corps entered McLemore’s Cove on September 9, 1863 having crossed Lookout Mountain intent on reaching Lafayette, Georgia. The Federal army was operating on the mistaken premise that Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee was in full retreat; as Negley’s division approached Dug Gap, they found themselves confronted in front and on both flanks by determined Confederates. As the situation became clear to General Negley on the afternoon of September 11th, the division was ordered to retreat out of the beartrap set by Bragg and just in time. Sergeant Scott was convinced that the indecision shown by General Thomas C. Hindman saved Negley’s division from more serious loss.

    The Confederate reaction at Davis’ Crossroads disabused General George Thomas of the notion that the Army of Tennessee was still retreating and helped set in motion the events that culminated in the Battle of Chickamauga about a week later.

 

    On September 9, 1863, Negley’s division as the advance of the 14th Corps descended the east side of Lookout Mountain and entered McLemore’s Cove at the head of the Chickamauga Valley. Beyond the valley seven miles in front of us rose a spur of the Lookout range named Pigeon Mountain. It was a rather low ridge about 15 miles long and 600-800 feet high, bare in some parts and densely wooded in others. Through it were several passes called Blue Bird, Dug, and Catlett’s Gaps. These gaps were narrow and rough, easily defended, and hard to force. In truth, Pigeon Mountain was a perfect barricade for the enemy and also a perfect screen behind which they could maneuver unseen. Our destination was Lafayette and to reach it we had to pass through Dug Gap. We had driven Wheeler’s cavalry from Lookout, and as soon as we touched the lowland we encountered them again. At 5 p.m., the 18th Ohio moved out to attack them and after a few shots they retreated across the creek in the cove and there we halted for the night. On the 10th, the division moved forward in battle line toward Dug Gap, crossing Mission Ridge and Chickamauga Creek, passing Bailey’s and Davis’ Crossroads, fighting all day with the cavalry.


    Our regiment passed through a field of the tallest corn any of us had ever seen. Many of the ears could not be reached by the outstretched hand. Soon after reaching the cornfield we were halted and ordered to retire for several hundred yards and formed line again on the front of a road. We had been in a ticklish place, but could see nothing on account of the thick woods. Our skirmish line was thrown out and soon engaged with the Rebel infantry and fought until dark without any gain. The enemy in front was Cleburne’s division supported by Walker’s Corps. Their skirmishers were very bold and very close and after dark threw rocks at ours to draw their fire. One of the 18th Ohio had his eyes injured by a rock. We bivouacked at night in dense pine woods close to the gap and a mile east of Davis’ Crossroads. During the day a body of the enemy was discovered north of us down the valley toward Chattanooga and General Negley sent a regiment from the crossroads to watch and hold them in check.


Sergeant Launcelot L. Scott, 18th OVI

    At daybreak on the 11th, the firing commenced and kept up all forenoon without any advance on either side. Our artillery fired a few times without eliciting a reply. At noon our company relieved the skirmishers on the left of the road, and we soon heard the whistling of bullets. It was as undesirable a position as a company could be placed in. The ground was rough, rolling, and very brushy. We were carrying our knapsacks and they greatly impeded our movements: we could not advance, retreat, or lie down with any celerity at all. Our men never should have been sent out to skirmish on brushy ground loaded with their full equipment which weighed about 50 pounds as it destroyed all of their mobility. In open ground the knapsack could be used as times as a defense. General [Absalom] Baird with two of his brigades arrived at noon and was posted at Davis’ Crossroads to protect our rear from the enemy on the north.


    At 3 o’clock he found a large body of troops advancing against him and advised Negley to withdraw to the crossroads. This flanking force was General [Thomas C.] Hindman with his own and Stewart’s and Preston’s divisions, also three commands of cavalry and a full artillery train. Hindman had been standing at arms on our left flank since the morning of the 10th under repeated orders from General Bragg to attack immediately, but he was chary and cautious and his indecision probably saved us from serious rout. General Negley realized the danger and at 4 o’clock our line was drawn back to a low ridge on the west side of Chickamauga Creek. It was a fortunate move and relieved us from any great disaster.

General Patrick Cleburne

    Cleburne pushed after us with his characteristic energy and we had just gotten into line when one of his batteries moved up within 400 yards and opened a hot fire with shell and canister on the left wing of the 18th Ohio and threw it into disorder. Hearing Cleburne’s guns, Hindman attacked with some spirit, but failed to reach the road from Lookout to the crossroads. Colonel Timothy R. Stanley, commanding the Second Brigade, thought we were also attacked by Martin’s cavalry from the direction of Blue Bird Gap. Our position was found untenable, as Hindman still threatened our rear, but we held it until dark and then retired two miles further back to Mission Ridge. The enemy continued their artillery fire long after we had left and moved into Dug and Catlett’s Gaps in the night. The loss on our side in this fight was seven killed and 27 wounded.


    Early on the 12th the enemy planted a signal station on Pigeon Mountain south of and near Dug Gap. Baird and Brannan, who had come down, made a reconnaissance to the crossroads and found that the enemy had withdrawn to their lairs. On the 14th we marched out and buried our dead. They were a dreadful sight as three had lost their heads in the cannonade. I picked up two of the canister balls and have them yet. I look at them sometimes and think of the awful sound they made and of the destruction they wrought that day. There was a doubt in the mind of the highest authority about having been in a critical situation at Dug Gap and Davis’ Crossroads. General Negley reported to General Thomas that he had been attacked by superior forces and saved himself by retreating- Thomas reported the same to the General commanding in Chattanooga, but General Rosecrans had unfortunately convinced himself that Bragg was retreating to Atlanta as fast as he could, and instead of coming out to see the situation, wrote back that Nelgey must have withdrawn more from prudence than compulsion, and was angry because we were not in LaFayette.


    Negley’s men had no doubt whatever about their having been in great peril. Our sharp repulse and that signal station convinced us that Bragg’s whole army was near, and it is now known that more than 60,000 of the enemy were in the gaps and on the east side of the ridge. Our signal station on Lookout reported great clouds of dust arising behind its whole length. Pigeon Mountain was a bulwark that would have taxed the strength of our entire army to force.



Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way to
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of how Confederate jacke
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
Read more

The Cannons are Now Silent: The Field of Death of Tupelo

Image
       The smoke of battle had drifted away from the battlefield at Tupelo, Mississippi on the hot afternoon of July 14, 1864, but the carnage of war lay spread across the open fields. “Scattered at intervals over the field of a few yards are dull gray blotches half shaded by grass,” an officer from the 7 th Minnesota Infantry recorded. “These are the Rebel dead. They have fought their last battle and lie generally in attitudes of rest; some of them look as if they had welcomed death. On the faces of two is imprinted a smile. One is a boy of 16 with delicate features, almost girlish in their beauty. His last gaze seems to have been directed toward his hand on the forefinger of which was a ring. A circle of purer white indicates its place; the ring was carried off as a trophy of the field.” The following account of the Battles of Tupelo and Old Town Creek was written by an unknown officer of the 7 th Minnesota Infantry, his account appearing in the August 5 th 1864 edition of the
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on securing all the Enfi
Read more

Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

Image
  W illiam Tecumseh Sherman was enjoying retired life in New York City when just before Christmas in 1889 he was presented with an article written by John Cockerill, a former drummer boy in the 24 th Ohio who was visiting his father Colonel Joseph Cockerill of the 70 th Ohio of Sherman’s division when the Battle of Shiloh began. Cockerill’s article, originally published in the New York Journalist and later featured in the January 1893 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, Sherman later pronounced as “the best war story ever written” and the truest account of Shiloh.           On New Year’s Day 1890, General Sherman composed the following letter to his friend Marshall P. Wilder thanking him for sending along Cockerill’s article and giving his own explanation of Shiloh. “This to me is straw already threshed for we have fought this battle on paper several times, a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets,” he concluded. “When in England some years ago I was gratified to liste
Read more

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
Read more

Escape of Captain Henry H. Alban of the 21st Ohio Infantry

Image
Captain Henry H. Alban was among the dozen officers of the 21 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry who were captured on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga. The regiment had held its position atop Snodgrass Hill against repeated Confederate assaults and now battered and without ammunition, with the darkness of evening enveloping the hill, the remainder of that gallant band found themselves at the mercy of the 54 th Virginia. A total of 12 officers and 121 enlisted men surrendered; the regiment’s colors were taken, and the men marched off the field into captivity. Captain Henry Harvey Alban, Co. F, 21st O.V.I. Captain Alban along with the rest went through a series of Confederate prison camps before arriving at Columbia, South Carolina in October 1864. Determined to make an escape, he watched for his chance and one night made his leap for freedom, successfully eluding the local camp guard and setting out along the railroad to head for the mountains of eastern Tennessee and
Read more

Knapsack Compression: Wilbur Hinman recalls the first step of becoming a veteran

Image
L ooking back on his experiences during the war, Captain Wilbur Hinman of the 65 th Ohio (perhaps best known as the author of Si Klegg and His Pard ) recalled that the first road along which his regiment marched was strewn “with debris. A pair of six-mule wagonloads might have been gathered of notions that had been flung aside by a thousand suffering “tenderfeet.” “The average young patriot started for the war with a wheelbarrow load of clothing, a bed quilt or two, books, photograph albums, toilet articles, and gimcracks of every sort,” he wrote. “Neither he nor the good homefolks had the slightest conception of the capacity of a knapsack, nor did they for a moment imagine that before the close of his first day upon the road every pound he carried would seem a hundred.” To the true mark of a veteran soldier was one who “learned to dispense with every unnecessary ounce of weight, and just in the ratio that he did this he increased his efficiency as a soldier. It was of the highest
Read more

Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

Image
T he ordnance returns of the Army of the Cumberland at the end of September 1863 show the results of a transformational year in weaponry. Since taking command of the army at the end of October 1862, General William S. Rosecrans had repeatedly pestered the War Department to supply his regiments with better firearms both to improve the command’s efficiency as well as expand its striking power. The results speak for themselves: for the infantrymen at the end of September 1863, 90% of them now carried Class I long arms (36,058 out of 39,959), 8.3% carried Class II arms, and a mere 1.5% carried Class III weapons. Most of the foreign-made weapons (except Enfields) were gone, and by and large the army had settled on a single common .58 caliber ammunition, although a few .54 caliber and .69 caliber weapons remained within the ranks. The English-made Enfield rifle musket was by far the most common arm, carried by 56% of the men while the second-most common arm was the .58 caliber M1861 Spring
Read more