At the base of Lookout Mountain, Bailey's Crossroads was a crossroads community where Wiley Bailey lived and his father-in-law, William Hinnard, kept a small store. During the Chickamauga Campaign in September 1863, it was the first of these nearby areas entered by the Federal Army. The 1860 Federal Census recorded that Bailey owned one young female slave, Hinnard owned nine enslaved Africans, and a neighbor, Amanuel Rogers, owned a young female slave, yet Bailey and Rogers were loyal Union men who welcomed the Federal Army and acted as spies for General James Negley. Elements of Negley's division, the lead unit for General Thomas' 14th Army Corps, pushed over rugged Lookout Mountain and through Stephens' Gap on September 8 and reached Bailey's Crossroads by the next day. The Federals camped on the Rogers farm while Negley concentrated his division there, posted skirmishers forward, and exchanged occasional shots with Confederate forces beyond the crossroads. Ordered as part of Rosecrans's general pursuit to move rapidly toward LaFayette and try to strike the enemy in flank and cut off its escape, Negley left Bailey's Crossroads around 10:00 a.m. on September 10, 1863, met strong Confederate resistance at Davis' Crossroads, and fell back to the foot of the mountain. Back at Bailey's Crossroads, most Federal soldiers built breastworks and dug rifle pits along a low ridge east of the Rogers farm, secured their trains behind this defensive line, and bivouacked for the night. Confederate losses are not known, but Federal sources indicate that Negley's division lost around fifty men killed and wounded, and by the night of September 11 serious fighting in the area had ended.

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller