Rossville Gap became crucial during the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns in the fall of 1863 because it offered easy passage through Missionary Ridge, as Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee sought to block the Federal army from Chattanooga and William Rosecrans' Federal Army of the Cumberland struggled to keep that line open. At dawn on September 21st, Federal forces under George H. Thomas stood at Rossville in line of battle, with James Negley's division and Daniel McCook's brigade defending the gap, other divisions of the Fourteenth Corps massed nearby, additional divisions posted along Missionary Ridge, the Twentieth Corps stretched west of Rossville, and Robert H.G. Minty's cavalry brigade picketing the roads to the south. Around 9 A.M., Minty's men encountered Confederate cavalry on the Ringgold Road and were driven northward on the LaFayette Road by forces led by Nathan Bedford Forrest and Frank Armstrong. After reaching the crest of Missionary Ridge and seeing Chattanooga and its surroundings, Forrest returned to the Lafayette Road and sent a message urging that the Confederates press forward as rapidly as possible. About 10:00 A.M., hoping to flank the Federals out of Rossville Gap, Forrest dismounted units from George Dibrell's brigade and sent them up Missionary Ridge south of the gap, where in a fight of about thirty minutes they repeatedly charged a Union line held by John Beatty's brigade before retreating with several killed and wounded left behind near the Federal position. Later that afternoon, Forrest brought up horse artillery to shell the Federal positions along the ridge, and Union batteries in Rossville Gap and north of it answered the Confederate guns. The Southern fire drove Edward King's U.S. Regulars back into the gap in confusion but otherwise did little damage to the entrenched Federals. Beginning around 8:00 P.M. on September 21st, Rosecrans withdrew his army toward Chattanooga, and the pullback from Rossville continued without opposition through the night until the last Federal pickets fell back before dawn on September 22nd.

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs