On Aug. 31, 1864, Hardee’s A. C., followed by Anderson’s div. of S. D. Lee’s [CS], marched by night from East Point and Rough and Ready to Jonesboro. About 3 A. M., the head of Brown’s column encountered Federal pickets at the bridge near John Chamber’s Mill. Rather than risk a night battle, the columns detoured on a field road eastward and entered Jonesboro on the Morrow’s Station road, which parallels the R. R. The detour caused considerable delay, and it was well into the forenoon before Hardee’s A. C. and Anderson’s div. were in the embattled lines at Jonesboro, where the first of the two battles was fought that afternoon.