In the summer of 1863, the Tullahoma Campaign unfolded across southern Middle Tennessee as Union General William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland moved to seize control of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad after months of regrouping near Murfreesboro following the Battle of Stones River. Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his Army of Tennessee had withdrawn to the hills and high ground from Shelbyville to Tullahoma to watch for a Union advance and block access to the rail junction at Chattanooga. On June 23, 1863, Rosecrans's army marched from Murfreesboro, and victories at Hoover's Gap and Liberty Hill forced the Confederates to retreat and abandon Tullahoma by July 1. Two days later, Union forces pushed farther south along the railroad and took Decherd and Winchester, while the Confederates had no time to destroy the Cumberland Tunnel at Cowan. General Philip H. Sheridan entered the abandoned town and nearly captured the last rail cars as they rolled out. By July 3, Bragg's command had fallen back to Chattanooga, soon the next major battleground in Tennessee, and the 11-day campaign gave Rosecrans control of southern Middle Tennessee at a cost of 550 wounded, captured, or killed.