First Firing on Chickamauga Battlefield

About 2 o'clock A.M., Sept. 11, 1863, Captain John J. McCook of General Crittenden's staff left Chattanooga with an escort carrying important orders from the commanding general to Crittenden, who had departed at 1 o'clock to join his divisions near Ringgold. Misled by the guide, Crittenden had continued on the Lafayette Road, and McCook learned at Rossville from a member of the escort that this had happened. Concerned for his commander's safety, he hurried on to overtake him. In the darkness and mist about 4 o'clock A.M. at this position, an outpost of Forrest's cavalry fired on him. Two men of the escort who had left the road on the opposite or west side, thinking they had been fired on by troops of their own corps, advanced and were captured. McCook and one orderly, hearing the surrender, escaped and reported to Crittenden, whom they found had joined his corps by an intermediate route, or cross road. This was the first point of contact or collision on the Chickamauga battlefield.

Rossville, Georgia · United States