August 20, 1863 - Thursday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Crittenden's Corps - Wood's Division - Wagner's Brigade

Colonel Wilder's brigade had been detached from the 14th Army Corps and charged with making the feint toward Chattanooga from the north.  Wagner's brigade (with the 40th Indiana) would be in support, and would move independently of the rest of Wood's division.

On the 17th, Wagner reports his corps following the corps of Colonel Wilder.  They are east of Tracy City, and making for an area near Dunlap, TN in the Sequatchie River valley.  From there they were planning to cross Walden's Ridge and move south through Soddy-Daisy, TN to the north bank of the Tennessee opposite downtown Chattanooga.

By the 20th, this movement was nearly done, as the next morning Wilder would appear on the north riverbank and begin shelling the town.  Wagner's brigade followed closely. Another brigade from Crittenden's army, under Colonel Hazen, joined them there.  The mission of these three brigades would be to simulate preparations for an attack on Chattanooga by the Union army from the north, holding Confederate attention there to distract from the main advance of the army. 

The main army move had also begun; the other two army corps had moved to the Tennessee River on a front between Jasper, TN and Stevenson, AL.  The intent was for the army to move toward an area south of Chattanooga, forcing Confederate forces out of the city and back south toward Atlanta.

The map below shows the area.  On the right of the map, Wagner's brigade is north across the river from downtown, directly south of Red Bank, TN.  The rest of the army is at the left of the map, along the west side of the river from Jasper south to Stevenson, AL, preparing to cross.

 

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXX, Chapter XLII, Part III, Correspondence, pp. 53-97.
  
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. p. 124.
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1I, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelby Foote, pp. 663-685. 
• This Terrible Sound, The Battle of Chickamauga,  Peter Cozzens, pp. 1-34.
• The Chickamauga Campaign, Vol 1: A Mad Irregular Battle, David A. Powell, pp. 1-69.
  
• Events: 1863 - July to September 

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