Rosecrans decided to use Wilder’s brigade to push through at Hoover’s Gap. On June 24, Wilder’s men pounded up to the gap, dismounted and drove forward. In a surprisingly easy fashion, they hammered through the defile, forcing out the outgunned Rebel troops. The Confederates regrouped, got reinforcements and tried counterattacking back into the gap. After three hours of fighting they gave up. Wilder’s men triumphantly held Hoover’s Gap as the rest of the Army of the Cumberland approached.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in America's Civil War magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

The fight at Hoover’s Gap was a key moment in what was called the Tullahoma campaign, during which Rosecrans pushed Bragg back toward Chattanooga. It was an eye-opening battle for Wilder and his Midwesterners. The brigade saved many Union casualties by taking the gap so swiftly. ‘The effect of our terrible fire was overwhelming to our opponents,’ Wilder reported. Colonel Wilder was so pleased with his men that he conferred a new sobriquet on his commands, sanctioned by his order: ‘Wilder’s Lightning Brigade.’

The rest of the summer was spent in camp in the vicinity of Tullahoma. The Lightning Brigade spent the time raiding and foraging in the countryside, obtaining horses, liberating slaves and skirmishing with Confederate cavalry and guerrillas. In the meantime, Rosecrans planned his next move against Bragg, who had fallen back to Chattanooga.

The Army of the Cumberland advanced late that August, with Wilder’s brigade in the van for much of the time. By the 21st, Rosecrans’ men were just across the Tennessee River from Chattanooga. For several weeks Rosecrans shelled the town while his army maneuvered around Bragg’s fortifications. On September 9, the Confederates abandoned Chattanooga.

Reports streamed into the Union lines indicating that the Army of Tennessee was in disarray and in full retreat to Atlanta, with stragglers falling out in droves. Convinced he had Bragg on the run, Rosecrans opted to split his army into three sections and try to cut Bragg off. Thomas’ XIV Corps comprised the center of the push, with Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCook’s corps to the right and Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden’s XXI Corps on the left. Bragg’s ‘retreat,’ however, was a ruse. He had planted soldiers to fall out and trickle into Union lines with accounts of total defeat. In fact, Bragg knew that troops from Mississippi and also Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s I Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia were on the way to reinforce him. Bragg realized that he would have numbers equal to his opponent for one of the few times in the war.

Only a few miles from Chattanooga, he halted his forces and turned them around for a fight. The key to a decisive victory for the Confederates was to cross Chickamauga Creek and strike the Union corps scattered up and down the stream’s valley east of Missionary Ridge. Then the Confederates hoped to cut off opposing forces backpedaling along the La Fayette Road, crushing them one corps at a time. The plan was well-founded, but for it to succeed the Confederates would have to push through two advanced brigades of Federals, Colonel Robert H.G. Minty’s cavalry regiments and the Lightning Brigade. While the bulk of Wilder’s regiments operated together, the 92nd Illinois had been detached and sent on its own scouting mission.

By September 12, the Lightning Brigade was near Ringgold, Ga., and Colonel Wilder was quickly becoming aware that the Army of Tennessee was not retreating and demoralized, as his superiors had hoped. Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham’s Confederate division had actually surrounded the Midwesterners as the Rebels turned and headed back toward Chattanooga. Cheatham’s pickets bumped into Wilder’s videttes, but the Rebels had no idea how many men they were facing and were hesitant to attack. Wilder knew he was in trouble, and his men had to slink cautiously to the west to escape.

For the next several days Wilder’s men spent their time carefully picking their way through the Confederate-infested countryside. By September 17, his mounted infantrymen were at Alexander’s Bridge over Chickamauga Creek. On September 18, at Reed’s Bridge two miles north of Wilder’s position, Confederate Brig. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson’s division pushed across the creek and attacked Minty’s cavalry.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to