Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/99

 then by official announcement, that General Grant had taken command of the “Military Division of the Mississippi,” including the field of operations of the Army of the Cumberland; that General Rosecrans had been removed from the command of that army, to be superseded by General Thomas; and that General Sherman was hurrying on from the West with large reinforcements. On the 27th we broke camp and started on our march from Bridgeport to Chattanooga. The road was in a dreadful condition. There were so many carcasses of mules and horses lying on and alongside of it, that I thought if they were laid lengthwise they would easily cover the whole distance. In the afternoon of the 28th we arrived in Lookout Valley, near Brown's Ferry, about three miles from Chattanooga. The commanding form of Lookout Mountain frowned down upon us, with a rebel battery on top. We presumed that there must be a rebel force at its foot, but it was hidden from us by dense woods. There were with us two divisions of the Eleventh Corps, General Steinwehr's and mine, except some detachments, and part of General Geary's division of the Twelfth Corps, which, however, was left behind with a wagon train at a small hamlet called Wauhatchie, about three miles distant. The road from Wauhatchie to Brown's Ferry was bordered on the enemy's eastern side by steep ridges, intersected by gaps and ravines, through one of which ran a country road leading to Kelly's Ferry, and through another the track of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. On the western side of the Wauhatchie road there was a valley about one-half mile wide, covered partly with cornfields, partly with timber and underbrush, and bordered by the Raccoon Mountains. On our march we saw nothing of the enemy except little squads of cavalry, who vanished at our approach, and a small infantry force in the woods near Wauhatchie, which disappeared after