em it proper to notify you that prudence would
dictate their early withdrawal.

"I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"Braxton BRAGG,
"_General commanding_."

Not being willing that he should get his army off in good order,
Thomas was directed early on the morning of the 23d to ascertain
the truth or falsity of this report by driving in his pickets and
making him develop his line. This he did with the troops
stationed at Chattanooga, and Howard's corps (which had been
brought into Chattanooga because of the apprehended danger to our
pontoon bridges from the rise in the river and the enemy's rafts)
in the most gallant style, driving the enemy from his first line
and securing to us what is known as "Indian Hill" or "Orchard
Knoll," and the low range of hills south of it. These points were
fortified during the night and artillery put in position on them.
The report of this deserter was evidently not intended to
deceive, but he had mistaken Bragg's movements. It was afterward
ascertained that one division of Buckner's corps had gone to join
Longstreet, and a second division of the same corps had started,
but was brought back in consequence of our attack.

On the night of the 23d of November Sherman, with three divisions
of his army, strengthened by Davis' division of Thomas', which
had been stationed along on the north bank of the river,
convenient to where the crossing was to be effected, was ready
for operations.

At an hour sufficiently early to secure the south bank of the
river, just below the mouth of the South Chicamauga, by dawn of
day, the pontoons in the North Chicamauga were loaded with thirty
armed men each, and floated quietly past the enemy's pickets,
landed and captured all but one of the guard, twenty in number,
before the enemy was aware of the presence of a foe. The
steamboat "Dunbar" with a barge in tow, after having finished
ferrying across the river the horses procured from Sherman, with
which to move Thomas' artillery, was sent up from Chattanooga to
aid in crossing artillery and troops, and by daylight of the (p. 402)
morning of the 24th of November, eight thousand men were
on the south side of the Tennessee and fortified in rifle