The distance to Bridgeport by this circuitous route was sixty miles, and the numerous passes, coves, and small valleys through which the road ran offered tempting opportunities, for the destruction of trains, and the enemy was not slow to take advantage of them.

Indeed, the situation was not promising, and General Rosecrans himself, in communicating with the President the day succeeding the battle of Chickamauga, expressed doubts of his ability to hold the gateway of the Cumberland Mountains.
The position taken up by my troops inside the lines of Chattanooga was near the old iron-works, under the shadow of Lookout Mountain.
Here we were exposed to a continual fire from the enemy's batteries for many days, but as the men were well covered by secure though simple intrenchments, but little damage was done.

My own headquarters were established on the grounds of Mr.William Crutchfield, a resident of the place, whose devotion to the Union cause knew no bounds, and who rendered me--and, in fact, at one time or another, nearly every general officer in the Army of the Cumberland--invaluable service in the way of information about the Confederate army.

My headquarters camp frequently received shots from the point of Lookout Mountain also, but fortunately no casualties resulted from this plunging fire, though, I am free to confess, at first our nerves were often upset by the whirring of twenty-pounder shells dropped inconsiderately into our camp at untimely hours of the night.
In a few days rain began to fall, and the mountain roads by which our supplies came were fast growing impracticable.

Each succeeding train of wagons took longer to make the trip from Bridgeport, and the draft mules were dying by the hundreds.