The idle days wore on until the afternoon of the 18th of September.  Then “the general” was suddenly sounded from brigade head-quarters, the regimental buglers took up the signal, and in twenty minutes we were on the road and moving back toward Gordon’s Mills and Chattanooga.  No leisurely march this time, however, but a race which tasked even the legs of the veterans.  Two hours of this brought the command to the crest of a ridge from which, away to the right, a wide expanse of country lay in view.  There was a broad valley running parallel to the road we were traveling and covered by a dense growth of low oaks, which effectually hid roads, streams, and even the few lonely habitations of the people.  But, looking from our eminence over the unbroken expanse of tree-tops, we could see a light yellow snake-like line stretching down the valley.  It was dust from the road on which Bragg’s army was hurrying toward the Rossville Pass, through which was the way to Chattanooga and all our communications and supplies.  The line of dust extended miles down the valley, far in advance of the point we had reached.  The rest of our army might be ahead of us and ahead of Bragg, or it might be on our left, or even behind us, for aught we knew, but it was plain enough why we were making such haste back toward Chattanooga.

The afternoon passed:  darkness came, and still the march continued.  Late in the evening we came upon a group of tents by the roadside—­Rosecrans’s head-quarters, with Rosecrans himself, and not in the best of humors, as some of us discovered on riding up to see friends on his staff.  In his petulance and excitability the commanding general forgot to be gentlemanly, some of them said; and they left him not at all relieved of any doubts they had concerning our sudden and forced march.

It was long after midnight when we reached Gordon’s Mills.  Here the road was full of ambulances, wagons, artillery and infantry, while in the thickets on the left were heard the confused noises of the bivouac.  There were no fires, which showed that we were supposed to be in the immediate presence of the enemy, and that our commander did not want his position revealed by camp-fires.  At some distance past the mills Palmer’s division was halted in the road, and the troops were massed by regiments, and moved some yards into the thicket to pass the few hours before daylight.

In the morning it was said that Bragg had indeed beaten in the race the day before, and had halted at night, if he halted at all, much nearer to the Rossville Pass than we were.  The Chickamauga River was supposed to be between the two armies, but it is a stream which is easily fordable in many places, and a mile or two below where we lay was a bridge over which Bragg could cross rapidly with his artillery and trains, and then strike our road to Rossville ahead of us.  A division moved out early in the day and went off toward this bridge.  Soon after there was lively musketry