Battle of Davis's Cross Roads
Part of theAmerican Civil War
Date September 10, 1863 (1863-09-10) – September 11, 1863 (1863-09-11) Location Dade County, Georgia andWalker County, Georgia Result Inconclusive[1]
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
James S. Negley	Thomas C. Hindman John C. Breckinridge
Strength
8,000	12,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown

TheBattle of Davis's Cross Roads, was fought September 10–11, 1863, in northwesternGeorgia, as part of theChickamauga Campaign of theAmerican Civil War.^[2][3] It was more of a series of maneuvers andskirmishes than an actual battle and casualties were negligible.^[4]

In the initial stages of the campaign,UnionMaj. Gen.William S. Rosecrans'sArmy of the Cumberland induced theConfederateArmy of Tennessee underGen.Braxton Bragg to evacuate the city ofChattanooga, Tennessee. Rosecrans dispatched three corps on three different roads toward northwestern Georgia. The corps on the center road was theXIV Corps under Maj. Gen.George H. Thomas, which moved just across the border toTrenton, Georgia, and prepared to move on to Lafayette in pursuit of Bragg. Lafayette was the present location of Bragg's army. Due to misinformation and poor intelligence, Rosecrans was convinced that Bragg was demoralized and was retreating toDalton, Georgia, farther to the southeast. But once he realized that the Union forces had separated and were vulnerable, Bragg intended to attack Thomas, halt his advance, and defeat him.^[4]

Thomas's corps raced forward, seized the important gaps inMissionary Ridge andPigeon Mountain, and moved out intoMcLemore Cove. Maj. Gen.James S. Negley's division, supported by Brig. Gen.Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Confederate units were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division.^[3]

Bragg had ordered Maj. Gen.Thomas C. Hindman with his division to assault Negley in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while Maj. Gen.Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of WestChickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.^[3]

After his abortive attempt to attack one isolated Union corps, Bragg turned his attention to the corps to his north, theXXI Corps under Maj. Gen.Thomas L. Crittenden, setting the stage for the bloodyBattle of Chickamauga on September 19.^[4]

• National Park Service battle description
• CWSAC Report Update and Resurvey: Individual Battlefield Profiles
• Cozzens, Peter.This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.ISBN 0-252-02236-X.
• Robertson, William Glenn. "The Chickamauga Campaign: McLemore's Cove."Blue & Gray Magazine, Spring 2007.
• Woodworth, Steven E.Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.ISBN 0-8032-9813-7.

• Battle of Davis CrossroadsAbout North Georgia

34°45′21″N85°22′05″W / 34.7557°N 85.3680°W /34.7557; -85.3680

• Chickamauga campaign
• Battles of the western theater of the American Civil War
• Union victories of the American Civil War
• Battles of the American Civil War in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Dade County, Georgia
• Walker County, Georgia
• Conflicts in 1863
• 1863 in Georgia (U.S. state)
• September 1863

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