delay was only incident to the route he was compelled to take to
join Thomas. This took him back over Lookout Mountain, to Valley
Head, then down that valley, crossing the mountain again at Cooper's
Gap, and then up and down Missionary Ridge into McLemore's Cove, a
long, difficult road, nearly all of it over rough mountains. This
route, McCook from the information received, regarded as the better
one to take, as between it and the one on which he was ordered to
move, which was a road on the mountain into the head of McLemore's
Cove, through Dougherty's Gap.

The battle for Chattanooga would never have been fought at Chickamauga
had not the safety of McCook's corps demanded it. Could the Army
of the Cumberland have been withdrawn in safety to Chattanooga and
there concentrated behind earthworks, as it was later, while Bragg
doubtless would have made his attack there, yet the surroundings
would have been far more favorable for our army, especially as the
troops afterward sent might have reached Rosecrans in time to have
defeated Bragg, as he was later at the battle of Missionary Ridge.
But the reinforcements that were hurried from all points AFTER
the disaster, by the officials at Washington were not to benefit
Rosecrans.

While the battle of the 19th was severe at times, and some slight
advantages were gained by the enemy, still nothing had been
accomplished to mark that day's fighting as a great, distinctive
battle. The delay on the part of Negley in reporting as ordered,
to Thomas on the left, placed that position in extreme peril, had
Polk made his attack as ordered at day-dawn on the 20th. Fortunately,
Polk slept outside of his lines that night--not as he was accustomed
to--and was not awakened as early as he would have been had he