Following the Battle of Stones River, Maj. Gen.
William S. Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the Cumberland, remained
in the Murfreesboro area for five and one-half months. To counter the
Yankees, Gen. Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of Tennessee,
established a fortified line along the Duck River from Shelbyville to
Wartrace. On the Confederate right, infantry and artillery detachments
guarded Liberty, Hoover's, and Bellbuckle gaps through the mountains.
Rosecrans's superiors, fearing that Bragg might detach large numbers of
men to help break the Siege of Vicksburg, urged him to attack the
Confederates. On June 23, 1863, he feigned an attack on Shelbyville but
massed against Bragg's right. His troops struck out toward the gaps,
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's men, on the 24th, forced Hoover's Gap. The
Confederate 3rd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, under Col. J.R. Butler, held
Hoover's Gap, but the Yankees easily pushed it aside. As this unit fell
back, it ran into Brig. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson's and Brig. Gen. William
B. Bate's Brigades, Stewart's Division, Hardee's Corps, Army of
Tennessee, which marched off to meet Thomas and his men. Fighting
continued at the gap until just before noon on the 26th, when Maj. Gen.
Alexander P. Stewart, the Confederate division commander, sent a message
to Johnson and Bate stating that he was pulling back and they should
also. Although slowed by rain, Rosecrans moved on, forcing Bragg to give
up his defensive line and fall back to Tullahoma. Rosecrans sent a
flying column (Wilder's Lightning Brigade, the same that had spearheaded
the thrust through Hoover's Gap on the 24th) ahead to hit the railroad
in Bragg's rear. Arriving too late to destroy the Elk River railroad
bridge, the Federals tore up lots of track around Decherd. Bragg
evacuated Middle Tennessee.