Alex McCook Receives Orders to Move on Alpine and Summerville; Sept 1863 Garfield to McCook

After the rebels evacuated Chattanooga, Rosecrans wanted to strike during the rebel retreat:

Garfield to McCook: Move on Alpine and Summerville
http://bit.ly/OR_s1-vol30-pt3-pg488-Garfield-to-McCook_viaGoogle

Headquarters Dept. of the Cumberland,
Trenton, Ga., 9 Sept. 1863 - 9 a.m.

1) Rebels evacuated Chattanooga yesterday.

2) General Thomas to move on La Fayette.

3) You (McCook) will move on Alpine and Summerville,

" for the purpose of intercepting the enemy in his retreat; move on so as to strike him in flank, if possible. "

Volume 30, Pt. 3, page 488
http://bit.ly/OR_s1-vol30-pt3-pg488-Garfield-to-McCook_viaGoogle

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 30 (Ch. 42), Part 3 (Correspondence--Union), 488.

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1890)

Title The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
The War of the Rebellion, United States. Record and Pension Office
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, United States. War Records Office
Compiled by Calvin Duvall Cowles
Contributors United States. War Records Office, United States. Record and Pension Office, United States. Congress. House
Publisher U.S. Government Printing Office, 1890
Original from the University of Virginia
Digitized Feb 1, 2008

Link to Map showing A.M. McCook's Route from Lafayette to McLemore's Cove

Map of Alex M. McCook's Route from Lafayette, Georgia, to McLemore's Cove

The Battle of Chickamauga 19-20 Sept. 1863 (web page) has several maps, including this helpful map of McCook's route back up to McLemore's Cove. This cove is a hollow formed by two mountains, Lookout Mountain, and Pigeon Mountain, which juts out to the east of Lookout. After scouting down through Valley Head to Alpine, Alabama, McCook was to return to McLemore Cove. Instead of taking a short route, he took the long route back up in the same way he came.
http://www.aotc.net/Chickamauga.htm

Related topics in this blog: Lookout Mountain Crossing, Sand Mountain Crossing, and Winston's Gap.

Rawlingsville (Obsolete Town), Fort Payne, Dekalb, Alabama (History), with References to Saltpeter

Saltpeter works in Rawlingsville, Alabama

According to these local-history sources, the salt works at Rawlingsville were destroyed September 5, 1863. I did find a reference to that in the summary of one volume of Official Records, but then, could not find in the reports where they actually destroyed the works on that date. They just mentioned being in Rawlingsville. In other reports in Official Records, I found references to the destruction of salt works in Rawlingsville on February 5, 1864, not September 1863.
LINK TO MY BLOG POST WITH REFERENCES TO OFFICIAL RECORDS, DESTRUCTION OF SALT WORKS AT RAWLINGSVILLE, ALABAMA, FEB. 5, 1864

Local References for Destruction of Salt Works in Rawlingsville, Alabama, on September 5, 1863. 

History of Dekalb County, Alabama, with Description of Rawlingsville
Rawlingsville is now part of northeastern Fort Payne, Alabama. According to this site, on September 5, 1863, a Federal Cavalry detachment destroyed a saltpeter works at Rawlingsville.
http://www.discoverlookoutmountain.com/history-county-courthouses.shtml

Landmarks of Dekalb County, Alabama
Gives the date for the destruction of the saltpeter works at Rawlingsville as September 5, 1863.
http://www.landmarksdekalbal.org/history/DeKalbHistory.html

The web pages above have descriptions of Rawingsville (historic, obsolete place name in Dekalb County, Northern Alabama). The little Alabama town or community of Rawlingsville is no longer extant (or rather, cannot easily be located on modern maps). The town is mentioned in Civil War correspondence and memoirs, such as History of the First Tennessee Cavalry Vols, by W. R. Carter. The Union army destroyed a saltpeter works at Rawlingsville during the crossing of Sand Mountain and Lookout Mountain in September 1863. The sites include a history of Dekalb County, Alabama.




Towns, places, obsolete place names, non-extant places, locating old towns, Alabama towns, Chickamauga Campaign, Crossing Lookout Mountain, Crossing Sand Mountain, Salt, Saltpeter Works