Signal Mountain History

by Frank “Mickey” Robbins Anderson Pike and the “W” Road have a rich and colorful history. It began centuries ago when American Indians roamed the Tennessee Valley and hunted deer, turkey, bear, and grouse on Walden’s Ridge. Tribes eventually settled in villages at Moccasin Bend, Williams Island, and Citico and used a system of trails branching to the ridge including one up a natural pass at Roger’s Gap, which later became the “W” Road.  After the Cherokee Removal with its Trail of Tears, white settlers began to stream into Ross’s Landing. To serve this new market and reach the Western Atlantic railhead, prosperous farmers in Sequatchie Valley sought a direct route to transport their produce and livestock. (l) On January 23, 1840, the Tennessee Legislature authorized construction of a turnpike road, which was to begin at Josiah Anderson’s farm in the Chapel Hill community in Sequatchie Valley, cross Walden’s Ridge at Double Bridges in the Horseshoe, continue at the higher elevation for several miles, and descend at Roger’s Gap before ending “at a point on the north bank of the Tennessee River, opposite, or nearly so to the town of Chattanooga.” That project was left incomplete, and in 1848, the Tennessee Legislature authorized a second turnpike road over the same route “sixteen feet wide: to be clear of stumps, rocks, and other obstructions.” Josiah Anderson’s power as Speaker of the Tennessee Senate no doubt helped in having the road begin at the rear of his farm and named Anderson Pike. By 1852 the new road was open and operating. Two years later, Josiah Anderson and John Foust sold their rights to James C. Conner, Hamilton County Sheriff and son-in-law of Elisha Rogers, a large land holder who owned the Roger’s Gap Road. (2) To oversee the turnpike Conner built a two-story log cabin, which served as toll house and home, at the intersection of Fairmount Road and Anderson Pike. During the Civil War, he had sons who served on both the Confederate and Union sides. In 1864, Federal scouts came looking for Conner himself as most men were forced to join the Federal Army. He had served in the legislature and was officially exempt from service. Objecting to warfare, he eluded Federals for a few months but was later taken prisoner of war and held at the Ryder Home on Pine Street in Chattanooga until the end of the war. (3)  (After serving as speaker of both the House and Senate for the State of Tennessee, Josiah Anderson was elected as a Whig to the US House of Representatives, where he served a two-year term 1849-1851. He was twice defeated in reelection attempts. In early l861 he was chosen as a delegate to the Peace Convention of Washington, which tried unsuccessfully to settle North-South differences and prevent the impending war. He subsequently became a Colonel in the Tennessee State Militia. On November 5, he was shot while giving a pro-secession speech to a group of citizens on the militia parade ground at Looney’s creek (Hicks Chapel, near present day Whitwell). He was taken to his home in Sequatchie Valley at the foot of Anderson Pike, where he died three days later with burial in the family cemetery. At death Col. Joe Anderson owned 40,000 acres of land including 1000 acres at Fur Top on the ridge, 14 slaves, numerous blooded horses and hunting dogs, and a library of English classics and law books.) (4)  In 1863, Anderson Pike and Rogers Gap Road played a brief but important role in the Siege of Chattanooga. After suffering a major defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, the Union’s Amy of the Cumberland retreated into Chattanooga. Confederate, General Braxton Bragg laid siege to block supply routes in and out of the city and starve the Union troops into submission. The daily ration was reduced to “four crackers, each only three inches square and just three times the thickness of a normal soda cracker.” (5) On occasion, men were issued “a bit of salt pork,” which usually was rancid. They called their few small pieces of beef “dried on the hoof.” (6)    To overcome the siege and near starvation, Union General William Rosecrans studied several routes to bring supplies and reinforcements to Chattanooga. Each started at the Federal Supply Depot in Bridgeport, Alabama, 30 miles downstream on the Tennessee River. (7) But the direct routes from Bridgeport to Chattanooga, whether by rail, river, or road, were blocked by Confederate artillerists, sharpshooters, and pickets, who occupied Lookout Mountain, patrolled Lookout Valley, and were strategically strung across Raccoon Mountain. The only route from Bridgeport to Chattanooga that the Rebels did not control (and parts of it were subject to enemy cavalry raids) was a 60-mile wagon road, which ran northward to Jasper and up the Sequatchie Valley before turning southeast to climb Walden’s Ridge following Anderson Pike and the Rogers Gap Road for the final 20 miles into Chattanooga. (8) Rosecrans chose the latter, and ammunition, medical supplies, rations, and forage began to move over this arduous route.     Conditions, which were already miserable due to the length and difficulty of the journey, worsened as nature turned against the Union. On October 1, the first rain fell in the area since mid-August. For the next 30 days it rained almost daily, and the storms reached near hurricane proportions. Horses and mules floundered in the mud as they struggled to bring their loads along. In addition to dealing with weak and rebellious animals and the misery of going for days without dry clothes, the Union troops had to face the threat of raiding cavalry parties. This came to a flash point on October 3, when General Jos Wheeler led his Confederate cavalry south from its camp at Henson’s Gap near Dunlap to overtake 32 Union supply wagons. An hour later he caught the mother lode at the foot of Anderson’s Gap — an enormous train of Federal wagons of over 800 wagons.