Moving across Winston's Gap, Federal cavalry came into Broomtown Valley about Sept 1, 1863, moving northeast. Federal troops concentrated for the Battle of Chickamauga and fell back to Chattanooga afterwards. Following the disaster on Missionary Ridge, the Confederate army fell back as far as Dalton and camped there for the winter. If Lafayette wasnt inside Federal lines by that time, it wouldn't have exactly been inside Confederate lines, either. Federal forces certainly garrisoned the town from May 1864 until the end of the war.