Battle of Brown's Ferry

Wauhatchie battlefield with location of Brown's Ferry in top right

Date	October 27, 1863
Location	Hamilton County, Tennessee
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

William F. Smith

Evander M. Law
William C. Oates

Strength

1st Brigade 3rd Division, IV Corps
2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, XIV Corps
Engineer Brigade, Dept. of the Cumberland

Law's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps

Casualties and losses

The Battle of Brown's Ferry was an engagement of the American Civil War which took place on October 27, 1863 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. During the battle, two Union brigades drove Confederate sharpshooters from the Tennessee River, which allowed supplies to start arriving to the Union army at Chattanooga. Although a minor engagement, the battle proved to have significant results in paving the way for the Union victory at Chattanooga a month later.

Following the defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga the Union Army of the Cumberland was trapped in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Braxton Bragg. Lacking the strength to capture the city by direct assault, Bragg settled into a siege, intending to starve the Union forces into surrender or retreat. To do so, he sent the brigade of Evander Law to a point on the Tennessee River downstream from Chattanooga, ordering it to fire on any Union wagon train which passed along the opposite shore. Law spread the 4th and 15th Alabama Infantry regiments along a 5-mile (8.0 km) front, keeping the other three regiments of his brigade in reserve. When the Union army began using other routes to supply Chattanooga, Law's corps commander James Longstreet ordered three regiments to be pulled back to Lookout Mountain, leaving two regiments along the river, with Colonel William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama in command.

Union commander William S. Rosecrans wired Abraham Lincoln saying "We have no certainty of holding our position here." Lincoln responded by sending reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac and Army of the Tennessee, with the overall command of the force under Ulysses S. Grant, recently promoted to command of the Military Division of the Mississippi. On October 26 Grant initiated operations to open a supply route from Brown's Ferry to Chattanooga. The plan was conceived and to be executed by Grant's chief engineer, Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith.Hardtack, an army food staple, was usually despised by the men who were forced to eat it on a constant basis. However, with food running low the soldiers began to cry out even for the hardtack crackers. Thus the proposed supply line was dubbed the "Cracker Line".

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