Battle of Wauhatchie The Battle of Wauhatchie was fought October 28 – 29 , 1863 , in Hamilton and Marion Counties , Tennessee , and Dade County , Georgia , in the American Civil War . A Union force had seized Brown ' s Ferry on the Tennessee River , opening a supply line to the Union army in Chattanooga . Confederate forces attempted to defeat the Union force defending the ferry and again close this supply line but were defeated . Wauhatchie was one of the few night battles of the Civil War . Background . After their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga , Union forces under Maj . Gen . William Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga , Tennessee . Confederate Gen . Braxton Bragg ' s Army of Tennessee besieged the city , threatening to starve the Union forces into surrender . Bragg ' s troops occupied Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain , both of which had excellent views of the city , the river , and the Union ' s supply lines . Confederate troops launched raids on all supply wagons heading toward Chattanooga , which made it necessary for the Union to find another way to feed their men . Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant relieved Rosecrans of his command and replaced him with Maj . Gen . George H . Thomas . Grant ' s first priority upon reaching Chattanooga was to resupply the Union army . Brown ' s Ferry operation . Grant and Thomas initiated the " Cracker Line Operation " on October 26 , 1863 . It was designed to open the road to Chattanooga from Brown ' s Ferry on the Tennessee River with a simultaneous advance up Lookout Valley , securing the Kelley ' s Ferry Road . Brig . Gen . William F . " Baldy " Smith , Chief Engineer of the Military Division of the Mississippi , who conceived the overall Cracker Line plan , was assigned the task of establishing the Brown ' s Ferry bridgehead . He was assigned two infantry brigades from the 3rd Division , XIV Corps , to accomplish this : the 1st Brigade under Brig . Gen . John B . Turchin and the 2nd under Brig . Gen . William B . Hazen . At 3 : 00 a . m . on October 27 , portions of Hazen ' s brigade embarked upon pontoons and floated around Moccasin Bend to Brown ' s Ferry . Turchin ' s brigade took a position on Moccasin Bend across from Brown ' s Ferry . Upon landing , Hazen secured the bridgehead and then positioned a pontoon bridge across the river , allowing Turchin to cross and take position on his right . Col . William C . Oates of the 15th Alabama guarded the valley with his regiment plus elements of other units . Due to a command mixup , Oates did not know where three reserve regiments were positioned . After the Union surprise landing , Oates attempted a counterattack with his scratch force , but it failed after he was seriously wounded . By the time Brig . Gen . Evander M . Law turned up with the reserve regiments , it was too late ; the Federals were too numerous and well entrenched . Hooker ' s advance . Meanwhile , Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker marched with three divisions from Bridgeport by following the railroad via Shellmound and the Running Water Creek gorge . On October 28 , after a rapid march , Hooker ' s column entered Lookout Valley to the astonishment of Generals Braxton Bragg and James Longstreet , who were having a conference on Lookout Mountain . Longstreet , obsessed with the possibility of a Union attack further to the southwest , had failed to properly scout Hooker ' s advance . Hooker , while his force passed through Lookout Valley on October 28 , detached Brig . Gen . John W . Geary ' s division at Wauhatchie Station , a stop on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad , to protect the line of communications to the southwest as well as the road west to Kelley ' s Ferry . Once he reached his goal , " Hooker ' s dispositions were deplorable , " with Howard ' s understrength XI Corps " bivouacked haphazardly " at Brown ' s Ferry . Worse , Geary ' s division , only 1 , 500 - strong after detaching railroad guards , was posted in isolation . Battle . Bragg ordered Longstreet to drive away the new Union force . Noting that a wagon train had stopped near Wauhatchie , Longstreet determined to crush Geary ' s force . He ordered Brig . Gen . Micah Jenkins ' s division to mount a night attack on the Union forces . While Law took his own and Brig . Gen . Jerome B . Robertson ' s brigades to block Hooker from reinforcing Geary , Jenkins ' s own 1 , 800 - man South Carolina brigade , led by Col . John Bratton would assault Wauhatchie Station . Law had Brig . Gen . Henry Benning ' s brigade would remain in support for both Law ' s and Bratton ' s efforts . Although the attack was scheduled for 10 : 00 p . m . on the night of October 28 , confusion delayed it until midnight . Though Geary and his officers expected an attack and had thrown out pickets , its suddenness took them by surprise . Enveloped from the north by Bratton , the Union defenders formed into a V - shaped battle line , facing north and east . Geary ' s son , an artillery lieutenant , was killed in the battle , dying in his father ' s arms . Hearing the sounds of battle , the XI Corps quickly fell into ranks near Brown ' s Ferry . Hooker bypassed Maj . Gen . Oliver O . Howard in the chain of command and ordered Maj . Gen . Carl Schurz to march to Wauhatchie Station as reinforcements . In the confusion , Brig . Gen . Adolph von Steinwehr got his division on the road first . Col . Orland Smith ' s brigade of Steinwehr ' s division was fired on by Law ' s Confederates , who were positioned on a 200 - foot high hill that dominated the road from Brown ' s Ferry . Smith veered to the east and began climbing the hill . Meanwhile , Hooker mistakenly deployed units from both XI Corps divisions against Law and Benning , leaving no one to go to Geary ' s aid . Though Law ' s 2 , 000 men were greatly outnumbered by Hooker ' s force , the hilltop position was naturally strong . In the darkness , the only unit in direct contact with Law was Smith ' s 700 - man brigade . Several vigorous assaults by Smith were repulsed . Then , after Law received some erroneous reports , he decided to pull back . Just as his men left their entrenchments , Smith ' s men spilled over them , capturing some stragglers and scattering a regiment that failed to get the order to retreat . Meanwhile , Hooker agreed to let Howard proceed to Wauhatchie with some cavalry . Geary ' s men continued to hold fast , though they began to run low on ammunition . Just as Bratton began to sense victory , he received a note to retreat since Union reinforcements were arriving at his rear . Bratton withdrew to Lookout Mountain , successfully covered by Benning ' s brigade . In the Wauhatchie fight , Bratton lost 356 men while Geary ' s casualties numbered 216 . Aftermath . A rumor circulated through the Union camps that Union mules stampeded by the fight had made the Confederates believe they were being attacked by cavalry , causing the Southern retreat ; the Union soldiers joked that the mules be " brevet ed as horses " . In truth , the Hampton Legion was disordered by the mules for only a short time . However , this lull allowed the 137th New York to plug a gap in the Federal line . Union losses in the battle were 78 killed , 327 wounded , and 15 missing . The Confederates reported their losses as 34 killed , 305 wounded , and 69 missing . One account says Bratton lost 408 men while Law lost only 52 . Geary reported burying 153 Confederates and capturing over one hundred prisoners , so the Confederate losses may have been over 900 men . The Union army now had its window to the outside and could receive supplies , weapons , ammunition , and reinforcements via the Cracker Line . The way was clear for the start of the Battles for Chattanooga on November 23 .