Battle of Brown ' s Ferry 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 brigade s 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 . Background . 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 stave 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 front , keeping the other three regiment s 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 " . Battle . Baldy Smith was assigned two brigades under Brigadier Generals William B . Hazen and John B . Turchin as well as the Engineer Brigade under Col . Timothy Robbins Stanley . Turchin ' s men would march overland across a bend in the Tennessee River known as Moccasin Point and hold the east bank at Brown ' s Ferry . Hazen ' s men had the more hazardous task . Organized into 50 squads of 21 men each ( 20 soldiers and 1 officer ) Hazen ' s men would ferry down the river in pontoon boats manned by Stanley ' s men . A third column under Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker would advance from Bridgeport , Alabama , for relief of Hazen ' s men if necessary . At 3 : 00 am Hazen ' s men boarded the pontoons and quietly rode around Moccasin Point past the Lookout Mountain pickets . Using the river ' s current for swift movement , an early morning fog helped cover their movements . The landing was to be made at ferry landing and at another gorge downriver . On the morning October 27 , there was on company guarding the ferry itself , with five companies nearby in reserve . Hazen ' s men reached the landing points at 5 : 00 am amidst relative silence , though some Federal soldiers had broken silence when they were fired at early on . Some of the storming parties slightly missed their objectives but by and large the landing points had been gained and coming ashore , the Union troops drove off the Confederate pickets and immediately started entrenching . Upon hearing the news of the landing Oates immediately formed a counterattack , using two companies in a diversionary frontal attack and leading the other three in an attempt to cut off the Union force from the ferry . However , the 6th Indiana Infantry had just landed and was able to drive off the Confederates . During the fighting Oates was taken out of action by a gunshot wound to the hip ; at this time his men started retreating . At this point Stanley ' s oarsmen began to ferry Turchin ' s men across the river . Hazen and Turchin ' s combined force now outflanked the Confederates , who retreated to the south toward Wauhatchie . Aftermath . The " Cracker Line " having been opened , General Hazen joyfully exclaimed " We ' ve knocked the lid off the cracker box ! " By mid afternoon on October 27 the pontoon bridge across the river was completed by the 1st Michigan Engineers . Hooker ' s Federal reinforcements were on their way toward Brown ' s Ferry . Fearing that this attack was merely a diversion while the real Union attack would come from the south , Longstreet failed to counterattack immediately . Under pressure from Bragg , Longstreet would launch an attack two days later in the Battle of Wauhatchie , but this attack failed . Opposing forces . Union . Chief Engineer , Military Division of the Mississippi : BG William F . Smith Confederate . Longstreet ' s Corps : Lt . Gen . James Longstreet