rowing the left of
Howard's Corps forward to Brown's Ferry. The Division that
started under command of Palmer for Whitesides, reached its
destination, and took up the position intended in the original
plan of this movement. Three movements so successfully executed,
secured to us two comparatively good lines by which to obtain
supplies from the terminus of the railroad at Bridgeport, namely,
the main wagon road by way of Whitesides, Wauhatchie, and Brown's
Ferry, distant but twenty-eight miles, and the Kelly's Ferry and
Brown's Ferry road, which, by the use of the river from
Bridgeport to Kelly's Ferry, reduced the distance for wagoning to
but eight miles.

Up to this period our forces at Chattanooga were practically
invested, the enemy's lines extending from the Tennessee river
above Chattanooga to the river at and below the point of Lookout
Mountain below Chattanooga, with the south bank of the river
picketed to near Bridgeport, his main force being fortified in
Chattanooga Valley, at the foot of and on Missionary Ridge and
Lookout Mountain, and a brigade in Lookout Valley. True, we held
possession of the country north of the river, but it was from
sixty to seventy miles over the most impracticable of roads to
any supplies. The artillery horses and mules had become so
reduced by starvation that they could not have been relied on for
moving anything. An attempt at retreat must have been with men
alone, and with only such supplies as they could carry. A retreat
would have been almost certain annihilation, for the enemy,
occupying positions within gunshot of, and overlooking our very
fortifications, would unquestionably have pursued our retreating
forces. Already more than ten thousand animals had perished in
supplying half rations to the troops by the long and tedious
route from Stevenson and Bridgeport to Chattanooga, over (p. 397)
Waldron's Ridge. They could not have been supplied another
week.

The enemy was evidently fully apprised of our condition in
Chattanooga, and of the necessity of our establishing a new and
shorter line by which to obtain supplies, if we would maintain
our position, and so fully was he impressed of the importance of
keeping from us these lines, lost to him by surprise, and in a
manner he little drea