Hey everyone, welcome to the 425th episode of our Civil War Podcast, my name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy, hello y'all, thanks for tuning into the podcast.

As you guys will recall, by the end of the last episode, the Federals had successfully

carried out their Operation at Brown's Ferry on the morning of October 27th, 1863.

By 10am, a pontoon bridge spanned the Tennessee River there, protected by the men of Hazens

and Turchance Brigades, who were busy throwing up breast works on the nearby hills.

The Brown's Ferry Operation had been carried out without a hitch.

The Confederates Picketing the River Bank had been driven off all at the cost of only 38

federal casualties.

A happy William Hazens drove along his lines, telling his men, we've knocked the cover

off the cracker box.

And indeed, they had, the success of the Operation at Brown's Ferry meant the basic conditions

were in place for restoring the flow of supplies to the Union troops holding Chattanooga, just

as soon as the wagons could be set rolling along the new cracker line.

With their success at Brown's Ferry, things had taken a turn for the better for the besieged

Yankees.

With the issue now depended on the federal side, upon how quickly Hooker could arrive with

his troops to keep the cracker line open, and, on the Confederate side, what Braxton

Bragg would do to close it.

The show will recall the federal plan to open the cracker line not only called for part

of the Chattanooga garrison, in the form of Hazens and Turchens brigades, to seize Brown's

Ferry, but the plan also called for several divisions where the federal troops, commanded

...