Existing comment:
Lookout Valley and Browns Ferry:
You are now looking to the northwest:
From this commanding viewpoint, 1,300 feet above the river, you can see many of the historic areas associated with the Battles for Chattanooga in 1863. Among these features are Lookout Valley and Browns Ferry through which the Federals opened a vital supply line, weakening the Confederate siege of Chattanooga.
Breaking the Siege:
In late September 1863, the Confederate army under Gen. Braxton Bragg laid siege to the city, trapping the Union army defeated at Chickamauga. The Confederates, positioned here on Lookout Mountain and at other key points surrounding the city, hoped to starve the Federals into submission.
At 3am on October 27, Union soldiers cast off from Chattanooga in pontoon boats and floated secretly down the river. At Browns Ferry (just behind the branches at the upper right of the picture), they landed and routed the Confederate pickets. The following day, they linked up with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Union forces who were moving up Lookout Valley to relieve the city. A Union supply line was thus opened, and the Confederate strangle-hold on the city was broken.
[The big river is the Chattanooga River. The smaller one running vertically in the middle of the picture is Lookout Creek.] |