230 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

by the short road around the point of LookoutMountain. The problem was to seize the narrowrange of hills by stealth, lodge Hooker with astrong force in Lookout valley, and establish aroute by which he could be reinforced at pleasurefrom Chattanooga . At the end of three days thepontoon bridges were ready, the ground had beenduly reconnoitred, and everybody had his instruc-tions. At three o’clock on the foggy morning ofthe 27th fifty-two pontoon boats, each containingtwenty-five picked men, 1300 in all, commandedby General William Hazen , 1 were started fromChattanooga and glided noiselessly down with theIts complete swift current, with no tell-tale plashsuccess. 0 f oars. In two hours’ time they hadlanded at Brown’s Ferry, driven away a rebelpicket force, and taken possession of the narrowrange of hills. While this was going on, GeneralSmith, with a force of 2700 men, and three bat-teries, marched across the neck of Moccasin Pointto Brown’s Ferry, where they crossed in the pon-toon boats and ascended the hills. The range wasthus held throughout its whole length by 4000men, who speedily felled trees and made a formid-able abattis, while they planted their three batter-ies on the end toward Lookout valley in such wiseas to sweep the narrow road around the point of1 For the numbers, see Hazen ’s Narrative, pp. 154, 161.