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Greetings Fellow Preservationists:
For our Missionary Ridge Event next year, all net proceeds will go toward the preservation of Brown's Ferry in Chattanooga. As most of you know, this was the "Cracker Line" that was opened during the siege of Chattanooga in October of 1863, which allowed Union Forces to begin re-supplying the city.
A Brief Description From the Civil War Trust:
After nearly a month of siege, the Union Army of the Cumberland made a bold maneuver to reopen their supply lines. Early on the morning of October 27, Federal troops under Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen floated down the Tennessee River on flat boats, passing beneath the Confederate guns on Lookout Mountain before landing on the opposite shore. After driving in the Confederate pickets, the landing parties were set upon by Col. William C. Oates and his Alabamians. Oates's men were too few, however to drive the Yankees back into the river and a Union bridgehead was established. In the next few days reinforcements from the east under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker arrived and supplies began flowing into the city.
Missionary Ridge Preservation Efforts
In conjunction with our event planning, Tyler Underwood is working behind the scenes to contact the Civil War Trust and the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association and set up specific preservation efforts. At least the site has been purchased. That is a very positive step. (See article below). Next, we want to help clean it up and open it up to the public. The other side of the ferry has been preserved as a part of the Natchez Trace, Trail of Tears. Now, it is time to open the Civil War side where the battle was fought. Here is what we are proposing:
Our goal is raise and donate a minimum of $10,000 with the intention that this money will go towards the following:
- Site maintenance.
- The addition of interpretive signage and/or monuments for the fight that took place there.
- Request permission to access the site early in 2019 for a site clean-up day.
We will be announcing specific fund-raising once we have hopefully worked out the details. We anticipate that this should happen within the next month. Once we begin in earnest, we ask you to help us to preserve this important site and re-open the Cracker Line once again!
An Article About the Purchase of Land by the Civil War Trust at Brown's Ferry in 2015:
Brown’s Ferry Land Saved
Posted on November 28, 2015 at 11:34 am.
Written by Mary Ann Peckham
Preservation efforts were greatly rewarded when the Civil War Trust recently purchased an 11 acre tract at the heart of the Brown’s Ferry site near Chattanooga.
The story of success actually began more than a year ago when TCWPA Vice President Anthony Hodges secured permission to enter the privately owned property, then listed as “for sale”. A Three Star Tour was arranged, the first of its kind on this site, and as a result one of the tour participants, Carrington Montague of Chattanooga, made a generous offer to TCWPA to help purchase the property. The Civil War Trust closed on the property in August with funding from the American Battlefield Protection Program, the State of Tennessee, the Lyndhurst Foundation, TCWPA funding from several donors and the Civil War Trust.
On November 16th TCWPA and Friends of the Park hosted a private tour of the site with a diverse group of state legislators, federal, state, and local agency representatives, and leaders from local preservation and conservation organizations. National Park Service Historian Jim Ogden led the tour, sharing contemporary accounts of the October, 1863 nighttime amphibious landing that opened the “Cracker Line” and led to the ultimate Union victory at Chattanooga. The Brown’s Ferry crossing was also part of the “Trail of tears” and a migration route for settlers going to NW Georgia and Alabama.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE AT THE TENNESSEE CIVIL WAR PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION