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Confederate sharpshooters attack the Union supply line along the Tennessee River during the Siege of Chattanooga.Two mules at once! What a shot! The hexagonal-shaped bullet passed through both necks of a pair of Union army mules side by side in harness as they navigated the narrow mountain road to get supplies to starving Union army troops inside Chattanooga.
The Alabamians ensconced on Raccoon Mountain in early October 1863 never forgot that shot, or their duty in the gorge of the Tennessee River.
After Chickamauga, the besieged Union troops in Chattanooga depended on a supply base at Bridgeport, Ala. The most direct path for supplies ran from Bridgeport through Lookout Valley to Chattanooga. When the Confederate army occupied Lookout Mountain, the direct route from Bridgeport was closed. The next alternative to bring supplies north was from Bridgeport to Sequatchie Valley, then east using a road known as Haley’s Trace (mostly today’s Suck Creek Road) through the narrow gorge between Raccoon Mountain (now Elder Mountain) and Walden’s Ridge, then cross the river to the south shore on a pontoon bridge (near today’s Olgiati Bridge), and enter Chattanooga.
In early October, men from the 4th Alabama Infantry, which included a company from nearby Jackson County, were ordered to the northern end of Raccoon Mountain to stop the Yankee wagons along Haley’s Trace.