As the morning light slowly spread across the peaceful Tennessee River valley at Caperton’s Ferry, Alabama, on August 29, 1863, sleepy pickets of Col. William Estes’ 3rd Confederate Cavalry peered across the wide, placid stream to the tree-covered far bank. Suddenly more than a thousand Federal soldiers of Col. Hans Heg’s brigade emerged from the trees and quickly launched 50 pontoon boats into the river. Filling the boats with blueclad infantrymen, Heg sent them paddling furiously toward the handful of incredulous Confederate cavalrymen on the opposite shore. Simultaneously, and six miles upstream, three Federal cavalry regiments from Col. Eli Long’s brigade crossed the Tennessee River at Long Island Creek Ford. While the 2nd Kentucky (U.S.) Cavalry pressed southward along the river bank toward Caperton’s Ferry, the 1st and 3rd Ohio regiments took a road that climbed Sand Mountain. On the mountain they drove more of Colonel Estes’ Confederates from their reserve camp and pressed on toward Trenton, Georgia. Seven miles upstream from Colonel Long’s horsemen, the 2nd Michigan Cavalry forded a channel of the Tennessee River to Long Island, opposite Bridgeport, Alabama. Clearing Long Island, the 2nd Michigan then forded the second river channel and secured the far shore of the Tennessee. Behind them, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan rowed over to Long Island to survey the location of a trestle bridge he had been ordered to construct at the site. Even farther north, Federal troops at Battle Creek and Shellmound, Tennessee, sent small probes across the river to chase any lingering Confederate pickets from the stream. Clearly the long anticipated crossing of the Tennessee River by the Federal Army of the Cumberland, which signaled the final campaign for Chattanooga, had begun.1

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