About the middle of December orders were given the Confederate army, which was on the west bank of the Holston River, to cross and march for the railroad, only a few miles away.
The transfer of the army to the east bank of the river was executed by diligent work and the use of such flatboats and other means of crossing as could be collected and constructed. They were over by the 20th, and before Christmas were in camps along the railroad near Morristown. Blankets and clothes were scarce, shoes more so. But to the hungry Confederates the beautiful country in which they found themselves seemed a land of milk and honey. The French Broad River and the Holston are confluent at Knoxville. The country between and beyond them contains as fine farming-lands and has as delightful climate as can be found. Stock and grain were on all farms. Wheat and oats had been thoughtfully hidden away by the Federals, but the fields were full of maize, still standing. The country around the French Broad had hardly been touched by the foragers. The Confederate wagons immediately on entering the fields were loaded to overflowing. Pumpkins were on the ground in places like apples under a tree. Cattle, sheep, and swine, poultry, vegetables, maple sugar, and honey were all abundant for immediate wants of the troops.
When the Federals found that the Confederates had moved to the east bank, their cavalry followed to that side. They were almost as much in want of the beautiful foraging lands as the Confederates, but there was little left for them. With the plenitude of provisions for the time, and many things which seemed luxuries, the Confederates were not altogether happy. Tattered garments, blankets, and shoes (the latter going, many gone) opened ways, on all sides, for piercing winter blasts. There were some hand-looms in the country, from which there was occasionally picked up a piece of cloth, and here and there other comforts were received, some from kind and some from unwilling hands, which nevertheless could spare them. For shoes the men were compelled to resort to the raw hides of beef cattle as temporary protection from the frozen ground. Then soldiers were discovered who could tan the hides of beeves, some who could make shoes, some who could make shoe-pegs, some who could make shoe-lasts; so it came about, through the varied industries of Longstreet’s men, that the hides passed rapidly from the beeves to the feet of the soldiers. Thus the soldier’s life was made, for a time, passably pleasant in the infantry and artillery. Meanwhile, the Confederate cavalry were looking at the Federals, and the Federals were looking at them, both frequently burning powder between their lines.
General Sturgis had been assigned to the cavalry of the other side, to relieve General Shackelford, and he seemed to think that the dead of winter was the time for cavalry work; and the Confederate General Martin’s orders were to have the enemy under his eye at all hours. Both were vigilant, active, and persevering.
About December 20 a raid was made by General Averill from West Virginia upon a supply depot of General Sam Jones’s department, at Salem, which was partially successful, when General Grant, under the impression that the stores were for East Tennessee, wired General Foster, “This will give you great advantage.” And General Foster despatched General Parke, commanding his troops in the field, December 26, “Longstreet will feel a little timid now, and will bear a little pushing.”
General Grant made a visit to Knoxville about New Year’s, and remained until the 7th. He found General Foster in the condition of the Confederates,—not properly supplied with clothing, especially in want of shoes. So he authorized a wait for clothing, then in transit and looked for in a week; and that little delay was a great lift for the Confederates.
Before leaving General Foster, General Grant ordered him, on receipt of clothing, to advance and “drive Longstreet at least beyond Bull’s Gap and Red Bridge.” And to prepare for that advance, he ordered the Ninth and Twenty-third Corps to Mossy Creek, the Fourth Corps to Strawberry Plains, and the cavalry to Dandridge.
The Union army—equipped—marched on the 14th and 15th of January. The bitter freeze of two weeks had made the rough angles of mud as firm and sharp as so many freshly quarried rocks, and the bare feet of the Confederates on this march left bloody marks along the roads.
General Sturgis rode in advance of the army, and occupied Dandridge by Elliott’s, Wolford’s, and Garrard’s divisions of cavalry and Mott’s brigade of infantry. The Fourth and Twenty-ninth Corps followed the cavalry, leaving the Ninth Corps to guard at Strawberry Plains.
General Martin gave prompt notice that the march was at Dandridge and in full force. Dandridge is on the right bank of the French Broad River, about thirty miles from Knoxville. Its topographical features are bold and inviting of military work. Its other striking characteristic was the interesting character of its citizens. The Confederates—a unit in heart and spirit—were prepared to do their share towards making an effective battle, and the plans were so laid.