After the disastrous Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, Union Gen. William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland was pushed back into Chattanooga and faced shortages of food and ammunition. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged the city and ordered Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry corps to cut the Federal supply line running west from Chattanooga to McMinnville through the Sequatchie Valley. To do so, Wheeler needed to cross the Tennessee River from east to west. In the early morning of September 30, Wheeler and his men tried several crossings at fords and shoals southwest of here but failed until Washington resident Lt. William G. Allen of the 5th (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cavalry guided the corps to Kelly's Shoals, about seven miles southwest of here, where Wheeler used darkness and difficult terrain to cross the river. Union Gen. George Crook, pursuing with his cavalry brigade, reported that "the rebels crossed last night in heavy force at a ford which they made for themselves." Wheeler then moved through the valley for several days, clashing periodically with Crook and disrupting the Federal supply line, but the harassment was temporary and could not be sustained, especially after Union Gen. Ulysses Grant took command and reopened the supply line with superior numbers.