Samuel Love owned a farm on the Tennessee River between Jasper and Shellmound, where he operated a ferry that linked Jasper and the rest of Marion County with the railroad at Shellmound, and he also served as the mail carrier. Love's Ferry became a major crossing point for the Federal Army during the Chickamauga Campaign. In late August 1863, Colonel Edward King's Brigade of Reynolds' Division of the 14th Army Corps occupied Love's Farm. Ordered to break the enemy's railroad communication by the Chattanooga and Nashville Railroad with Bridgeport at Shellmound, King moved the Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry and a section of the Nineteenth Indiana Battery to the Tennessee River opposite Shellmound, shelled the enemy out after dark, crossed a small party in a canoe, burned the Nickajack bridge, and captured the ferry boat. He then led a reconnaissance patrol over the river and drove the Confederates back beyond Whitesides. While camped beside the Tennessee River on Love's Farm, the soldiers built a fleet of flatboats for the crossing. Reynolds' Division began crossing the Tennessee River on August 29 and completed the operation on September 2, followed by the three divisions of General Crittenden's 21st Corps. On September 3, Lieutenant Wilbur F. Hineman recalled reaching the Tennessee River at Shellmound and paddling across on flatboats, the only means of ferriage, with each boat capable of carrying two wagons and a dozen mules across the half-mile-wide stream. He also recounted an unsuccessful attempt to swim the division's cattle across by using a boatload of cattle and a steer tied to the stern as bait, after which the cattle had to be ferried over in squads. By noon on September 5, the troops were in motion again and camped for the night within twelve miles of Chattanooga, within sight of the enemy.

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher