In November 1863, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet led a force from Chattanooga to attack Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s army at Knoxville. The campaign failed, and in December Longstreet’s men marched east along the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad to winter quarters at Russellville, where they remained until March 1864. During that winter, numerous small engagements occurred between Longstreet’s and Burnside’s armies in East Tennessee, where food was often the ultimate prize. Near Hay’s Ferry, fields of corn once grew along the banks of the French Broad River, and this corn, left on the stalk, often stood between Confederate soldiers and starvation. On the cold morning of December 24, 1863, hungry men from both sides began a battle near here that ended hours later, three miles away. The Confederate cavalry, more aggressive in its tactics, pushed Union troopers from one position to another. Col. Charles C. Crew’s Georgians captured two Federal guns, but Union horsemen countercharged and recaptured them. Attacked from front and rear, the Federals retreated toward New Market as night approached, leaving the river bottoms and its corn in Confederate hands. Sgt. William R. Carter of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.) remembered it as a sad Christmas Eve, when many tears were shed for those who had fallen in battle during the day.