On November 4, 1863, to divert Federal forces from Chattanooga, Confederate General James Longstreet led two reinforced divisions from the city to attack Union General Ambrose E. Burnside's garrison in Knoxville. Burnside confronted Longstreet outside Knoxville, then withdrew to his fortifications on November 17, and Longstreet besieged the city. After Union General Ulysses S. Grant's army defeated Confederate General Braxton Bragg's forces at the end of the month in Chattanooga, Grant ordered General William T. Sherman to reinforce Burnside. Walker's Ford, about three miles northeast of here, became strategically important as Sherman and his army approached Knoxville from Chattanooga and General Orlando B. Willcox ordered his cavalry to pressure Longstreet's forces from the north. Willcox sent a mounted brigade under Colonel Felix W. Graham south of the Clinch River to Maynardville, and Longstreet countered by ordering General William T. Martin's cavalry up from south of Maynardville to stop the Federal advance. Realizing he could be surrounded in Maynardville, Graham marched northeast and camped a few miles south of Walker's Ford. Early on December 2, Martin surprised the Federals there and began pushing the outnumbered troopers back toward the Clinch River. Willcox arrived with two regiments of Indiana infantrymen to beat back the Confederate attack and cover the cavalry's retreat. Early in the fight, Martin tried to flank the Federals by seizing the next ford, but Graham had seen a gray-clad column ride east and correctly guessed its destination. He sent Colonel Horace Capron and the 14th Illinois Cavalry to defend the crossing, and armed with 16-shot Henry rifles and four mountain howitzers, the regiment held its ground. The Confederates returned to Knoxville the following day and prepared to go into winter quarters at Russellville when Longstreet abandoned the siege on December 4. Sherman soon rejoined Grant, and Willcox called the action "a pretty little repulse."