Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

His intention is a secret neither to his soldiers nor to the enemy: it is to reopen direct communications between Chattanooga and Bridgeport either by the course of the Tennessee or by the roads and the railway along the left bank of the river. The safety of the Army of the Cumberland depends on that, and as the lack of horses condemns it to inaction, or at least to operations of a secondary importance within a very limited circuit, it is to Hooker that the principal part must fall. He must cross the Tennessee at Bridgeport, and come, under the eyes of the enemy, to join Thomas, while occupying in force the territory which he shall have left behind him. The great parallel mountain-crests which rise like successive walls on his road seem to invite the enemy to bar the passage against him. Even if he should succeed in overcoming the first difficulties, and should manage to cross Raccoon Mountain, it is certain that Longstreet will oppose him at the foot of the abrupt slopes which on the west overlook Will's Valley. He must then avoid this last obstacle. It appears that Bragg believed the difficulty could not be solved, and while master of Lookout Mountain he had rested in a false sense of security. He had not properly studied the course of the river which he saw wildly tumbling at his feet. Indeed, to reach the base of the cliffs of Lookout Mountain this river, on issuing from Chattanooga, describes a vast circle and flows first to the south, then ascends to the north, after having received the waters of Chattanooga Creek and Lookout Creek; it thus almost surrounds a long, low, and narrow hill. The peninsula formed in this way, reminding one by its outline of an Indian covering for the foot, is called Moccasin Point; it is commanded on the south by Lookout Mountain, on the west by Raccoon Mountain. The isthmus which connects it with the right bank is, between Chattanooga and the point called Brown's Ferry, only eleven hundred yards in width. It is easily understood that, once landed at Brown's Ferry, the supplies of provisions destined for the Army of the Cumberland might have reached Chattanooga promptly and surely by a very short road quite distant from Lookout Mountain, and which could be kept open without difficulty. Hence this last chain of mountains could be avoided. It was not the same with the eastern crest of Raccoon Mountain, which extends much farther toward the north,