Jenkins was new to the division and had never commanded it, but his commission as a brigadier general pre-dated Law's, and when Jenkins's brigade was attached to Hood's division in September 1863, shortly after Chickamauga, with Hood absent due to wounds, Law had to turn command of Hood's division over to Jenkins. Hood's division accompanied Bragg's army to the siege of Chattanooga. By late October 1863, Law's brigade was detached from Hood's division and the army, guarding Brown's Ferry over the Tennessee River in what is known as Lookout Valley. While Law was on leave, visiting the wounded Hood, division commander Jenkins stripped the defenses at Brown Ferry of over half the units, despite intelligence of enemy activity and pleas for reinforcements from Col. William C. Oates, commanding the 15th Alabama Regiment, one of the two regiments still posted near Brown's Ferry. On October 24, 1863, Union troops forced a passage of Brown's Ferry and overwhelmed its defenders. A few days later, Federal reinforcements— the XI and XII Corps from the Army of the Potomac— arrived at the other end of Lookout Valley, at Wauhatchie Station. The arrival of these fresh Federal troops, combined with the Federal possession of Brown's Ferry, enabled U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to open his "cracker line" and feed his starving troops in Chattanooga. Confederate Gen. Bragg recognized that the "cracker line" would spell the end of the siege of Chattanooga, and on October 28, ordered Longstreet to take his corps and seize control of Lookout Valley. Longstreet decided to send only Hood's division to deal with the two enemy corps. Gen. Jenkins quickly planned a night attack on the railhead at Wauhatchie, to be made by two brigades, his own under Col. John Bratton, and Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning's. Simultaneous to the attack at Wauhatchie, and over a mile distant, a holding action near Brown's Ferry was to be made by the Texas brigade and Law's brigade. Already outnumbered, Jenkins further aggravated his situation by failing to utilize Brig. Gen. George T. Anderson's brigade, also of Hood's division, and a sizable portion of the Hampton Legion Infantry, of his own brigade. As the battle broke out, division commander Jenkins rode to Wauhatchie, on the extreme left of his widely dispersed division, instead of placing himself in a position where he could attempt to coordinate all of his troops. The ensuing engagement was