believed this would force Grant to relieve Knoxville and hopefully divert some Union forces away from Bragg's beaten army. When the Union forces chasing Bragg's army were repulsed at the Battle of Ringgold Gap on November 27, Grant called off the pursuit. He assigned Major General William Tecumseh Sherman to command a large force designed to relieve Knoxville. Sherman was given command of Major General Gordon Granger's IV Corps, Major General Oliver Otis Howard's XI Corps, Major General Francis Preston Blair Jr.'s XV Corps, Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis's division of XIV Corps, and Colonel Eli Long's cavalry brigade. Sherman soon started his troops marching toward Knoxville and they reached Charleston, Tennessee, on the Hiwassee River on November 30. Because the situation was considered urgent, Sherman's force marched without its artillery and wagon trains. Granger's corps included the divisions of Major General Philip Sheridan and Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood. Howard's corps consisted of the divisions of Major General Carl Schurz and Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr. Blair's corps comprised the divisions of Brigadier Generals Morgan Lewis Smith and Hugh Boyle Ewing. Sherman's infantry numbered approximately 30,000 men. Grant arranged for a message announcing Sherman's approach to fall into Confederate hands. A second copy was sent via Byrd at Kingston and got through to Burnside. While Sherman's main column, consisting of Blair, Howard, and Davis crossed the Hiwassee at Charleston, Granger's troops crossed at Kincannon's Ford to the west. Since the railroad bridge at Charleston was wrecked and the Confederates destroyed all the rolling stock between there and Knoxville, Sherman's army was compelled to live off the country. On December 3, Howard reached Loudon to find the railroad bridge wrecked. Sherman shifted Granger's corps from his left to his right wing. Granger, Blair, and Davis crossed the swollen Little Tennessee River at Morganton via an improvised bridge, while Howard crossed at Davis' Ford to the west on a bridge built from wagons captured at Loudon. Long's cavalry brigade rode ahead and reached Knoxville before dawn on December 4. Meanwhile, Willcox moved south and repulsed an attack by Martin's cavalry at the Battle of Walker's Ford on December 2. Though it was a Union tactical victory, Willcox's force was too weak to advance any farther. While Sherman's 30,000 advanced on the east bank of the Tennessee River, Brigadier General James G. Spears and three Tennessee Union regiments at Sale Creek advanced