On November 15, 1863 four divisions commanded by General William Tecumseh Sherman arrived at Bridgeport on the Tennessee River. Sherman immediately went into Chattanooga to confer with Grant and to reconnoiter before moving his men closer to the city.
Sherman later wrote, “I had no idea that things were so bad…(Grant) explained the situation of affairs generally; that the mules and horses of Thomas's army were so starved that they could not haul his guns; that forage, corn, and provisions were so scarce that the men in hunger stole the few grains of corn that were given to favorite horses; that the men of Thomas's army had been so demoralized by the battle of Chickamauga that he feared they could not be got out of their trenches to assume the offensive.”