The Battle of Walker's Ford (December 2, 1863) saw three Confederate cavalry brigades led by Brigadier General William T. Martin attack a Union cavalry brigade under Colonel Felix W. Graham at Walker's Ford on the Clinch River during the Knoxville campaign of the American Civil War. After failing to trap Graham's brigade at Maynardville, Tennessee, Martin's cavalry pursued in the direction of Tazewell before encountering Graham's horsemen south of Walker's Ford in the morning. At first, Martin's cavalry pressed Graham's troopers back. However, Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox arrived with a Union infantry brigade and repulsed the Confederate cavalry. Martin sent a cavalry brigade to envelop the Union force, but it was blocked by one of Graham's regiments at a nearby ford. Martin's Confederates soon withdrew toward Knoxville. Willcox's tentative probe failed to relieve Major General Ambrose Burnside's defenders in the Siege of Knoxville, but Major General William T. Sherman's much larger forces soon accomplished that task.
Background
Union invasion
Major General Ambrose Burnside launched the Union invasion of East Tennessee in late August 1863, using two infantry divisions and cavalry from the XXIII Corps stationed in Kentucky. The operation was largely unopposed, and a Federal cavalry brigade led by John W. Foster occupied Knoxville on September 1. Burnside consolidated his control of the region at the Battle of the Cumberland Gap when he accepted the surrender of its 2,000-man Confederate garrison on September 9. The strategic situation underwent a dramatic change when General Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee defeated the Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19–20, 1863. The result was that Bragg blockaded the Army of the Cumberland within Chattanooga. Burnside was left largely on his own while the Union government rushed reinforcements to Chattanooga.
Major General John G. Parke reached East Tennessee with two divisions of IX Corps on September 20. Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox and 3,000 6-month Indiana soldiers arrived at Cumberland Gap on October 3. Burnside ordered Willcox east to Bull's Gap to protect against a Confederate incursion from Virginia. The strength returns for October 1863 showed that Willcox's Left Wing Forces in East Tennessee counted 178 officers and 4,213 enlisted men present for duty. Willcox directed two infantry brigades, three artillery batteries, and two companies of cavalry. Colonel Wilson C. Lemert's brigade from IX Corps formed the garrison of Cumberland Gap but its troops were not counted as part of Willcox's Left Wing.
In early October, department commander Major General Samuel Jones sent a Confederate force under Brigadier General John Stuart Williams to threaten the eastern part of the Union area of control. Burnside rapidly moved the IX Corps troops to defeat Williams at the Battle of Blue Springs on October 10 and chased the Confederates back to Virginia. On October 20, two Confederate cavalry brigades mauled Colonel Frank Wolford's Federal cavalry brigade at the Battle of Philadelphia. In consequence, Burnside abandoned Loudon and withdrew to the north bank of the Tennessee River while still holding Kingston. A cavalry force led by Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones surprised and routed a Union cavalry brigade at the Battle of Rogersville on November 6, inflicting 655 casualties, mostly captured.