On the morning of the 14th (Saturday), Gen. Burnside left Knoxville, accompanied by his visitors, the Hon. Mr. Dana and Col. Wilson, by the Hon. Horace Maynard and others, to Lenoir’s, five miles east of Loudon, where they parted from him. He found that Longstreet was building a bridge from the west to the east bank of the Tennessee River, at Hough’s Ferry, just below Loudon, and had thrown a force across in advance of the main body of his army. Burnside sent Gens. Potter and White to drive it back, which by nightfall they did, the day being consumed in skirmishing. He had previously proposed by telegraph to Grant that he, Burnside, should draw Longstreet on to Knoxville, so as to separate him at a greater distance from his base, and prevent him from going as quickly as he might from Loudon, to give help to Bragg, if needed. The suggestion was approved by Grant, who in reply dispatched to Burnside on the 14th, that Sherman would be ready to move from Bridgeport towards Chattanooga by the following Tuesday, 17th, at furthest. Grant’s dispatch continued: “If you can hold Longstreet in check until he, Sherman, gets up, or by skirmishing and falling back, can avoid serious loss to yourself, and gain time, I will be able to force the enemy back from here and place a force between Longstreet and Bragg that must inevitably make the former take to the mountain passes by every available road to get to his supplies.” General Grant estimated at its true worth the advantage he would derive in his intended battle of Missionary Ridge, from the absence of Longstreet and his veteran soldiers. He has written that “the victory at Chattanooga was accomplished more easily than was expected by reason of Bragg’s making several grave mistakes,” and the first of the three, he proceeds to state, was “sending away his ablest corps commander with over twenty thousand troops.”