Further Afield #1: Ft. Sanders, Knoxville, TN

Monument marking the where the northern earthwork of
Fort Sanders was in 1863.
Photo: P. Simcoe

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.  -- I wanted to take a quick side step from the Margaret Garner series . . . . mainly to post from the field, so to speak. On our way down to the Smoky Mountains for a well-deserved vacation, my fiancee and  I stopped in Knoxville for the day to check out the UTK campus and it's environs. I was looking forward to seeing some sort of large-scale commemoration of the Siege of Knoxville, but was surprised to find that there was only a couple of little markers, just north of campus.

It was big news all across the country then. Why doesn't
anyone care about or know about it now?

For those who don't know much about it, the following is taken from a 1994 lecture at UTK, given by Dr. Anne Bridges:


Knoxville remained in Confederate control until the fall of 1863. The first years of the war in East Tennessee were marked by small raids and internal fighting. One of the most notable events was the burning of several bridges around Knoxville by Union supporters in November of 1861, sparking fears that there would be a general uprising of Unionists in East Tennessee. In September of 1863, Union forces marched into Knoxville as part of a plan to secure East Tennessee and drive the Confederates out of Tennessee completely. Soon after, Confederate President Jefferson Davis suggested to General Bragg that he send General Longstreet from the Chattanooga area to Knoxville to expel the Federal forces under General Burnside.

Photo: P. Simcoe

After some skirmishes west of Knoxville (near Campbell's Station), the Federal troops entrenched themselves on the edge of Knoxville with trenches that ran from Melrose Hall (behind Hodges Library) to the present junction of Laurel and 17th Street. The northwest bastion became known as Fort Sanders, after General Sanders who was killed in a skirmish. There were other fortifications also. Fort Dickerson in South Knoxville was a major Union defense point. There were Confederate batteries on Cherokee bluff on the south side of the river. Longstreet's main forces were stationed near the present site of Knoxville College with headquarters at the Armstrong House on Kingston Pike. 


Longstreet decided to force the Union soldiers out of Knoxville by storming Fort Sanders on November 29. Fort Sanders was surrounded by a ditch 12' wide and 6'11" deep. Behind the ditch rose a steep, muddy embankment which ascended to a parapet about 20' above. But Longstreet made a fatal error in judging the width and depth of the ditch. The morning of the 29th, the attack began with fire from the batteries on Cherokee bluff, at the Armstrong House and from the Knoxville College area. Then the infantry charged the fort with disastrous results. Many soldiers were lost in the ditch and those that did make their way to the wall either could not get up the muddy, steep slope or were killed as they reached the parapets.


For more general information about the Eastern Tennessee Campaign, read this summary by Ernest I. Miller of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table --> Valley of East Tennessee in the Civil War