The pretty full telegrams from
Knoxville give us the particulars of the
Federal attack on
Knoxville, Tenn, on Saturday last, and a letter from
Chattanooga enables us to supply the particulars of the movements of the
Yankees before the attack was made.
The party was commanded by
Gen. Carter, the
Tennessee renegade, and numbered about 2,000 men. They penetrated into
East Tennessee through a gap in the mountains near
Kingston, and marched on
London, a town of 1,500 inhabitants, on the
East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, 28 miles west of
Knoxville, intending to burn the railroad bridge at that place; but, finding the bridge well surrounded by stockades and defended by artillery, they moved off to
Lenoir, about seven miles nearer
Knoxville, on the same road.
Here they burnt the mammoth factory of the
Lenoir Brothers, with all the out- buildings and the residence of the owners, and tore up the track for several miles.
The 54th Virginia regiment, which had been stationed there, had just left that morning for
Knoxville, and the place was therefore defenceless.
They told two citizens, whom they captured there, that they were going on to burn
Knoxville.
The result of their going on is given in the telegraphic dispatches.
The raid came just as the section of country South of
London had been transferred from
Gen. Buckner's department to that of
Gen. Jackson, at
Chattanooga, and in the movement or troops consequent on the change several places were left undefended, which would not have been the case if the transfer had taken place a few days later or earlier.
It will be seen from the telegrams that after their repulse at
Knoxville the
Yankees came as far east as
Morristown, on the
East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, which is 88 miles from
Bristol.
There, it appears, they were likely to come to grief.
